Past Quotes

He who believes that the past cannot be changed has not yet written his memoirs.

The age of chivalry is gone. – That of sophisters, economists and calculators has succeeded.

In order to be utterly happy the only thing necessary is to refrain from comparing this moment with other moments in the past, which I often did not fully enjoy because I was comparing them with other moments of the future.

I think we agree, the past is over. (On his meeting with John McCain, Dallas Morning News, May 10, 2000)

To what a degree the same past can leave different marks – and especially admit of different interpretations.

I tend to live in the past because most of my life is there.

In the carriages of the past you can’t go anywhere.

Nothing that was worthy in the past departs; no truth or goodness realized by man ever dies, or can die.

The past is not dead; it is not even past. People live on inner time; the moment in which a decisive thought or feeling takes place can be at any time. Timeless feelings are common to all of us.

To look back to antiquity is one thing, to go back to it is another.