{ "type": "topic", "site": { "name": "Leafy Quotes", "language": "en", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com" }, "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.", "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past", "heading": "Quotes about the past", "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past.json", "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past.md", "quotes_count": 199, "authors_count": 136, "parent": { "name": "time", "slug": "time", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time", "heading": "Quotes about time" }, "children": [ { "name": "nostalgia", "slug": "nostalgia", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nostalgia", "heading": "Quotes about nostalgia" } ], "quotes": [ { "id": "c67665b8-b186-42af-b79c-1b0a7bef732e", "slug": "wrongs-committed-in-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/giovanni-boccaccio/the-decameron/wrongs-committed-in-the", "text": "Wrongs committed in the distant past are far easier to condemn than to rectify.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Giovanni Boccaccio", "slug": "giovanni-boccaccio", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/giovanni-boccaccio" }, "book": { "title": "The Decameron", "slug": "the-decameron", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/giovanni-boccaccio/the-decameron" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "justice", "slug": "justice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/justice" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Giovanni_Boccaccio#The_Decameron_(c._1350)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T08:10:04" }, { "id": "e60d4a14-3c28-4edf-b9a6-f05d386dcf0f", "slug": "if-only-jupiter", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/virgil/the-aeneid/if-only-jupiter", "text": "If only Jupiter would give me back\n\nThe past years and the man I was...", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Virgil", "slug": "virgil", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/virgil" }, "book": { "title": "The Aeneid", "slug": "the-aeneid", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/virgil/the-aeneid" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "old age", "slug": "old-age", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Virgil#Book_VIII", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T08:09:55" }, { "id": "9187d0f8-3b79-46a0-b8f3-4c31b1cb38e3", "slug": "we-have-had", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/stowaway-to-mars/we-have-had", "text": "\"We have had a glorious past—but a glorious past is bitterness for a child with a hopeless future.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Wyndham", "slug": "john-wyndham", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham" }, "book": { "title": "Stowaway to Mars", "slug": "stowaway-to-mars", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/stowaway-to-mars" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 148, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the future", "slug": "the-future", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Wyndham#Stowaway_to_Mars_(originally_Planet_Plane_/_The_Space_Machine)_(1935)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:02:12" }, { "id": "992b87de-f07c-47d4-b4be-3e74839ee5ac", "slug": "we-are-all", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/donald-barthelme/not-knowing/we-are-all", "text": "We are all engaged in looting the past. (Only the greatest geniuses manage to steal from the future.)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Donald Barthelme", "slug": "donald-barthelme", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/donald-barthelme" }, "book": { "title": "Not-Knowing", "slug": "not-knowing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/donald-barthelme/not-knowing" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 168, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "art", "slug": "art", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Not-Knowing:_The_Essays_and_Interviews_of_Donald_Barthelme#Essays", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:02:01" }, { "id": "7378cc81-5472-42ae-b835-8ec4bf560208", "slug": "so-do-we-pass", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king/the-dark-tower-iv-wizard-and-glass/so-do-we-pass", "text": "\"So do we pass the ghosts that haunt us later in our lives; they sit undramatically by the roadside like poor beggars, and we see them only from the corners of our eyes, if we see them at all. The idea that they have been waiting there for us rarely if ever crosses our mind. Yet they do wait, and when we have passed, they gather up their bundles of memory and fall in behind, treading in our footsteps and catching up, little by little.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Stephen King", "slug": "stephen-king", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king" }, "book": { "title": "The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass", "slug": "the-dark-tower-iv-wizard-and-glass", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king/the-dark-tower-iv-wizard-and-glass" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Dark_Tower_(series)#Vol._IV:_Wizard_and_Glass", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:18:39" }, { "id": "29ce2816-dafe-45a1-ab46-9314b1d00ac2", "slug": "the-older-we-get", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/junichiro-tanizaki/in-praise-of-shadows/the-older-we-get", "text": "The older we get the more we seem to think that everything was better in the past. Old people a century ago wanted to go back two centuries, and two centuries ago they wished it were three centuries earlier. Never has there been an age that people have been satisfied with. But in recent years the pace of progress has been so precipitous that conditions in our own country go somewhat beyond the ordinary. The changes that have taken place since the Restoration of 1867 must be at least as great as those of the preceding three and a half centuries.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Junichiro Tanizaki", "slug": "junichiro-tanizaki", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/junichiro-tanizaki" }, "book": { "title": "In Praise of Shadows", "slug": "in-praise-of-shadows", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/junichiro-tanizaki/in-praise-of-shadows" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 39, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "old age", "slug": "old-age", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jun'ichir%C5%8D_Tanizaki#In_Praise_of_Shadows_(1933)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:06:22" }, { "id": "b41d9522-4461-42e7-9fc0-9210a853b14d", "slug": "whatever-youve-been", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/wayne-w-dyer/pulling-your-own-strings/whatever-youve-been", "text": "Whatever you've been until today is already over, and while you can almost always learn from it, and sometimes change effects that are continuing into the present, you cannot undo what you have done.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Wayne W. Dyer", "slug": "wayne-w-dyer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/wayne-w-dyer" }, "book": { "title": "Pulling Your Own Strings", "slug": "pulling-your-own-strings", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/wayne-w-dyer/pulling-your-own-strings" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wayne_Dyer#Pulling_Your_Own_Strings_(1978)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:57" }, { "id": "10048b79-700b-4f8f-a5cd-500fa894f0ab", "slug": "i-think-about-being", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-rhys/good-morning-midnight/i-think-about-being", "text": "I...think about being hungry, being cold, being hurt, being ridiculed, as if it were in another life than this.\n\nThis damned room - it's saturated with the past. . . .It's all the rooms I've ever slept in, all the streets I've ever walked in. Now the whole thing moves in an ordered, undulating procession past my eyes. Rooms, streets, streets, rooms. . . .", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jean Rhys", "slug": "jean-rhys", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-rhys" }, "book": { "title": "Good Morning, Midnight", "slug": "good-morning-midnight", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-rhys/good-morning-midnight" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 109, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jean_Rhys#Good_Morning,_Midnight_(1939)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:53" }, { "id": "43412c71-af0d-41dc-9285-ee70a01a5e53", "slug": "as-the-young", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-mitchell/joe-goulds-secret/as-the-young", "text": "As the young reporter listens, it dawns on him that it is not the South that he longs for but the past, the South's past and his own past, neither of which, in the way that he has been driven by homesickness to think of them, ever really existed, and that it is time for him to move out of the time gone by and into the here and now — it is time for him to grow up. When the sermon is over, he goes back downtown feeling that the old man has set him free, and that he is now a citizen of the city and a citizen of the world.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Joseph Mitchell", "slug": "joseph-mitchell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-mitchell" }, "book": { "title": "Joe Gould's Secret", "slug": "joe-goulds-secret", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-mitchell/joe-goulds-secret" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 144, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "growing up", "slug": "growing-up", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/growing-up" }, { "name": "longing", "slug": "longing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/longing" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joseph_Mitchell_(writer)#Joe_Gould's_Secret_(1965)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:49" }, { "id": "b4aaef43-c47f-45bc-b496-c43010a5fa59", "slug": "she-could-remember", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey/nemesis-games/she-could-remember", "text": "She could remember the girl she used to be with fondness, but it wasn’t a youth she cared to recapture.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "James S. A. Corey", "slug": "james-s-a-corey", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey" }, "book": { "title": "Nemesis Games", "slug": "nemesis-games", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey/nemesis-games" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 34, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "youth", "slug": "youth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_S._A._Corey#Nemesis_Games_(2015)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:36" }, { "id": "30c91c4a-82d6-43a6-8247-f940303f42d1", "slug": "that-was-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey/cibola-burn/that-was-the", "text": "That was the danger of being old and a politician. Habits outlived the situations that created them. Policies remained in place after the situations that inspired them had changed. The calculus of all human power was changing, and the models she used to make sense of it shifted with them, and she had to keep reminding herself that the past was a different place. She didn’t live there anymore.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "James S. A. Corey", "slug": "james-s-a-corey", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey" }, "book": { "title": "Cibola Burn", "slug": "cibola-burn", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey/cibola-burn" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 576, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "habits", "slug": "habits", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/habits" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_S._A._Corey#Cibola_Burn_(2014)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:35" }, { "id": "c73cd1b9-74c2-4c70-9bcf-786aaf3c69d6", "slug": "we-experience-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/teju-cole/open-city/we-experience-life", "text": "WE EXPERIENCE LIFE AS A CONTINUITY, AND ONLY AFTER IT FALLS away, after it becomes the past, do we see its discontinuities. The past, if there is such a thing, is mostly empty space, great expanses of nothing, in which significant persons and events float.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Teju Cole", "slug": "teju-cole", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/teju-cole" }, "book": { "title": "Open City", "slug": "open-city", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/teju-cole/open-city" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 155, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "life", "slug": "life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Teju_Cole#Open_City_(2011)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:24" }, { "id": "fbd55366-f226-49fc-91f8-7162255ef606", "slug": "she-was-starting", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lev-grossman/the-magicians-land/she-was-starting", "text": "She was starting to suspect that facing up to the nightmare of the past is what gives you the power to build your future.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Lev Grossman", "slug": "lev-grossman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lev-grossman" }, "book": { "title": "The Magician's Land", "slug": "the-magicians-land", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lev-grossman/the-magicians-land" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 369, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "courage", "slug": "courage", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/courage" }, { "name": "the future", "slug": "the-future", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lev_Grossman#The_Magician's_Land_(2014)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:16" }, { "id": "e9b94c8c-bf11-44d5-8b14-bc966fa9c6f9", "slug": "but-that-was", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lev-grossman/the-magicians-land/but-that-was", "text": "But that was the thing about the old days: they were old. This was his life now. He was content, and if not happy then happier than he ever thought he’d be again. He had work to do….The past was what it was, his home was here, and anything else was a fantasy.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Lev Grossman", "slug": "lev-grossman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lev-grossman" }, "book": { "title": "The Magician's Land", "slug": "the-magicians-land", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lev-grossman/the-magicians-land" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 45, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "happiness", "slug": "happiness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "the present moment", "slug": "the-present-moment", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-present-moment" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lev_Grossman#The_Magician's_Land_(2014)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:15" }, { "id": "12d05137-c52e-4f77-acf6-0c0fbbd322b0", "slug": "every-villains-redemption", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephanie-foo/what-my-bones-know/every-villains-redemption", "text": "Every villain's redemption arc begins with their origin story. (prologue)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Stephanie Foo", "slug": "stephanie-foo", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephanie-foo" }, "book": { "title": "What My Bones Know", "slug": "what-my-bones-know", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephanie-foo/what-my-bones-know" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "evil", "slug": "evil", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stephanie_Foo#What_My_Bones_Know_(2022)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:02" }, { "id": "81987997-03ce-48d2-abe4-2492471178c3", "slug": "you-arent-what", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nedra-glover-tawwab/drama-free/you-arent-what", "text": "You aren't what happened to you.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nedra Glover Tawwab", "slug": "nedra-glover-tawwab", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nedra-glover-tawwab" }, "book": { "title": "Drama Free", "slug": "drama-free", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nedra-glover-tawwab/drama-free" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "identity", "slug": "identity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/identity" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nedra_Glover_Tawwab#Drama_Free:_A_Guide_to_Managing_Unhealthy_Family_Relationships_(2023)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:00" }, { "id": "d45549b2-b37b-40ef-95d9-e6a867070d4f", "slug": "visit-the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nedra-glover-tawwab/drama-free/visit-the-past", "text": "Visit the past, but don't stay there.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nedra Glover Tawwab", "slug": "nedra-glover-tawwab", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nedra-glover-tawwab" }, "book": { "title": "Drama Free", "slug": "drama-free", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nedra-glover-tawwab/drama-free" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nedra_Glover_Tawwab#Drama_Free:_A_Guide_to_Managing_Unhealthy_Family_Relationships_(2023)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:59" }, { "id": "d1ad39af-92fb-4fed-8095-d3f0cdb8a3aa", "slug": "in-order-to-change", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bessel-van-der-kolk/the-body-keeps-the-score/in-order-to-change", "text": "In order to change, people need to become aware of their sensations and the way that their bodies interact with the world around them. Physical self-awareness is the first step in releasing the tyranny of the past.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Bessel van der Kolk", "slug": "bessel-van-der-kolk", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bessel-van-der-kolk" }, "book": { "title": "The Body Keeps the Score", "slug": "the-body-keeps-the-score", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bessel-van-der-kolk/the-body-keeps-the-score" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "change", "slug": "change", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "the body", "slug": "the-body", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-body" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bessel_van_der_Kolk#The_Body_Keeps_the_Score:_Brain,_Mind,_and_Body_in_the_Healing_of_Trauma_(2014)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:59" }, { "id": "2202269b-ed1b-4833-a7ff-883d6ced2737", "slug": "being-traumatized-means", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bessel-van-der-kolk/the-body-keeps-the-score/being-traumatized-means", "text": "Being traumatized means continuing to organize your life as if the trauma were still going on—unchanged and immutable—as every new encounter or event is contaminated by the past.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Bessel van der Kolk", "slug": "bessel-van-der-kolk", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bessel-van-der-kolk" }, "book": { "title": "The Body Keeps the Score", "slug": "the-body-keeps-the-score", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bessel-van-der-kolk/the-body-keeps-the-score" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "trauma", "slug": "trauma", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/trauma" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bessel_van_der_Kolk#The_Body_Keeps_the_Score:_Brain,_Mind,_and_Body_in_the_Healing_of_Trauma_(2014)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:59" }, { "id": "f74bf9d5-3088-40a0-a62d-a481255200c6", "slug": "you-two-dont", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jeffrey-ford/crackpot-palace/you-two-dont", "text": "“You two don’t know yet,” he said. “When you get old, you think more about the past than about what you did five minutes ago. Time changes.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jeffrey Ford", "slug": "jeffrey-ford", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jeffrey-ford" }, "book": { "title": "Crackpot Palace", "slug": "crackpot-palace", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jeffrey-ford/crackpot-palace" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 289, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "time", "slug": "time", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time" }, { "name": "old age", "slug": "old-age", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Ford#Crackpot_Palace_(2012)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:58" }, { "id": "f7e43247-5354-4073-9167-9515a432c234", "slug": "because-she-fears", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cynthia-ozick/the-shawl/because-she-fears", "text": "Because she fears the past she distrusts the future — it, too, will turn into the past.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Cynthia Ozick", "slug": "cynthia-ozick", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cynthia-ozick" }, "book": { "title": "The Shawl", "slug": "the-shawl", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cynthia-ozick/the-shawl" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fear", "slug": "fear", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear" }, { "name": "the future", "slug": "the-future", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cynthia_Ozick#The_Shawl_(1989)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:45" }, { "id": "95fd8b83-c4a1-43d9-8992-0956a535760d", "slug": "the-particular-qualities", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-sontag/on-photography/the-particular-qualities", "text": "The particular qualities and intentions of photographs tend to be swallowed up in the generalized pathos of time past.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Susan Sontag", "slug": "susan-sontag", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-sontag" }, "book": { "title": "On Photography", "slug": "on-photography", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-sontag/on-photography" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 21, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "Photography", "slug": "photography", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/photography" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/On_Photography#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:33" }, { "id": "c0c36018-bdd4-4664-8a14-a98123478f1d", "slug": "im-telling-you", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-toltz/a-fraction-of-the-whole/im-telling-you", "text": "I'm telling you, the whole of Australia went crazy. The national obsession became reform. I even think they understood that it wasn't the ideas themselves but the idea of the ideas, the idea that we might as well restlessly innovate and wherever possible obliterate our slavish connection with the past. Why? Because the past is always the worst thing happening to the present at any given time.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Steve Toltz", "slug": "steve-toltz", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-toltz" }, "book": { "title": "A Fraction Of The Whole", "slug": "a-fraction-of-the-whole", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-toltz/a-fraction-of-the-whole" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "change", "slug": "change", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Steve_Toltz#Five", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:11" }, { "id": "a32c8457-2e3b-49f7-84ed-7bf8396c5250", "slug": "theres-nothing-like", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-toltz/a-fraction-of-the-whole/theres-nothing-like", "text": "There's nothing like a nostalgia trip to make you feel alien from both your past and your present. You also see what's static in you, what you hadn't the courage or strength to change, and all your old fears, the ones you still carry. The disappointment of your failure is palpable. It's terrible to go around bumping into yourself like that.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Steve Toltz", "slug": "steve-toltz", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-toltz" }, "book": { "title": "A Fraction Of The Whole", "slug": "a-fraction-of-the-whole", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-toltz/a-fraction-of-the-whole" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "nostalgia", "slug": "nostalgia", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nostalgia" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Steve_Toltz#Five", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:11" }, { "id": "9bc72057-b608-48d4-9ccc-3d6e08e2a390", "slug": "i-fear-me-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/l-sprague-decamp/the-purple-pterodactyls/i-fear-me-that", "text": "I fear me that the eighteenth century, which I have idealized all these years, never really existed. The real one was far dirtier, more narrow-minded, brutal, orthodox, and superstitious than I could have ever conceived without seeing it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "L. Sprague deCamp", "slug": "l-sprague-decamp", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/l-sprague-decamp" }, "book": { "title": "The Purple Pterodactyls", "slug": "the-purple-pterodactyls", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/l-sprague-decamp/the-purple-pterodactyls" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 24, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "idealism", "slug": "idealism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/idealism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/L._Sprague_de_Camp#The_Purple_Pterodactyls_(1980)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:10" }, { "id": "6da5a0ef-686d-4dad-8b32-33ac61e1a9e1", "slug": "there-are-periods", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ernst-junger/on-the-marble-cliffs/there-are-periods", "text": "There are periods of decline when the pattern fades to which our inmost life must conform. When we enter upon them we sway and lose our balance. From hollow joy we sink to leaden sorrow, and past and future acquire a new charm from our sense of loss. So we wander aimlessly in the irretrievable past or in distant Utopias; but the fleeting moment we cannot grasp.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ernst Jünger", "slug": "ernst-junger", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ernst-junger" }, "book": { "title": "On the Marble Cliffs", "slug": "on-the-marble-cliffs", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ernst-junger/on-the-marble-cliffs" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 25, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "the present moment", "slug": "the-present-moment", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-present-moment" }, { "name": "utopia", "slug": "utopia", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/utopia" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ernst_J%C3%BCnger#On_the_Marble_Cliffs_(1947)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:08" }, { "id": "cb403ec7-d7ca-4eef-82d1-f8ed603d61c4", "slug": "the-actual-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/cloud-atlas/the-actual-past", "text": "The actual past is brittle, ever-dimming + ever more problematic to access + reconstruct: in contrast, the virtual past is malleable, ever-brightening + ever more difficult to circumvent/expose as fraudulent.\n\nThe present presses the virtual past into its own service, to lend credence to its mythologies + legitimacy to the imposition of will.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "David Mitchell", "slug": "david-mitchell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell" }, "book": { "title": "Cloud Atlas", "slug": "cloud-atlas", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/cloud-atlas" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 392, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "manipulation", "slug": "manipulation", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/manipulation" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cloud_Atlas_(novel)#Half-Lives:_The_First_Luisa_Rey_Mystery_(Part_2)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:57" }, { "id": "05d15b4f-2853-4670-bcf2-1736e944732d", "slug": "the-past-is", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tim-winton/the-turning/the-past-is", "text": "The past is in us, and not behind us. Things are never over.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Tim Winton", "slug": "tim-winton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tim-winton" }, "book": { "title": "The Turning", "slug": "the-turning", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tim-winton/the-turning" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 53, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tim_Winton#The_Turning_(2004)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:49" }, { "id": "c6235871-fb43-4d98-8f02-4967b06d769c", "slug": "still-you-cant", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tim-winton/the-shepherds-hut/still-you-cant", "text": "Still you can't keep doing the coulda and the woulda and the shoulda. And if there's one thing I know it's this. Doesn't matter how smart you are, or even how careful or lucky, there's some mistakes you just keep making over and over.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Tim Winton", "slug": "tim-winton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tim-winton" }, "book": { "title": "The Shepherd's Hut", "slug": "the-shepherds-hut", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tim-winton/the-shepherds-hut" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 238, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "mistakes", "slug": "mistakes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mistakes" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tim_Winton#The_Shepherd's_Hut_(2018)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:48" }, { "id": "a4cb7673-80ba-4a0f-89d1-0c4422598d98", "slug": "everything-to-fontaine", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-gibson/all-tomorrows-parties/everything-to-fontaine", "text": "Everything to Fontaine, had a story. Each object, each fragment comprising the built world. A chorus of voices, the past alive in everything, that sea upon which the present tossed and rode. When he’d built Skinner’s funicular, the elevator that crawled like a small cable car up the angled iron of the tower, Fontaine had a story about the derivation of each piece. He wove their stories together, applied electricity: the thing rose, clicking, to the hatch in the floor of Skinner’s room.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Gibson", "slug": "william-gibson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-gibson" }, "book": { "title": "All Tomorrow's Parties", "slug": "all-tomorrows-parties", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-gibson/all-tomorrows-parties" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "stories", "slug": "stories", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stories" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bridge_trilogy#All_Tomorrow's_Parties%E2%80%8E_(1999)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:42" }, { "id": "09891675-bea3-4cf0-84fa-594dd89dd1cc", "slug": "the-past-is-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-gibson/all-tomorrows-parties/the-past-is-past", "text": "The past is past, the future unformed.\n\nThere is only the moment, and that is where he prefers to be.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Gibson", "slug": "william-gibson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-gibson" }, "book": { "title": "All Tomorrow's Parties", "slug": "all-tomorrows-parties", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-gibson/all-tomorrows-parties" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the future", "slug": "the-future", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "the present moment", "slug": "the-present-moment", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-present-moment" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bridge_trilogy#All_Tomorrow's_Parties%E2%80%8E_(1999)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:42" }, { "id": "575385c7-1d06-4d90-bb04-62e065332c8d", "slug": "i-cant-back", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy/all-the-pretty-horses/i-cant-back", "text": "I cant back up and start over. But I dont see the point in slobberin over it. And I cant see where it would make me feel better to be able to point a finger at somebody else.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Cormac McCarthy", "slug": "cormac-mccarthy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy" }, "book": { "title": "All the Pretty Horses", "slug": "all-the-pretty-horses", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy/all-the-pretty-horses" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "responsibility", "slug": "responsibility", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/responsibility" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/All_the_Pretty_Horses_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:41" }, { "id": "9f86d945-95d0-42ab-8e52-d939dc3885cd", "slug": "what-we-call", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami/1q84/what-we-call", "text": "What we call the present is given shape by an accumulation of the past.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Haruki Murakami", "slug": "haruki-murakami", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami" }, "book": { "title": "1Q84", "slug": "1q84", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami/1q84" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 386, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "the present", "slug": "the-present", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-present" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/1Q84#Book_1_(April-June)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:38" }, { "id": "8436f61c-a919-408f-b4bf-84702fcdb8c2", "slug": "no-matter-how", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami/1q84/no-matter-how", "text": "No matter how passionately or minutely he might attempt to rewrite the past, the present circumstances in which he found himself would remain generally unchanged. Time had the power to cancel all changes wrought by human artifice, overwriting all new revisions with further revisions, returning the flow to its original course. A few minor facts might be changed, but Tengo would still be Tengo.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Haruki Murakami", "slug": "haruki-murakami", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami" }, "book": { "title": "1Q84", "slug": "1q84", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami/1q84" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 454, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "change", "slug": "change", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change" }, { "name": "time", "slug": "time", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/1Q84#Book_2_(July-September)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:38" }, { "id": "f154f569-be5a-43f6-a01b-fd14769977ba", "slug": "reading-sheds-light", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jim-mattis/call-sign-chaos/reading-sheds-light", "text": "Reading sheds light on our dark path ahead. By traveling into the past, I enhance my grasp of the present.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jim Mattis", "slug": "jim-mattis", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jim-mattis" }, "book": { "title": "Call Sign Chaos", "slug": "call-sign-chaos", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jim-mattis/call-sign-chaos" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 42, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "reading", "slug": "reading", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reading" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jim_Mattis#Call_Sign_Chaos:_Learning_to_Lead_(2019)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:22" }, { "id": "a322a3cb-3a5c-49a0-b074-46823a913d79", "slug": "you-want-to-know", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jim-c-hines/revisionary/you-want-to-know", "text": "You want to know if it was worth it. I can’t answer that, Isaac. We can know what was, but not what might have been.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jim C. Hines", "slug": "jim-c-hines", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jim-c-hines" }, "book": { "title": "Revisionary", "slug": "revisionary", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jim-c-hines/revisionary" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 187, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "choices", "slug": "choices", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/choices" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jim_C._Hines#Revisionary_(2016)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:21" }, { "id": "39ee9642-d4dc-41c9-943b-3fa332c794ab", "slug": "the-mistakes-of-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jim-c-hines/codex-born/the-mistakes-of-the", "text": "The mistakes of the past do not excuse the mistakes of the present.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jim C. Hines", "slug": "jim-c-hines", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jim-c-hines" }, "book": { "title": "Codex Born", "slug": "codex-born", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jim-c-hines/codex-born" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 361, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "mistakes", "slug": "mistakes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mistakes" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jim_C._Hines#Codex_Born_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:20" }, { "id": "460b27da-e494-4791-a14a-046a6f190186", "slug": "but-the-speculation", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-tregillis/the-rising/but-the-speculation", "text": "But the speculation was pointless. The past was forever in the past.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ian Tregillis", "slug": "ian-tregillis", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-tregillis" }, "book": { "title": "The Rising", "slug": "the-rising", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-tregillis/the-rising" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ian_Tregillis#The_Rising_(2015)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:19" }, { "id": "d7749bac-06f9-47f9-8a66-961e01f5b9e5", "slug": "it-cant-be-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ahdaf-soueif/the-map-of-love/it-cant-be-that", "text": "It can't be that bad. Surely it can't be that bad. There must be a way, only we can't see it yet. A way of making a space for ourselves where we can make the best of ourselves - we just can't quite see it yet. But things move on and by the time you've plotted your position the world around you has changed and you're running - panting to catch up. How can you think clearly when you're running? That is the beauty of the past; there it lies on the table: journals, pictures, a candle-glass, a few books of history. You leave it and come back to it and it waits for you - unchanged. You can turn back the pages, look again at the beginning. You can leaf forward and know the end. And you tell the story that they, the people who lived it, could only tell in part.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ahdaf Soueif", "slug": "ahdaf-soueif", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ahdaf-soueif" }, "book": { "title": "The Map of Love", "slug": "the-map-of-love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ahdaf-soueif/the-map-of-love" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ahdaf_Soueif#The_Map_of_Love_(1999_novel)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:53" }, { "id": "f9706b61-c5d6-4e8c-a1f0-9429c99a0d0c", "slug": "the-past-is-a-room", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jamaica-kincaid/the-autobiography-of-my-mother/the-past-is-a-room", "text": "The past is a room full of baggage and rubbish and sometimes things that are of use, but if they are of real use, I have kept them.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jamaica Kincaid", "slug": "jamaica-kincaid", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jamaica-kincaid" }, "book": { "title": "The Autobiography of My Mother", "slug": "the-autobiography-of-my-mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jamaica-kincaid/the-autobiography-of-my-mother" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jamaica_Kincaid#The_Autobiography_of_My_Mother_(1996)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:49" }, { "id": "bf1f3118-3c7c-4453-b481-ab0a865f4ac6", "slug": "no-matter-how", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jamaica-kincaid/the-autobiography-of-my-mother/no-matter-how", "text": "No matter how happy I had been in the past I do not long for it. The present is always the moment for which I love.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jamaica Kincaid", "slug": "jamaica-kincaid", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jamaica-kincaid" }, "book": { "title": "The Autobiography of My Mother", "slug": "the-autobiography-of-my-mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jamaica-kincaid/the-autobiography-of-my-mother" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "the present", "slug": "the-present", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-present" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jamaica_Kincaid#The_Autobiography_of_My_Mother_(1996)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:49" }, { "id": "ff2eaee9-7f2b-4eba-985d-a22eafc0b82e", "slug": "we-had-a-few", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-yates/a-good-school/we-had-a-few", "text": "We had a few beers and laughed more than we meant to and punched each other's arms; in the end, out on the sidewalk again, I think we shook hands about three times in saying goodbye. Just before turning away he said \"Listen, though: don't look back too much, okay? You can drive yourself crazy that way.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Richard Yates", "slug": "richard-yates", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-yates" }, "book": { "title": "A Good School", "slug": "a-good-school", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-yates/a-good-school" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 167, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Yates#A_Good_School_(1978)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:43" }, { "id": "4bec3da5-76a7-4b42-bb66-95a193c74418", "slug": "yeah-well-youre", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-yates/cold-spring-harbor/yeah-well-youre", "text": "\"Yeah, well, you're right, but what the hell; there's nothing anybody can do about it. Besides, that's ancient history now. I don't even think about it much any more, from - you know - from day to day.\"\n\n\"Good,\" she said. \"It's always important to keep the day-to-day stuff separate from the ancient history, isn't it.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Richard Yates", "slug": "richard-yates", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-yates" }, "book": { "title": "Cold Spring Harbor", "slug": "cold-spring-harbor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-yates/cold-spring-harbor" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 125, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Yates#Cold_Spring_Harbor_(1986)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:43" }, { "id": "92ed390c-8fee-494e-84e8-f45c5852272f", "slug": "he-had-thought", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-perry/the-tejano-conflict/he-had-thought", "text": "He had thought about it. Mostly, after the fantasies, he had let it go. It was done, history. No point in bumping into the furniture while looking back over your shoulder.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Steve Perry", "slug": "steve-perry", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-perry" }, "book": { "title": "The Tejano Conflict", "slug": "the-tejano-conflict", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-perry/the-tejano-conflict" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Steve_Perry_(author)#The_Tejano_Conflict_(2014)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:29" }, { "id": "179c12b7-66dd-4544-811b-bcdb5404598c", "slug": "see-you-get", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/brent-weeks/the-way-of-shadows/see-you-get", "text": "See, you get caught up in the past and you become useless to the present.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Brent Weeks", "slug": "brent-weeks", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/brent-weeks" }, "book": { "title": "The Way Of Shadows", "slug": "the-way-of-shadows", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/brent-weeks/the-way-of-shadows" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 144, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "the present", "slug": "the-present", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-present" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brent_Weeks#The_Way_of_Shadows_(2008)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:27" }, { "id": "b016bd5c-6e11-4620-a113-0da7240f1cdf", "slug": "i-craved-for", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/wilfred-thesiger/arabian-sands/i-craved-for", "text": "I craved for the past, resented the present, and dreaded the future.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Wilfred Thesiger", "slug": "wilfred-thesiger", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/wilfred-thesiger" }, "book": { "title": "Arabian Sands", "slug": "arabian-sands", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/wilfred-thesiger/arabian-sands" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 20, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the future", "slug": "the-future", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "the present", "slug": "the-present", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-present" }, { "name": "nostalgia", "slug": "nostalgia", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nostalgia" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wilfred_Thesiger#Arabian_Sands_(1959)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:02" }, { "id": "9586c5b8-79b9-42a8-a94d-8e8a8fb7eee2", "slug": "had-i-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alan-cumming/not-my-fathers-son/had-i-not", "text": "Had I not had the childhood I did, would these traits not be so at the forefront of my personality? Who knows? All I know is that I am the product of all the experiences I have had, good and bad, and if I am in a happy place in my life (as I truly am), then I can have no regrets about any of the combination of events and circumstances that have led me to the here and now.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Alan Cumming", "slug": "alan-cumming", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alan-cumming" }, "book": { "title": "Not My Father's Son", "slug": "not-my-fathers-son", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alan-cumming/not-my-fathers-son" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "happiness", "slug": "happiness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alan_Cumming#Not_My_Father's_Son:_A_Family_Memoir_(2014)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:54" }, { "id": "aff355aa-49a6-4a07-92cd-435ed3d7671e", "slug": "you-dont-alter", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/glen-cook/bitter-gold-hearts/you-dont-alter", "text": "You don’t alter the past, turn the tide, or change yourself by brooding about your hidden motives. You will surprise yourself every time, anyway. Nobody ever figures out why.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Glen Cook", "slug": "glen-cook", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/glen-cook" }, "book": { "title": "Bitter Gold Hearts", "slug": "bitter-gold-hearts", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/glen-cook/bitter-gold-hearts" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 93, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "self-knowledge", "slug": "self-knowledge", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/self-knowledge" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Glen_Cook#Bitter_Gold_Hearts_(1988)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:44" }, { "id": "59e760d5-1cf9-426d-85ba-2d2e9f7f1d3d", "slug": "calcutta-has-still", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/amit-chaudhuri/calcutta/calcutta-has-still", "text": "‘Calcutta has still not recovered from history: people mourn the past, and abhor it deeply.’", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Amit Chaudhuri", "slug": "amit-chaudhuri", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/amit-chaudhuri" }, "book": { "title": "Calcutta", "slug": "calcutta", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/amit-chaudhuri/calcutta" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Amit_Chaudhuri#Calcutta:_Two_Years_in_The_City_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:36" }, { "id": "cad99833-344f-495f-8226-6d69cde60233", "slug": "the-past-gives", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/the-power-of-now/the-past-gives", "text": "The past gives you an identity and the future holds the promise of salvation. ... Both are illusions.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Eckhart Tolle", "slug": "eckhart-tolle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle" }, "book": { "title": "The Power of Now", "slug": "the-power-of-now", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/the-power-of-now" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the future", "slug": "the-future", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Power_of_Now#Chapter_3._Moving_Deeply_Into_the_Now", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:00" }, { "id": "0e0e4d4e-9aae-4e30-85ec-7ddf98a9ea40", "slug": "i-create-each", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/andre-gide/the-immoralist/i-create-each", "text": "I create each hour’s newness by forgetting yesterday completely. Having been happy is never enough for me. I don’t believe in dead things. What’s the difference between no longer being and never having been?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "André Gide", "slug": "andre-gide", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/andre-gide" }, "book": { "title": "The Immoralist", "slug": "the-immoralist", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/andre-gide/the-immoralist" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 111, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "happiness", "slug": "happiness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Immoralist#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:58" }, { "id": "e2ce14f2-3faa-4720-b22d-4f1eb1f1314d", "slug": "the-past-was", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tony-judt/ill-fares-the-land/the-past-was", "text": "The past was neither as good nor as bad as we suppose: it was just different. If we tell ourselves nostalgic stories, we shall never engage the problems that face us in the present—and the same is true if we fondly suppose that our own world is better in every way. The past really is another country: we cannot go back. However, there is something worse than idealizing the past—or presenting it to ourselves and our children as a chamber of horrors: forgetting it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Tony Judt", "slug": "tony-judt", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tony-judt" }, "book": { "title": "Ill Fares The Land", "slug": "ill-fares-the-land", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tony-judt/ill-fares-the-land" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "nostalgia", "slug": "nostalgia", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nostalgia" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tony_Judt#Ill_Fares_the_Land_(2010)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:31" }, { "id": "59d4c32c-958a-4b76-a73a-79fcf6434de0", "slug": "i-had-made", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tanith-lee/quest-for-the-white-witch/i-had-made", "text": "I had made vows and to spare, but the present cannot be ruled forever by the past.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Tanith Lee", "slug": "tanith-lee", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tanith-lee" }, "book": { "title": "Quest for the White Witch", "slug": "quest-for-the-white-witch", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tanith-lee/quest-for-the-white-witch" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 283, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "the present", "slug": "the-present", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-present" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tanith_Lee#Quest_for_the_White_Witch_(1978)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:21" }, { "id": "fb2cbf39-9583-4522-91fb-5fe0d80ed5ed", "slug": "do-not-look", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/pat-murphy/the-falling-woman/do-not-look", "text": "Do not look for revelations in the ancient ruins. You will find here only what you bring: bits of memory, wisps of the past as thin as clouds in the summer, fragments of stone that are carved with symbols that sometimes almost make sense.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Pat Murphy", "slug": "pat-murphy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/pat-murphy" }, "book": { "title": "The Falling Woman", "slug": "the-falling-woman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/pat-murphy/the-falling-woman" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 10, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pat_Murphy#The_Falling_Woman_(1986)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:08" }, { "id": "a364a2de-23df-41cc-9511-5388c9062d2f", "slug": "what-happens-in-our", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-twelve-hawks/spark/what-happens-in-our", "text": "What happens in our future can change the meaning of what has happened in our past.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Twelve Hawks", "slug": "john-twelve-hawks", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-twelve-hawks" }, "book": { "title": "Spark", "slug": "spark", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-twelve-hawks/spark" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the future", "slug": "the-future", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Twelve_Hawks#Spark_(2014)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:00" }, { "id": "9abdbdd7-8832-4cf4-9bbc-5646459d8388", "slug": "the-past-has", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lin-carter/time-war/the-past-has", "text": "The past has lost, as it always loses; the future has won, as it always wins.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Lin Carter", "slug": "lin-carter", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lin-carter" }, "book": { "title": "Time War", "slug": "time-war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lin-carter/time-war" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 155, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the future", "slug": "the-future", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lin_Carter#Time_War_(1974)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:52" }, { "id": "5ebbb54d-f1c8-4e99-b02c-d61d229acb67", "slug": "the-past-is-relevant", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-morgan/altered-carbon/the-past-is-relevant", "text": "The past is relevant only as data.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Richard Morgan", "slug": "richard-morgan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-morgan" }, "book": { "title": "Altered Carbon", "slug": "altered-carbon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-morgan/altered-carbon" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 242, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Morgan#Altered_Carbon_(2002)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:31" }, { "id": "714376bd-e2e5-4b48-aceb-ba9a5e237967", "slug": "the-past-was", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nicholas-sparks/the-best-of-me/the-past-was", "text": "The past was gone, after all, and the future was the only thing they had left.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nicholas Sparks", "slug": "nicholas-sparks", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nicholas-sparks" }, "book": { "title": "The Best Of Me", "slug": "the-best-of-me", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nicholas-sparks/the-best-of-me" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 180, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the future", "slug": "the-future", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nicholas_Sparks#The_Best_of_Me_(2011)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:25" }, { "id": "241f7ac9-9132-4a6f-b52f-931ce11b219f", "slug": "but-would-she", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nicholas-sparks/the-choice/but-would-she", "text": "But would she do it differently if she could? She doubted it. Her experiences growing up ad formed her into the woman that she'd become, just as his experiences had formed him, and she didn't regret them. And yet...she knew that wasn't the question that mattered. ...she realized the choice before her was this: Where do I go from here? It is never too late to change things.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nicholas Sparks", "slug": "nicholas-sparks", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nicholas-sparks" }, "book": { "title": "The Choice", "slug": "the-choice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nicholas-sparks/the-choice" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 168, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "change", "slug": "change", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nicholas_Sparks#The_Choice_(2007)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:24" }, { "id": "7a504965-b017-41e3-a8db-31ea53dbcdfb", "slug": "shed-always-believed", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nicholas-sparks/the-guardian/shed-always-believed", "text": "She'd always believed that people come in two varieties: those who look out the windshield and those who stare in the rearview mirror. She'd always been the windshield type: Gotta focus on the future, not the past, because that's the only part that's still up for grabs.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nicholas Sparks", "slug": "nicholas-sparks", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nicholas-sparks" }, "book": { "title": "The Guardian", "slug": "the-guardian", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nicholas-sparks/the-guardian" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 270, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the future", "slug": "the-future", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nicholas_Sparks#The_Guardian_(2003)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:21" }, { "id": "1ecb1905-9392-4f09-864f-0fe0fd6908ae", "slug": "even-now-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nicholas-sparks/the-rescue/even-now-not", "text": "\"Even now, not a day goes by when I don't wish I could turn back the clock and change what happened.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nicholas Sparks", "slug": "nicholas-sparks", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nicholas-sparks" }, "book": { "title": "The Rescue", "slug": "the-rescue", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nicholas-sparks/the-rescue" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 166, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nicholas_Sparks#The_Rescue_(2000)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:20" }, { "id": "71d908d3-be5a-44a6-aa97-b92c058c8198", "slug": "in-the-americas", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/leslie-marmon-silko/almanac-of-the-dead/in-the-americas", "text": "In the Americas the white man never referred to the past but only to the future. The white man didn’t seem to understand he had no future here because he had no past, no spirits of ancestors here. (Part Two, Book Two: Reign of Fire-Eye Macaw)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Leslie Marmon Silko", "slug": "leslie-marmon-silko", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/leslie-marmon-silko" }, "book": { "title": "Almanac of the Dead", "slug": "almanac-of-the-dead", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/leslie-marmon-silko/almanac-of-the-dead" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "colonialism", "slug": "colonialism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/colonialism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Leslie_Marmon_Silko#Almanac_of_the_Dead_(1991)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:00" }, { "id": "a8104142-7744-43f6-b3e0-6018390193d7", "slug": "the-past-remains", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-dance-with-dragons/the-past-remains", "text": "The past remains the past. We can learn from it, but we cannot change it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George RR Martin", "slug": "george-rr-martin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin" }, "book": { "title": "A Dance with Dragons", "slug": "a-dance-with-dragons", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-dance-with-dragons" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire#A_Dance_with_Dragons_(2011)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:55" }, { "id": "1167c08c-c49b-4b92-8727-ae7532a97692", "slug": "the-iron-islands", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-clash-of-kings/the-iron-islands", "text": "The Iron Islands lived in the past; the present was too hard and bitter to be borne.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George RR Martin", "slug": "george-rr-martin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin" }, "book": { "title": "A Clash of Kings", "slug": "a-clash-of-kings", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-clash-of-kings" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire#A_Clash_of_Kings_(1999)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:47" }, { "id": "c2c6cca8-2a3b-422c-b466-4b0de3afa25b", "slug": "at-least-within", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-l-berger/invitation-to-sociology/at-least-within", "text": "At least within our own consciousness, the past is malleable and flexible, constantly changing as our recollection reinterprets and re-explains what has happened.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Peter L. Berger", "slug": "peter-l-berger", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-l-berger" }, "book": { "title": "Invitation to Sociology", "slug": "invitation-to-sociology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-l-berger/invitation-to-sociology" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 57, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Peter_L._Berger#Invitation_to_Sociology_(1963)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:14" }, { "id": "28d89ef1-017a-48f0-91e4-696b101fb2ef", "slug": "i-would-never", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/connie-willis/fire-watch/i-would-never", "text": "I would never save her. I looked at the woman mopping up the tea, and it came to me that I could not save her either. Enola or the cat or any of them, lost here in the endless stairways and cul-de-sacs of time. They were already dead a hundred years, past saving. The past is beyond saving. Surely that was the lesson the history department sent me all this way to learn. Well, fine, I’ve learned it. Can I go home now?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Connie Willis", "slug": "connie-willis", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/connie-willis" }, "book": { "title": "Fire Watch", "slug": "fire-watch", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/connie-willis/fire-watch" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 34, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Connie_Willis#Fire_Watch_(1985)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:10" }, { "id": "42628f3b-4e9e-49c5-8d3b-37b5a1d6e055", "slug": "possessing-these-books", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alberto-manguel/a-history-of-reading/possessing-these-books", "text": "Possessing these books has become all important to me, because I have become jealous of the past.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Alberto Manguel", "slug": "alberto-manguel", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alberto-manguel" }, "book": { "title": "A History of Reading", "slug": "a-history-of-reading", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alberto-manguel/a-history-of-reading" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "reading", "slug": "reading", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reading" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alberto_Manguel#A_History_of_Reading_(1996)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:09" }, { "id": "bddc2887-58db-4e97-94a7-4b710b0f02a5", "slug": "it-was-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lois-lowry/the-giver/it-was-not", "text": "It was not safe to spend time looking back.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Lois Lowry", "slug": "lois-lowry", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lois-lowry" }, "book": { "title": "The Giver", "slug": "the-giver", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/lois-lowry/the-giver" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 193, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Giver#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:43" }, { "id": "904654d6-b850-4bdd-b7ea-72213fef5aea", "slug": "i-got-to-missing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tim-powers/medusas-web/i-got-to-missing", "text": "“I got to missing her, the way things used to be here, the past. The past,” she repeated. “It’s always out there, isn’t it? I hate now. I hate that whenever you look at a clock, it shows a different time. What’s the use of knowing what time it is, if it’s always changing? And it’s always later!”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Tim Powers", "slug": "tim-powers", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tim-powers" }, "book": { "title": "Medusa's Web", "slug": "medusas-web", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tim-powers/medusas-web" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 99, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "time", "slug": "time", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "nostalgia", "slug": "nostalgia", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nostalgia" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tim_Powers#Medusa's_Web_(2016)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:39" }, { "id": "72171faa-72d1-4632-b7be-a13aeebc6319", "slug": "were-it-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-russo/straight-man/were-it-not", "text": "Were it not for Occam's Razor, which always demands simplicity, I'd be tempted to believe that human beings are more influenced by distant causes than immediate ones. This would especially be true of overeducated people, who are capable of thinking past the immediate, of becoming obsessed by the remote. It's the old stuff, the conflicts we've never come to terms with, that sneaks up on us, half forgotten, insisting upon action.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Richard Russo", "slug": "richard-russo", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-russo" }, "book": { "title": "Straight Man", "slug": "straight-man", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-russo/straight-man" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Russo#Straight_Man_(1997)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:55" }, { "id": "47942fc1-2ee2-4493-a6fd-181382ecad7a", "slug": "but-you-always", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/brandon-sanderson/the-way-of-kings/but-you-always", "text": "But you always find people telling stories about supposedly better days. You watch. A man joins a new team of soldiers, and the first thing he’ll do is talk about how wonderful his old team was. We remember the good times and the bad ones, forgetting that most times are neither good nor bad. They just are.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Brandon Sanderson", "slug": "brandon-sanderson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/brandon-sanderson" }, "book": { "title": "The Way of Kings", "slug": "the-way-of-kings", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/brandon-sanderson/the-way-of-kings" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 315, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "nostalgia", "slug": "nostalgia", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nostalgia" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brandon_Sanderson#The_Way_of_Kings_(2010)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:35" }, { "id": "3c226331-c24b-4518-9daa-129776464767", "slug": "youve-been-competing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/timescoop/youve-been-competing", "text": "You’ve been competing against the past, and that’s a contest no one can win because the past has all the advantages. We’ve forgotten all its fiddling little drawbacks: the lice, the skin infections, the disgusting personal habits and the rest of it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Brunner", "slug": "john-brunner", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner" }, "book": { "title": "Timescoop", "slug": "timescoop", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/timescoop" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 116, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "nostalgia", "slug": "nostalgia", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nostalgia" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Brunner#Timescoop_(1969)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:11" }, { "id": "0a7bd857-ab3f-4d54-a835-772feafa99e8", "slug": "i-know-it-seems", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hg-wells/in-the-days-of-the-comet/i-know-it-seems", "text": "I know it seems incredible, that already some of the younger men are beginning to doubt the greatness of the Change our world has undergone, but read — read the newspapers of that time. Every age becomes mitigated and a little ennobled in our minds as it recedes into the past. It is the part of those who like myself have stories of that time as well, to supply, by a scrupulous spiritual realism, some antidote to that glamour.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "H.G. Wells", "slug": "hg-wells", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hg-wells" }, "book": { "title": "In the Days of the Comet", "slug": "in-the-days-of-the-comet", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hg-wells/in-the-days-of-the-comet" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "nostalgia", "slug": "nostalgia", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nostalgia" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/In_the_Days_of_the_Comet#Dust_in_the_Shadows", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:54" }, { "id": "afd026cb-3793-4c0d-b703-87ed48f13572", "slug": "your-past-is-always", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sarah-dessen/what-happened-to-goodbye/your-past-is-always", "text": "Your past is always your past. Even if you forget it, it remembers you.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sarah Dessen", "slug": "sarah-dessen", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sarah-dessen" }, "book": { "title": "What Happened to Goodbye", "slug": "what-happened-to-goodbye", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sarah-dessen/what-happened-to-goodbye" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sarah_Dessen#What_Happened_To_Goodbye_(2011)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:52" }, { "id": "5d62c16d-01f2-49ec-9c77-719139207a49", "slug": "reality-is-always-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/byron-katie/loving-what-is/reality-is-always-the", "text": "Reality is always the story of a past, and what I love about the past is—it’s over.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Byron Katie", "slug": "byron-katie", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/byron-katie" }, "book": { "title": "Loving What Is", "slug": "loving-what-is", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/byron-katie/loving-what-is" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Byron_Katie#Loving_What_Is:_Four_Questions_That_Can_Change_Your_Life_(2002)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:45" }, { "id": "f992bd97-bd81-4f76-81b7-a5b8835357c8", "slug": "today-i-will", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-s-hall/daily-negations/today-i-will", "text": "Today, I will try to remember to regret the past. I will think of how many mistakes I have made throughout my life. I will say to myself, \"If only I could go back in time and make different choices, so that my life could be the way it should have been.\" Then I will remind myself that I cannot.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John S. Hall", "slug": "john-s-hall", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-s-hall" }, "book": { "title": "Daily Negations", "slug": "daily-negations", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-s-hall/daily-negations" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_S._Hall#Quotes_from_Daily_Negations_(2007)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:40" }, { "id": "fb8eb1dc-f48e-45d9-8cdd-98bac97e1ae0", "slug": "there-is-a-philosophical", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-crowley/four-freedoms/there-is-a-philosophical", "text": "There is a philosophical, or metaphysical position that can be taken–maybe its a scientific hypothesis–that the past cannot in fact exist. Everything that can possibly exist exists now. Things now may be expressive of some conceivable or describable past state of affairs, yes:but that's different from saying this this former state actually somehow exists in the form of \"the past\". Even in our memory[...]there is no past:no scenes preserved with all their sights and sounds. Merely fleeting states of mind, myriad points assembled for a moment to make a new picture (but \"picture\" is wrong too, too full, too fixed) of what we think are former states of things: things that once were, or may have been the case.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Crowley", "slug": "john-crowley", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-crowley" }, "book": { "title": "Four Freedoms", "slug": "four-freedoms", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-crowley/four-freedoms" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Crowley#Four_Freedoms_(2009)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:38" }, { "id": "2e3eca5e-d412-47dc-b8c0-3429ace0519f", "slug": "states-of-profound", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig/beware-of-pity/states-of-profound", "text": "States of profound happiness, like all other forms of intoxication, are apt to befuddle the wits; intense enjoyment of the present always makes one forget the past.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Stefan Zweig", "slug": "stefan-zweig", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig" }, "book": { "title": "Beware of Pity", "slug": "beware-of-pity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig/beware-of-pity" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "happiness", "slug": "happiness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "the present", "slug": "the-present", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-present" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stefan_Zweig#Beware_of_Pity_(1939)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:29" }, { "id": "4f42fcc4-ba16-443a-9940-e95d51374cb1", "slug": "the-past-was", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/artifact/the-past-was", "text": "The past was a jigsaw puzzle and you never had all the pieces.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Gregory Benford", "slug": "gregory-benford", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford" }, "book": { "title": "Artifact", "slug": "artifact", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/artifact" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 10, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gregory_Benford#Artifact_(1985)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:22" }, { "id": "c5f174bb-1a33-4bd0-9696-6357e53b658e", "slug": "its-not-about", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy/no-country-for-old-men/its-not-about", "text": "It's not about knowin where you are. It's about thinkin you got there without takin anything with you. Your notions about startin over. Or anybody's. You dont start over. That's what it's about. Every step you take is forever. You cant make it go away. None of it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Cormac McCarthy", "slug": "cormac-mccarthy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy" }, "book": { "title": "No Country for Old Men", "slug": "no-country-for-old-men", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy/no-country-for-old-men" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "change", "slug": "change", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/No_Country_for_Old_Men#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:19" }, { "id": "30cd8772-2125-4dee-8f72-64fac7f39af6", "slug": "you-think-when", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy/no-country-for-old-men/you-think-when", "text": "You think when you wake up in the mornin yesterday dont count. But yesterday is all that does count. What else is there? Your life is made out of the days it's made out of. Nothin else. You might think you could run away and change your name and I dont know what all. Start over. And then one mornin you wake up and look at the ceilin and guess who's layin there?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Cormac McCarthy", "slug": "cormac-mccarthy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy" }, "book": { "title": "No Country for Old Men", "slug": "no-country-for-old-men", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy/no-country-for-old-men" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "identity", "slug": "identity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/identity" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/No_Country_for_Old_Men#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:19" }, { "id": "a5ca2422-d6b0-4c0b-99d0-04726341bc74", "slug": "it-is-a-peculiarity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cees-nooteboom/rituals/it-is-a-peculiarity", "text": "It is a peculiarity of time that in retrospect it appears so compact, an indivisible solid object, a dish with only one smell and one flavor. (Page 4)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Cees Nooteboom", "slug": "cees-nooteboom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cees-nooteboom" }, "book": { "title": "Rituals", "slug": "rituals", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cees-nooteboom/rituals" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "time", "slug": "time", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cees_Nooteboom#Rituals_(1980)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:11" }, { "id": "3534d817-23fc-425a-8e38-cd8a9594f5d2", "slug": "you-should-never", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-l-carter/the-emperor-of-ocean-park/you-should-never", "text": "You should never fall in love with your own press clippings, because it is very much the nature of the beast that the same journalists who build you up between Monday and Friday tear you down for weekend fun...My family's habit of living in the past seems to me pathological, even dangerous. If all greatness lies in the past, what is the point of the future?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Stephen L. Carter", "slug": "stephen-l-carter", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-l-carter" }, "book": { "title": "The Emperor of Ocean Park", "slug": "the-emperor-of-ocean-park", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-l-carter/the-emperor-of-ocean-park" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "media", "slug": "media", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media" }, { "name": "fame", "slug": "fame", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fame" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stephen_L._Carter#The_Emperor_of_Ocean_Park_(2002)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:10" }, { "id": "91ff2995-e939-44b2-9509-8bf4372c4037", "slug": "the-more-shared", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/oneness-with-all-life/the-more-shared", "text": "The more shared past there is in a relationship, the more present you need to be; otherwise, you will be forced to relive the past again and again.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Eckhart Tolle", "slug": "eckhart-tolle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle" }, "book": { "title": "Oneness with All Life", "slug": "oneness-with-all-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/oneness-with-all-life" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "relationships", "slug": "relationships", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/relationships" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eckhart_Tolle#Oneness_With_All_Life:_Inspirational_Selections_from_A_New_Earth_(2008)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:04" }, { "id": "573e883c-2018-4eaa-afb5-6c63661e8ce7", "slug": "a-question-people", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth/a-question-people", "text": "A question people frequently ask is, “How long does it take to become free of the painbody?” The answer is, of course, that it depends both on the density of an individual's painbody as well as the degree or intensity of that individual's arising Presence. But it is not the painbody, but identification with it that causes the suffering that you inflict on yourself and others. It is not the painbody but identification with the painbody that forces you to relive the past again and again and keeps you in a state of unconsciousness.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Eckhart Tolle", "slug": "eckhart-tolle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle" }, "book": { "title": "A New Earth", "slug": "a-new-earth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "suffering", "slug": "suffering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_New_Earth#Chapter_6,_Breaking_Free", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:04" }, { "id": "9e480076-6b21-4aab-941f-572875d0597e", "slug": "your-thinking-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth/your-thinking-the", "text": "Your thinking, the content of your mind, is of course conditioned by the past: your upbringing, culture, family background, and so on. The central core of all your mind activity consists of certain repetitive and persistent thoughts, emotions, and reactive patterns that you identify with most strongly. This entity is the ego itself.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Eckhart Tolle", "slug": "eckhart-tolle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle" }, "book": { "title": "A New Earth", "slug": "a-new-earth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "ego", "slug": "ego", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ego" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_New_Earth#Chapter_3,_The_Core_of_Ego", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:03" }, { "id": "169283fd-26a0-4d90-8917-072425728a87", "slug": "the-egoic-mind", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth/the-egoic-mind", "text": "The egoic mind is completely conditioned by the past.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Eckhart Tolle", "slug": "eckhart-tolle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle" }, "book": { "title": "A New Earth", "slug": "a-new-earth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "ego", "slug": "ego", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ego" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_New_Earth#Chapter_2,_Ego:_the_Current_State_of_Humanity", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:02" }, { "id": "fd8f39e3-edbe-4c57-aa88-b824d1b50b85", "slug": "nothing-ever-happened", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth/nothing-ever-happened", "text": "Nothing ever happened in the past that can prevent you from being present now; and if the past cannot prevent you from being present now, what power does it have?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Eckhart Tolle", "slug": "eckhart-tolle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle" }, "book": { "title": "A New Earth", "slug": "a-new-earth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "the present", "slug": "the-present", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-present" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eckhart_Tolle#A_New_Earth_(2005)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:01" }, { "id": "f90b2605-7b31-4516-a62e-dbf05e63eda1", "slug": "the-myriad-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-salter/a-sport-and-a-pastime/the-myriad-past", "text": "The myriad past, it enters us and disappears. Except that within it, somewhere, like diamonds, exist the fragments that refuse to be consumed. Sifting through, if one dares, and collecting them, one discovers the true design.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "James Salter", "slug": "james-salter", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-salter" }, "book": { "title": "A Sport and a Pastime", "slug": "a-sport-and-a-pastime", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-salter/a-sport-and-a-pastime" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Salter#A_Sport_and_a_Pastime_(1967)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:48" }, { "id": "239a310a-4f44-4e63-aec2-9f9da2e79cde", "slug": "one-alters-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-salter/a-sport-and-a-pastime/one-alters-the", "text": "One alters the past to form the future but there is a real significance to the pattern which finally appears, which resists all further change.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "James Salter", "slug": "james-salter", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-salter" }, "book": { "title": "A Sport and a Pastime", "slug": "a-sport-and-a-pastime", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-salter/a-sport-and-a-pastime" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the future", "slug": "the-future", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Salter#A_Sport_and_a_Pastime_(1967)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:48" }, { "id": "4d005dc8-91cc-48c4-98bf-e8251d0a97d7", "slug": "as-this-wave", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/italo-calvino/invisible-cities/as-this-wave", "text": "As this wave from memories flows in, the city soaks it up like a sponge and expands. (di quest'onda che rifluisce dai ricordi la città s'imbeve coma una spugna e si dilata). The city, however, does not tell of its past, but contains it like the lines of a hand...", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Italo Calvino", "slug": "italo-calvino", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/italo-calvino" }, "book": { "title": "Invisible Cities", "slug": "invisible-cities", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/italo-calvino/invisible-cities" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 10, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "city", "slug": "city", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/city" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Italo_Calvino#Invisible_Cities_(1972)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:46" }, { "id": "eb981f57-c976-4cdf-a70d-2ef990a5f3d7", "slug": "a-proper-autobiography", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-antin/the-promised-land/a-proper-autobiography", "text": "A proper autobiography is a death-bed confession. A true man finds so much work to do that he has no time to contemplate his yesterdays; for to-day and to-morrow are here, with their impatient tasks. The world is so busy, too, that it cannot afford to study any man's unfinished work; for the end may prove it a failure, and the world needs masterpieces.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Mary Antin", "slug": "mary-antin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-antin" }, "book": { "title": "The Promised Land", "slug": "the-promised-land", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-antin/the-promised-land" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "work", "slug": "work", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/work" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mary_Antin#The_Promised_Land_(1912)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:33" }, { "id": "145d4fea-7232-4137-9658-c46400607f87", "slug": "it-is-painful", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-antin/the-promised-land/it-is-painful", "text": "It is painful to be consciously of two worlds. The Wandering Jew in me seeks forgetfulness. I am not afraid to live on and on, if only I do not have to remember too much. A long past vividly remembered is like a heavy garment that clings to your limbs when you would run.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Mary Antin", "slug": "mary-antin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-antin" }, "book": { "title": "The Promised Land", "slug": "the-promised-land", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-antin/the-promised-land" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "emigration", "slug": "emigration", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/emigration" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mary_Antin#The_Promised_Land_(1912)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:33" }, { "id": "f02e06ac-95e8-4331-8a6f-0de61e0b2228", "slug": "khaled-my-first", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts/shantaram/khaled-my-first", "text": "\"Khaled, my first teacher, was the kind of man who carried his past in the temple fires of his eyes, and fed the flames with pieces of his broken heart. I've known men like Khaled in prisons, on battlefields, and in the dens where smugglers, mercenaries, and other exiles meet. They all have certain characteristics in common. They're tough, because there's a kind of toughness that's found in the worst sorrow. They're honest, because the truth of what happened to them won't let them lie. They're angry, because they can't forget the past or forgive it. And they're lonely. Most of us pretend, with greater or lesser success, that the minute we live in is something we can share. But the past for ever one of us is a desert island; and those like Khaled, who find themselves marooned there, are always alone\" ~page 443 - 444", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Gregory David Roberts", "slug": "gregory-david-roberts", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts" }, "book": { "title": "Shantaram", "slug": "shantaram", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts/shantaram" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "loneliness", "slug": "loneliness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Shantaram#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:21" }, { "id": "ad0f6a14-349d-460c-bc5a-5b5a2193f36f", "slug": "the-past-reflects", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts/shantaram/the-past-reflects", "text": "The past reflects eternally between two mirrors - the bright mirror of words and deeds, and the dark one, full of things we didn't do or say.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Gregory David Roberts", "slug": "gregory-david-roberts", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts" }, "book": { "title": "Shantaram", "slug": "shantaram", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts/shantaram" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Shantaram#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:20" }, { "id": "91674440-968a-4a5d-876c-75176f72b46c", "slug": "the-cloak-of-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts/shantaram/the-cloak-of-the", "text": "'''The cloak of the past is cut from patches of feeling, and sewn with rebus threads. Most of the time, the best we can do is wrap it around ourselves for comfort or drag it behind us as we struggle to go on.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Gregory David Roberts", "slug": "gregory-david-roberts", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts" }, "book": { "title": "Shantaram", "slug": "shantaram", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts/shantaram" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Shantaram#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:20" }, { "id": "0db80e1d-24a8-46ea-94e9-3d740feb5c34", "slug": "sometimes-we-see", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts/shantaram/sometimes-we-see", "text": "Sometimes we see the past so clearly, and read the legend of its parts with such acuity, that every stitch of time reveals its purpose, and the kind of message enfolded in it.'''", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Gregory David Roberts", "slug": "gregory-david-roberts", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts" }, "book": { "title": "Shantaram", "slug": "shantaram", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts/shantaram" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Shantaram#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:20" }, { "id": "ded37829-2c57-40ae-b9d0-e8b50aeb1408", "slug": "i-suspect-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-banville/the-untouchable/i-suspect-that", "text": "I suspect that significant first encounters only take on their aura of significance in retrospect.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Banville", "slug": "john-banville", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-banville" }, "book": { "title": "The Untouchable", "slug": "the-untouchable", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-banville/the-untouchable" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Banville#The_Untouchable_(1997)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:11" }, { "id": "aa8b9080-f04e-4f30-8667-f862edf07258", "slug": "i-was-pondering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-banville/the-untouchable/i-was-pondering", "text": "I was pondering the question, which I have pondered before, of whether such great revelatory moments really so occur, or if it is only that, out of need, our lives so lacking in drama, we invest past events with a significance they do not warrant.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Banville", "slug": "john-banville", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-banville" }, "book": { "title": "The Untouchable", "slug": "the-untouchable", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-banville/the-untouchable" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Banville#The_Untouchable_(1997)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:11" }, { "id": "3f5b622a-6ed9-493a-83f0-67bab3befe31", "slug": "the-mistakes-ive", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jonathan-safran-foer/extremely-loud-and-incredibly-close/the-mistakes-ive", "text": "The mistakes I've made are dead to me. But I can't take back the things I never did. (p. 309)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jonathan Safran Foer", "slug": "jonathan-safran-foer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jonathan-safran-foer" }, "book": { "title": "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close", "slug": "extremely-loud-and-incredibly-close", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jonathan-safran-foer/extremely-loud-and-incredibly-close" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "mistakes", "slug": "mistakes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mistakes" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jonathan_Safran_Foer#Extremely_Loud_and_Incredibly_Close_(2005)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:10" }, { "id": "2469ff69-7588-4ceb-8a61-34853538a006", "slug": "of-all-fruitless", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/nicholas-nickleby/of-all-fruitless", "text": "Of all fruitless errands, sending a tear to look after a day that is gone is the most fruitless.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Dickens", "slug": "charles-dickens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens" }, "book": { "title": "Nicholas Nickleby", "slug": "nicholas-nickleby", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/nicholas-nickleby" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "sadness", "slug": "sadness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/sadness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nicholas_Nickleby#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:42" }, { "id": "f1de85a4-895b-4399-ba78-ba351aadbbec", "slug": "imagination-was-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-jose-farmer/the-dark-design/imagination-was-the", "text": "Imagination was the great cozener of the past.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Philip José Farmer", "slug": "philip-jose-farmer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-jose-farmer" }, "book": { "title": "The Dark Design", "slug": "the-dark-design", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-jose-farmer/the-dark-design" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 430, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "imagination", "slug": "imagination", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/imagination" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_Jos%C3%A9_Farmer#The_Dark_Design_(1977)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:31" }, { "id": "0820465e-208e-4d6a-b812-e989bf16e5fd", "slug": "things-change-people", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gail-carson-levine/ella-enchanted/things-change-people", "text": "Things change, people change, but that doesn't mean you should forget the past.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Gail Carson Levine", "slug": "gail-carson-levine", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gail-carson-levine" }, "book": { "title": "Ella Enchanted", "slug": "ella-enchanted", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gail-carson-levine/ella-enchanted" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "change", "slug": "change", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ella_Enchanted#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:02" }, { "id": "3347891d-43bd-451d-90b4-e9c705563f2a", "slug": "america-is-a-faith", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/darling/america-is-a-faith", "text": "America is a faith, perhaps pancakes its sacrament. Opportunity comes to those who put away the disadvantages of family or circumstance and entrust themselves to the future. The point of the American story is simple enough for a child, particularly an immigrant child, to grasp: The past holds no sway in America.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Richard Rodriguez", "slug": "richard-rodriguez", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez" }, "book": { "title": "Darling", "slug": "darling", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/darling" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "America", "slug": "america", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america" }, { "name": "emigration", "slug": "emigration", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/emigration" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Rodriguez#Darling:_A_Spiritual_Autobiography_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:47" }, { "id": "472f609d-8edf-491c-803e-e2df955e9a4c", "slug": "your-brother-is-still", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy/the-crossing/your-brother-is-still", "text": "Your brother is still young enough to believe that the past still exists, he said. That the injustices within it await his remedy.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Cormac McCarthy", "slug": "cormac-mccarthy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy" }, "book": { "title": "The Crossing", "slug": "the-crossing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy/the-crossing" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "justice", "slug": "justice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/justice" }, { "name": "youth", "slug": "youth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cormac_McCarthy#The_Crossing_(1994)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:30" }, { "id": "1a04d2d4-ac61-4033-9092-09e879e5ce4f", "slug": "the-day-before", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jose-saramago/the-cave/the-day-before", "text": "The day before is what we bring to the day we're actually living through, life is a matter of carrying along all those days-before just as someone might carry stones, and when we can no longer cope with the load, the work is done.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "José Saramago", "slug": "jose-saramago", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jose-saramago" }, "book": { "title": "The Cave", "slug": "the-cave", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jose-saramago/the-cave" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 61, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "life", "slug": "life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Saramago#The_Cave_(2000)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:14" }, { "id": "3d08f080-7da4-40f9-8a1f-cfb344c13a30", "slug": "old-photographs-are", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jose-saramago/all-the-names/old-photographs-are", "text": "[...], old photographs are very deceiving, they give us the illusion that we are alive in them, and it's not true, the person we are looking at no longer exists, and if that person could see us, he or she would not recognise him or herself in us, Who's that looking at me so sadly, he or she would say.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "José Saramago", "slug": "jose-saramago", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jose-saramago" }, "book": { "title": "All The Names", "slug": "all-the-names", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jose-saramago/all-the-names" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 153, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "Photography", "slug": "photography", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/photography" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Saramago#All_the_Names_(1997)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:13" }, { "id": "10a309fc-ffcb-42f5-8fe0-21678d2028d3", "slug": "the-moving-finger", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/omar-khayyam/rubaiyat-of-omar-khayyam/the-moving-finger", "text": "The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,\n\nMoves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit\n\nShall lure it back to cancel half a Line,\n\nNor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Omar Khayyam", "slug": "omar-khayyam", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/omar-khayyam" }, "book": { "title": "Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam", "slug": "rubaiyat-of-omar-khayyam", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/omar-khayyam/rubaiyat-of-omar-khayyam" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "time", "slug": "time", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time" }, { "name": "fate", "slug": "fate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fate" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Omar_Khayy%C3%A1m#FitzGerald,_Rub%C3%A1iy%C3%A1t_of_Omar_Khayy%C3%A1m_(1859,_'68,_'72,_'79,_'89)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:00" }, { "id": "acb65797-380b-4e0f-9fa1-dfd32e5efbc5", "slug": "ah-my-beloved", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/omar-khayyam/rubaiyat-of-omar-khayyam/ah-my-beloved", "text": "Ah! my Belovéd, fill the Cup that clears\n\nTo-day of past Regrets and future Fears —\n\nTo-morrow?—Why, To-morrow I may be\n\nMyself with Yesterday's Sev'n Thousand Years.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Omar Khayyam", "slug": "omar-khayyam", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/omar-khayyam" }, "book": { "title": "Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam", "slug": "rubaiyat-of-omar-khayyam", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/omar-khayyam/rubaiyat-of-omar-khayyam" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the future", "slug": "the-future", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "the present", "slug": "the-present", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-present" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Omar_Khayy%C3%A1m#FitzGerald,_Rub%C3%A1iy%C3%A1t_of_Omar_Khayy%C3%A1m_(1859,_'68,_'72,_'79,_'89)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:59" }, { "id": "e23d364a-da8b-41e4-8e8f-bf95b61f35c6", "slug": "rodriguez-remained-dubious", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/settling-accounts-return-engagement/rodriguez-remained-dubious", "text": "Rodriguez remained dubious. Everybody who was an old-timer at this, that, or the other thing always went on and on about how tough things had been before all these new fellows came in. Talk was cheap. Talk was also commonly nonsense.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Harry Turtledove", "slug": "harry-turtledove", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove" }, "book": { "title": "Settling Accounts: Return Engagement", "slug": "settling-accounts-return-engagement", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/settling-accounts-return-engagement" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 558, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "nostalgia", "slug": "nostalgia", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nostalgia" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harry_Turtledove#Settling_Accounts:_Return_Engagement_(2004)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:53" }, { "id": "3858a4c1-66aa-4f2e-97e6-04989bc927e1", "slug": "moss-sighed-and", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/the-great-war-breakthroughs/moss-sighed-and", "text": "Moss sighed and nodded. Might-have-beens was a stupid game, when you got right down to it. Look back on things, and you couldn’t help but see they’d come out the way they had to come out.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Harry Turtledove", "slug": "harry-turtledove", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove" }, "book": { "title": "The Great War: Breakthroughs", "slug": "the-great-war-breakthroughs", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/the-great-war-breakthroughs" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 146, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fate", "slug": "fate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fate" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harry_Turtledove#The_Great_War:_Breakthroughs_(2000)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:49" }, { "id": "bab276d1-223b-4f9e-86bc-26de93de8959", "slug": "the-old-notion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-george-frazer/the-golden-bough/the-old-notion", "text": "The old notion that the savage is the freest of mankind is the reverse of the truth. He is a slave, not indeed to a visible master, but to the past, to the spirits of his dead forefathers, who haunt his steps from birth to death, and rule him with a rod of iron.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "James George Frazer", "slug": "james-george-frazer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-george-frazer" }, "book": { "title": "The Golden Bough", "slug": "the-golden-bough", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-george-frazer/the-golden-bough" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "freedom", "slug": "freedom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Frazer#The_Golden_Bough_(1890)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:38" }, { "id": "6f4c7701-1935-4b7f-87df-f7d4c5956cce", "slug": "there-is-however", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thucydides/history-of-the-peloponnesian-war/there-is-however", "text": "There is, however, no advantage in reflections on the past further than may be of service to the present. For the future we must provide by maintaining what the present gives us and redoubling our efforts; it is hereditary to us to win virtue as the fruit of labour, and you must not change the habit, even though you should have a slight advantage in wealth and resources; for it is not right that what was won in want should be lost in plenty.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Thucydides", "slug": "thucydides", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thucydides" }, "book": { "title": "History of the Peloponnesian War", "slug": "history-of-the-peloponnesian-war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thucydides/history-of-the-peloponnesian-war" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "work", "slug": "work", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/work" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "the present", "slug": "the-present", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-present" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thucydides#Book_I", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:36" }, { "id": "577bf36c-7d94-43ab-ba42-5fd561254fcb", "slug": "regrets-are-idle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dudley-warner/my-summer-in-a-garden/regrets-are-idle", "text": "Regrets are idle; yet history is one long regret. Everything might have turned out so differently!", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Dudley Warner", "slug": "charles-dudley-warner", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dudley-warner" }, "book": { "title": "My Summer in a Garden", "slug": "my-summer-in-a-garden", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dudley-warner/my-summer-in-a-garden" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Dudley_Warner#My_Summer_in_a_Garden_(1870)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:35" }, { "id": "a81b8434-2c1b-4fc3-893e-43f6ae76379d", "slug": "bofusdiaga-says-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/six-moon-dance/bofusdiaga-says-past", "text": "Bofusdiaga says past wrongs cannot be righted because past wrongs are past and time only runs one way. Bofusdiaga says all you independent creatures suffer great wrongs sometime in past, which is normal, but you stay always living in past so you can continue wronged forever! Forever miserable, forever tragical! Bofusdiaga says so long as you go chewing yesterday’s pains, you cannot eat today’s pleasures, so it is no help!", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sheri S. Tepper", "slug": "sheri-s-tepper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper" }, "book": { "title": "Six Moon Dance", "slug": "six-moon-dance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/six-moon-dance" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 453, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "the present", "slug": "the-present", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-present" }, { "name": "resentment", "slug": "resentment", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/resentment" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper#Six_Moon_Dance_(1998)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:25" }, { "id": "959e7403-9b9e-4490-8d8a-ce6f33a0cf54", "slug": "a-man-may", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/raising-the-stones/a-man-may", "text": "A man may not face both ways at once. If he looks back, he cannot look forward.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sheri S. Tepper", "slug": "sheri-s-tepper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper" }, "book": { "title": "Raising The Stones", "slug": "raising-the-stones", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/raising-the-stones" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 520, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the future", "slug": "the-future", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper#Raising_the_Stones_(1990)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:22" }, { "id": "15427199-b4b2-4618-ae23-7c45b2ab14e0", "slug": "as-with-other", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/raising-the-stones/as-with-other", "text": "As with other peoples who had focused their lives upon wrongs in the past and heaven in the future, Voorstod made an everlasting hell of the present.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sheri S. Tepper", "slug": "sheri-s-tepper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper" }, "book": { "title": "Raising The Stones", "slug": "raising-the-stones", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/raising-the-stones" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 84, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "the present", "slug": "the-present", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-present" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper#Raising_the_Stones_(1990)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:22" }, { "id": "4cf7afde-31bf-4007-a2ab-2ff8ff84dac3", "slug": "time-past-was", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/grass/time-past-was", "text": "Time past was nothing, no matter how long. Time ahead was everything, no matter how brief.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sheri S. Tepper", "slug": "sheri-s-tepper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper" }, "book": { "title": "Grass", "slug": "grass", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/grass" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 385, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "time", "slug": "time", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time" }, { "name": "the future", "slug": "the-future", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper#Grass_(1989)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:21" }, { "id": "f8b9f163-fba0-4d9b-b154-7cf6a03818c2", "slug": "he-looked-upon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/russell-baker/growing-up/he-looked-upon", "text": "He looked upon the time that had been my future in a disturbing way. My future was his past, and being young, he was indifferent to the past.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Russell Baker", "slug": "russell-baker", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/russell-baker" }, "book": { "title": "Growing Up", "slug": "growing-up", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/russell-baker/growing-up" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 14, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "youth", "slug": "youth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth" }, { "name": "the future", "slug": "the-future", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Russell_Baker#Growing_Up_(1982)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:15" }, { "id": "ce4edfb1-cccc-451b-95da-e56d778e6699", "slug": "live-in-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-paolini/eldest/live-in-the", "text": "Live in the present, remember the past, and fear not the future, for it doesn't exist and never shall. There is only now.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Christopher Paolini", "slug": "christopher-paolini", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-paolini" }, "book": { "title": "Eldest", "slug": "eldest", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-paolini/eldest" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the future", "slug": "the-future", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "the present", "slug": "the-present", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-present" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Christopher_Paolini#Eldest_(2005)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:14" }, { "id": "cf1c2394-52df-4d4b-9609-37528f593b41", "slug": "the-picture-is-still", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/toni-morrison/beloved/the-picture-is-still", "text": "The picture is still there and what's more, if you go there — you who never was there — if you go there and stand in the place where it was, it will happen again; it will be there for you, waiting for you. So, Denver, you can't never go there. Never. Because even though it's all over — over and done with — it's going to always be there waiting for you.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Toni Morrison", "slug": "toni-morrison", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/toni-morrison" }, "book": { "title": "Beloved", "slug": "beloved", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/toni-morrison/beloved" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Toni_Morrison#Beloved_(1987)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:01" }, { "id": "c390bfb7-f917-4fa1-a40f-c6a74ef888df", "slug": "why-was-there", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/toni-morrison/beloved/why-was-there", "text": "Why was there nothing it refused? No misery, no regret, no hateful picture too rotten to accept? Like a greedy child it snatched up everything. Just once, could it say, No thank you? I just ate and can't hold another bite? . . . But my greedy brain says, Oh thanks, I'd love more . . . my brain would go right ahead and take it and never say, No thank you. I don't want to know or have to remember that. I have other things to do: worry, for example, about tomorrow, about Denver, about Beloved, about age and sickness not to speak of love. But her brain was not interested in the future. Loaded with the past and hungry for more, it left her no room to imagine, let alone plan for, the next day.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Toni Morrison", "slug": "toni-morrison", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/toni-morrison" }, "book": { "title": "Beloved", "slug": "beloved", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/toni-morrison/beloved" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Toni_Morrison#Beloved_(1987)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:01" }, { "id": "00790568-5e2d-4014-9632-670b6b6fc394", "slug": "people-all-over", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/invisible-monsters/people-all-over", "text": "People all over the world telling their one dramatic story and how their life has turned into getting over this one event. Now their lives are more about the past than their future.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Chuck Palahniuk", "slug": "chuck-palahniuk", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk" }, "book": { "title": "Invisible Monsters", "slug": "invisible-monsters", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/invisible-monsters" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Invisible_Monsters#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:49" }, { "id": "13151bcc-4242-4ad3-a965-9b8d2ec36f79", "slug": "now-those-plumbago", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/invisible-monsters/now-those-plumbago", "text": "\"Now,\" those Plumbago lips say, \"You are going to tell me your story like you just did. Write it all down. Tell that story over and over. Tell me your sad-assed story all night.\" That Brandy queen points a long bony finger at me. \"When you understand,\" Brandy says, \"that what your telling is just a story. It isn't happening anymore. When you realize the story you're telling is just words, when you can just crumble it up and throw your past in the trashcan,\" Brandy says, \"then we'll figure out who you're going to be.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Chuck Palahniuk", "slug": "chuck-palahniuk", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk" }, "book": { "title": "Invisible Monsters", "slug": "invisible-monsters", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/invisible-monsters" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Invisible_Monsters#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:48" }, { "id": "78fd18ce-73fe-4cad-8ca2-9687f360cb72", "slug": "the-past-weaves", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-amis/success/the-past-weaves", "text": "The past weaves round all this; we still duck in and out of its lost but shimmering kingdoms.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Martin Amis", "slug": "martin-amis", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-amis" }, "book": { "title": "Success", "slug": "success", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-amis/success" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Martin_Amis#Success_(1978)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:12" }, { "id": "6af999d1-1744-4c39-9e05-da1f1ba1233e", "slug": "it-kills-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eugene-oneill/long-days-journey-into-night/it-kills-the", "text": "It kills the pain. You go back until at last you are beyond its reach. Only the past when you were happy is real.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Eugene O'Neill", "slug": "eugene-oneill", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eugene-oneill" }, "book": { "title": "Long Day's Journey Into Night", "slug": "long-days-journey-into-night", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eugene-oneill/long-days-journey-into-night" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "happiness", "slug": "happiness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eugene_O'Neill#Long_Day's_Journey_into_Night_(1955)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:46" }, { "id": "4e244a56-7414-423d-9583-48e36c26a7fb", "slug": "and-lots-wife", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/slaughterhouse-five/and-lots-wife", "text": "And Lot's wife, of course, was told not to look back where all those people and their homes had been. But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human.\n\nSo she was turned into a pillar of salt. So it goes. (pp. 21-22)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kurt Vonnegut", "slug": "kurt-vonnegut", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut" }, "book": { "title": "Slaughterhouse-Five", "slug": "slaughterhouse-five", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/slaughterhouse-five" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "human nature", "slug": "human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Slaughterhouse-Five#Chapter_1", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:45" }, { "id": "34764e19-f9f7-48a7-9a88-d6c52851c719", "slug": "the-past-is-a-foreign", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/l-p-hartley/the-go-between/the-past-is-a-foreign", "text": "The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "L. P. Hartley", "slug": "l-p-hartley", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/l-p-hartley" }, "book": { "title": "The Go-between", "slug": "the-go-between", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/l-p-hartley/the-go-between" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/L._P._Hartley#The_Go-Between_(1953)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:42" }, { "id": "d9f29365-089d-472c-9b99-b186d996e604", "slug": "the-past-is-pervasive", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-hughes/things-i-didnt-know/the-past-is-pervasive", "text": "The past is pervasive; it seeps into everything;... And yet because the past is irreplaceable and cannot be done again, it was that very past, not the present or the future, that was so delicate, so vulnerable, so dreadfully easy to erase.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert Hughes", "slug": "robert-hughes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-hughes" }, "book": { "title": "Things I Didn't Know", "slug": "things-i-didnt-know", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-hughes/things-i-didnt-know" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Hughes#Things_I_Didn't_Know_(2006)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:39" }, { "id": "c3ff29b5-517e-4486-b184-305eed64b541", "slug": "the-ethereal-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/the-ethereal-past", "text": "The ethereal past had blinded him, and the highest happiness he could dream was a return to it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "E.M. Forster", "slug": "em-forster", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster" }, "book": { "title": "Maurice", "slug": "maurice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "nostalgia", "slug": "nostalgia", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nostalgia" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Maurice_(novel)#Part_Three", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:37" }, { "id": "ae6b2b51-1e92-453a-9d77-313c0bfcb6cd", "slug": "thats-what-heaven", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mitch-albom/the-five-people-you-meet-in-heaven/thats-what-heaven", "text": "\"That's what heaven is. You get to make sense of your yesterdays.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Mitch Albom", "slug": "mitch-albom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mitch-albom" }, "book": { "title": "The Five People You Meet in Heaven", "slug": "the-five-people-you-meet-in-heaven", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mitch-albom/the-five-people-you-meet-in-heaven" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "paradise", "slug": "paradise", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/paradise" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mitch_Albom#The_Five_People_You_Meet_in_Heaven_(2003)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:36" }, { "id": "ff33a415-8ad3-433c-a84f-8556dd4fca4c", "slug": "past-and-future", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho/aleph/past-and-future", "text": "Past and future exist only in our memory. The present moment, though, is outside of time, it’s Eternity. In India, they use the word ‘karma,’ for lack of any better term. It isn’t what you did in the past that will affect the present. It’s what you do in the present that will redeem the past and thereby change the future.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Paulo Coelho", "slug": "paulo-coelho", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho" }, "book": { "title": "Aleph", "slug": "aleph", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho/aleph" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the future", "slug": "the-future", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "the present", "slug": "the-present", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-present" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paulo_Coelho#Aleph_(2011)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:33" }, { "id": "7b5b3520-bcf5-4839-a90e-b949bfdc9c41", "slug": "it-takes-a-huge", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho/aleph/it-takes-a-huge", "text": "It takes a huge effort to free yourself from memory, but when you succeed, you start to realize that you’re capable of far more than you imagined. You live in this vast body called the Universe, which contains all the solutions and all the problems. Visit your soul; don’t visit your past. The Universe goes through many mutations and carries the past with it. We call each of those mutations a ‘life,’ but just as the cells in your body change and yet you remain the same, so time does not pass, it merely changes.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Paulo Coelho", "slug": "paulo-coelho", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho" }, "book": { "title": "Aleph", "slug": "aleph", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho/aleph" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paulo_Coelho#Aleph_(2011)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:33" }, { "id": "3e515d6f-6890-4d6e-8495-9add76fcf421", "slug": "we-learn-in-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho/aleph/we-learn-in-the", "text": "We learn in the past, but we are not the result of that. We suffered in the past, loved in the past, cried and laughed in the past, but that’s of no use to the present. The present has its challenges, its good and bad side. We can neither blame nor be grateful to the past for what is happening now. Each new experience of love has nothing whatsoever to do with past experiences. It’s always new.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Paulo Coelho", "slug": "paulo-coelho", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho" }, "book": { "title": "Aleph", "slug": "aleph", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho/aleph" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "the present", "slug": "the-present", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-present" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paulo_Coelho#Aleph_(2011)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:33" }, { "id": "3543c9f0-be6d-493f-a70c-bfe26d5c0f79", "slug": "he-was-still", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gabriel-garcia-marquez/love-in-the-time-of-cholera/he-was-still", "text": "He was still too young to know that the heart's memory eliminates the bad and magnifies the good, and that thanks to this artifice we manage to endure the burden of the past.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Gabriel García Márquez", "slug": "gabriel-garcia-marquez", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gabriel-garcia-marquez" }, "book": { "title": "Love in the Time of Cholera", "slug": "love-in-the-time-of-cholera", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gabriel-garcia-marquez/love-in-the-time-of-cholera" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 146, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Love_in_the_Time_of_Cholera#Chapter_III", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:22" }, { "id": "818b43e0-3d8e-4eb3-a89f-c0ebb7c08397", "slug": "one-of-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/brian-aldiss/greybeard/one-of-the", "text": "One of the characteristics of age was that all avenues of talk led backward in time.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Brian Aldiss", "slug": "brian-aldiss", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/brian-aldiss" }, "book": { "title": "Greybeard", "slug": "greybeard", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/brian-aldiss/greybeard" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 21, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "old age", "slug": "old-age", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brian_Aldiss#Greybeard_(1964)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:12" }, { "id": "7a9f9b50-2030-4c8b-a3a0-6c985fde4f59", "slug": "there-is-a-fatality", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nathaniel-hawthorne/the-scarlet-letter/there-is-a-fatality", "text": "There is a fatality, a feeling so irresistible and inevitable that it has the force of doom, which almost invariably compels human beings to linger around and haunt, ghostlike, the spot where some great and marked event has given the color to their lifetime; and still the more irresistibly, the darker the tinge that saddens it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nathaniel Hawthorne", "slug": "nathaniel-hawthorne", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nathaniel-hawthorne" }, "book": { "title": "The Scarlet Letter", "slug": "the-scarlet-letter", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nathaniel-hawthorne/the-scarlet-letter" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fate", "slug": "fate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fate" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Hawthorne#The_Scarlet_Letter_(1850)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:07" }, { "id": "ec04be11-4309-4dd2-877c-f5252548ae0d", "slug": "this-was-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-d-simak/time-is-the-simplest-thing/this-was-the", "text": "This was the past and it was the dead past; there were only corpses in it—and perhaps not even corpses, but the shadows of those corpses. For the dead trees and the fence posts and the bridges and the buildings on the hill all would classify as shadows. There was no life here; the life was up ahead. Life must occupy but a single point in time, and as time moved forward, life moved with it. And so was gone, thought Blaine, any dream that Man might have ever held of visiting the past and living in the action and the thought and the viewpoint of men who’d long been dust. For the living past did not exist, nor did the human past except in the records of the past. The present was the only valid point for life—life kept moving on, keeping pace with the present, and once it had passed, all traces of it or its existences were carefully erased.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Clifford D. Simak", "slug": "clifford-d-simak", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-d-simak" }, "book": { "title": "Time is the Simplest Thing", "slug": "time-is-the-simplest-thing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-d-simak/time-is-the-simplest-thing" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 87, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Clifford_D._Simak#Time_is_the_Simplest_Thing_(1961)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:00" }, { "id": "8a6ed253-0701-4a0b-9483-2a8db2478979", "slug": "memory-and-dust", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-d-simak/time-and-again/memory-and-dust", "text": "Memory and dust, he thought, link us to the past.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Clifford D. Simak", "slug": "clifford-d-simak", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-d-simak" }, "book": { "title": "Time and Again", "slug": "time-and-again", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-d-simak/time-and-again" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 224, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Clifford_D._Simak#Time_and_Again_(1951)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:59" }, { "id": "0b470b16-e88a-4641-a24a-467791bd8b6c", "slug": "the-past-he-said", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-d-simak/city/the-past-he-said", "text": "The past, he said. The past is too much with me. And the past has made me useless. I have too much to remember—so much to remember that it becomes more important than the things there are to do. I’m living in the past and that is no way to live.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Clifford D. Simak", "slug": "clifford-d-simak", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-d-simak" }, "book": { "title": "City", "slug": "city", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-d-simak/city" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 201, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Clifford_D._Simak#City_(1952)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:59" }, { "id": "524fc82d-beea-4f5c-85db-e12cdeea5a1d", "slug": "w-e-possess-nothing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/evelyn-waugh/brideshead-revisited/w-e-possess-nothing", "text": "[W]e possess nothing certainly except the past.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Evelyn Waugh", "slug": "evelyn-waugh", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/evelyn-waugh" }, "book": { "title": "Brideshead Revisited", "slug": "brideshead-revisited", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/evelyn-waugh/brideshead-revisited" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Evelyn_Waugh#Brideshead_Revisited_(1945)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:56" }, { "id": "94b4643a-8088-4d6c-b3e4-a4b450126c27", "slug": "if-you-are", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-fowles/daniel-martin/if-you-are", "text": "If you are wise you will never pity the past for what it did not know, but pity yourself for what it did.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Fowles", "slug": "john-fowles", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-fowles" }, "book": { "title": "Daniel Martin", "slug": "daniel-martin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-fowles/daniel-martin" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Fowles#Daniel_Martin_(1977)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:31" }, { "id": "c6bf06d8-1d66-436c-a98d-57400c98bc69", "slug": "just-as-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gene-wolfe/the-sword-of-the-lictor/just-as-the", "text": "Just as the room of the Inquisitor in Dr. Talos's play, with its high judicial bench, lurked somewhere at the lowest level of the House Absolute, so we have each of us in the dustiest cellars of our minds a counter at which we strive to repay the debts of the past with the debased currency of the present.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Gene Wolfe", "slug": "gene-wolfe", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gene-wolfe" }, "book": { "title": "The Sword of the Lictor", "slug": "the-sword-of-the-lictor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gene-wolfe/the-sword-of-the-lictor" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "guilt", "slug": "guilt", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/guilt" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Book_of_the_New_Sun#The_Sword_of_the_Lictor_(1982)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:24" }, { "id": "a70f9a9b-e773-412e-acad-0c2e504d806d", "slug": "the-city-is-very", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany/neveryona/the-city-is-very", "text": "The city is very different from the country, girl. It is a kind of shared consciousness that begins its work on you as soon as you enter it, if not well before, a consciousness that begins to separate you from the country possibly even before you decide to journey toward it. It encircles you with forces much greater than the walls and gates which imitate tinier villages or towns. People who come to it come seeking the future, not realizing all that will finally affect them in it is their own, only more or less aware, involvement with the past. The way we do things here—really, that’s all there is to be learned in our precincts. But in the paving of every wide, clear avenue, in the turnings of every dark, overhung alley, in the ornaments on every cornice, in the salt-stained stones of each neighborhood cistern, there are traces of the way things once were done—which is the key to why they are done as they are today.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Samuel R. Delany", "slug": "samuel-r-delany", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany" }, "book": { "title": "Neveryona", "slug": "neveryona", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany/neveryona" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 104, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "cities", "slug": "cities", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cities" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Samuel_R._Delany#Nevery%C3%B3na_(1983)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:20" }, { "id": "ad572461-38e1-4277-9c0b-8e70b691abcf", "slug": "if-you-could", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-penn-warren/all-the-kings-men/if-you-could", "text": "If you could not accept the past and its burden, there was no future, for without one there cannot be the other, and [...] if you could accept the past you might hope for the future, for only out of the past can you make the future.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert Penn Warren", "slug": "robert-penn-warren", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-penn-warren" }, "book": { "title": "All the King's Men", "slug": "all-the-kings-men", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-penn-warren/all-the-kings-men" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the future", "slug": "the-future", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Penn_Warren#All_the_King's_Men_(1946)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:58" }, { "id": "04f6996e-72fa-44ec-a978-e80f4e17e42d", "slug": "for-nothing-is-lost", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-penn-warren/all-the-kings-men/for-nothing-is-lost", "text": "For nothing is lost, nothing is ever lost. There is always the clue, the canceled check, the smear of lipstick, the footprint in the canna bed, the condom on the park path, the twitch in the old wound, the baby shoes dipped in bronze, the taint in the blood stream. And all times are one time, and all those dead in the past never lived before our definition gives them life, and out the shadow their eyes implore us.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert Penn Warren", "slug": "robert-penn-warren", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-penn-warren" }, "book": { "title": "All the King's Men", "slug": "all-the-kings-men", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-penn-warren/all-the-kings-men" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/All_the_King's_Men#Chapter_5", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:58" }, { "id": "8d74b243-6689-4850-beb3-65ebfb75f5ef", "slug": "those-must-have", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-pynchon/gravitys-rainbow/those-must-have", "text": "Those must have all been important to me once. What I am now grew from that. A former self is a fool, an insufferable ass, but he's still human, you'd no more turn him out than you'd turn out any kind of cripple, would you?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Thomas Pynchon", "slug": "thomas-pynchon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-pynchon" }, "book": { "title": "Gravity's Rainbow", "slug": "gravitys-rainbow", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-pynchon/gravitys-rainbow" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "identity", "slug": "identity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/identity" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Pynchon#Gravity's_Rainbow_(1973)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:19" }, { "id": "7265b864-f973-4d4b-bece-95bad2379421", "slug": "amazing-how-quickly", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/margaret-atwood/maddaddam/amazing-how-quickly", "text": "Amazing how quickly the past becomes idyllic.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Margaret Atwood", "slug": "margaret-atwood", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/margaret-atwood" }, "book": { "title": "MaddAddam", "slug": "maddaddam", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/margaret-atwood/maddaddam" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "nostalgia", "slug": "nostalgia", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nostalgia" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Margaret_Atwood#MaddAddam_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:12" }, { "id": "4c3d4250-00d1-4525-a808-593e1a348e26", "slug": "he-doesnt-know", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/margaret-atwood/oryx-and-crake/he-doesnt-know", "text": "He doesn't know which is worse, a past he can't regain or a present that will destroy him if he looks at it too clearly. Then there's the future. Sheer vertigo.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Margaret Atwood", "slug": "margaret-atwood", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/margaret-atwood" }, "book": { "title": "Oryx and Crake", "slug": "oryx-and-crake", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/margaret-atwood/oryx-and-crake" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the future", "slug": "the-future", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Margaret_Atwood#Oryx_and_Crake_(2003)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:11" }, { "id": "28a3878c-c21c-4b20-a53d-b70070690f98", "slug": "how-can-i-tell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/the-restaurant-at-the-end-of-the-universe/how-can-i-tell", "text": "\"How can I tell,\" said the man, \"that the past isn't a fiction designed to account for the discrepancy between my immediate physical sensations and my state of mind?\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Douglas Adams", "slug": "douglas-adams", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams" }, "book": { "title": "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe", "slug": "the-restaurant-at-the-end-of-the-universe", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/the-restaurant-at-the-end-of-the-universe" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker's_Guide_to_the_Galaxy#Chapter_29", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:46:27" }, { "id": "056af3bd-0250-40eb-a47b-78095d7ab143", "slug": "you-realize-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/survivor/you-realize-that", "text": "You realize that our mistrust of the future makes it hard to give up the past. We can't give up our concept of who we were...Our way of getting nostalgic for what we just threw in the trash, it's all because we're afraid to evolve. Grow, change, lose weight, reinvent ourselves. Adapt.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Chuck Palahniuk", "slug": "chuck-palahniuk", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk" }, "book": { "title": "Survivor", "slug": "survivor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/survivor" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fear", "slug": "fear", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear" }, { "name": "change", "slug": "change", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Survivor_(Palahniuk_novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:46:19" }, { "id": "250e97e3-0783-403d-a170-2e4e6b7aa82f", "slug": "how-can-we-live", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck/the-grapes-of-wrath/how-can-we-live", "text": "How can we live without our lives? How will we know it’s us without our past?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Steinbeck", "slug": "john-steinbeck", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck" }, "book": { "title": "The Grapes of Wrath", "slug": "the-grapes-of-wrath", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck/the-grapes-of-wrath" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "identity", "slug": "identity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/identity" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Grapes_of_Wrath#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:59" }, { "id": "f051c4c6-5a87-467a-ae3f-36c578f3e689", "slug": "i-wouldnt-ask", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/fscott-fitzgerald/the-great-gatsby/i-wouldnt-ask", "text": "\"I wouldn’t ask too much of her,\" I ventured. \"You can’t repeat the past.\"\n\n\"Can’t repeat the past?\" he cried incredulously. \"Why of course you can!\"\n\nHe looked around him wildly, as if the past were lurking here in the shadow of his house, just out of reach of his hand.\n\n\"I’m going to fix everything just the way it was before,\" he said, nodding determinedly. \"She’ll see.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "F.Scott Fitzgerald", "slug": "fscott-fitzgerald", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/fscott-fitzgerald" }, "book": { "title": "The Great Gatsby", "slug": "the-great-gatsby", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/fscott-fitzgerald/the-great-gatsby" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 110, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Great_Gatsby#Chapter_6", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:57" }, { "id": "4720c251-4add-4a97-9ad7-c9f644f911be", "slug": "most-of-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/fscott-fitzgerald/the-great-gatsby/most-of-the", "text": "Most of the big shore places were closed now and there were hardly any lights except the shadowy, moving glow of a ferryboat across the Sound. And as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors’ eyes — a fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby’s house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.\n\nAnd as I sat there, brooding on the old unknown world, I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night.\n\nGatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter — tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And one fine morning —\n\nSo we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "F.Scott Fitzgerald", "slug": "fscott-fitzgerald", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/fscott-fitzgerald" }, "book": { "title": "The Great Gatsby", "slug": "the-great-gatsby", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/fscott-fitzgerald/the-great-gatsby" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 180, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "dreams and aspirations", "slug": "dreams-and-aspirations", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dreams-and-aspirations" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Great_Gatsby#Chapter_9", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:57" }, { "id": "2131b69d-23f7-445c-aa33-7618c420a039", "slug": "we-look-at-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/the-medium-is-the-massage/we-look-at-the", "text": "We look at the present through a rear-view mirror. We march backwards into the future.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Marshall McLuhan", "slug": "marshall-mcluhan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan" }, "book": { "title": "The Medium is the Massage", "slug": "the-medium-is-the-massage", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/the-medium-is-the-massage" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the future", "slug": "the-future", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan#The_Medium_is_the_Massage_(1967)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:14" }, { "id": "7ce88bbd-39d8-48f5-8cbc-51c8f3769cd6", "slug": "you-know-most", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck/the-winter-of-our-discontent/you-know-most", "text": "You know most people live ninety per cent in the past, seven per cent in the present, and that only leaves them three per cent for the future.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Steinbeck", "slug": "john-steinbeck", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck" }, "book": { "title": "The Winter of Our Discontent", "slug": "the-winter-of-our-discontent", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck/the-winter-of-our-discontent" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the future", "slug": "the-future", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Steinbeck#The_Winter_of_Our_Discontent_(1961)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:02" }, { "id": "7968c612-37f1-42aa-9c4f-d3da08adb1ee", "slug": "so-that-was", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson/blue-mars/so-that-was", "text": "So that was the past. There and not there. His whole life. If nothing was real but this moment, Planck instant after Planck instant, an unimaginably thin membrane of becoming between past and future—his life—what then was it, so thin, so without any tangible past or future: a blaze of color.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kim Stanley Robinson", "slug": "kim-stanley-robinson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson" }, "book": { "title": "Blue Mars", "slug": "blue-mars", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson/blue-mars" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 713, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "time", "slug": "time", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kim_Stanley_Robinson#Blue_Mars_(1996)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:46" }, { "id": "f43163da-50ed-4630-af52-1fbecdd761f4", "slug": "w-e-do-live", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould/eight-little-piggies/w-e-do-live", "text": "[W]e do live in a conceptual trough that encourages such yearning for unknown and romanticized greener pastures of other times. The future doesn't seem promising, if only because we can extrapolate some disquieting present trends into further deterioration: pollution, nationalism, environmental destruction, and aluminum bats. Therefore, we tend to take refuge in a rose-colored past […]. I do not doubt the salutary, even the essential, properties of this curiously adaptive human trait, but we must also record the down side. Legends of past golden ages become impediments when we try to negotiate our current dilemma.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Stephen Jay Gould", "slug": "stephen-jay-gould", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould" }, "book": { "title": "Eight Little Piggies", "slug": "eight-little-piggies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould/eight-little-piggies" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 206, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "nostalgia", "slug": "nostalgia", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nostalgia" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stephen_Jay_Gould#Eight_Little_Piggies_(1993)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:34" }, { "id": "69a5281a-935d-46d1-b117-3bdf19a93f26", "slug": "he-didnt-have", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/rabbit-at-rest/he-didnt-have", "text": "He didn't have a worry in the world back then. He was in paradise and didn't know it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Hoyer Updike", "slug": "john-hoyer-updike", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike" }, "book": { "title": "Rabbit at Rest", "slug": "rabbit-at-rest", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/rabbit-at-rest" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "happiness", "slug": "happiness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Updike#Rabbit_at_Rest_(1990)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:30" }, { "id": "66da54eb-553a-4975-b887-54da8f944420", "slug": "the-past-is-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/rabbit-is-rich/the-past-is-the", "text": "\"The past is the past,\" Harry goes on, \"you got to live in the present. … It's the only way to think. When you're my age, you'll see it. At my age if you carried all the misery you've seen on your back you'd never get up in the morning.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Hoyer Updike", "slug": "john-hoyer-updike", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike" }, "book": { "title": "Rabbit Is Rich", "slug": "rabbit-is-rich", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/rabbit-is-rich" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Updike#Rabbit_is_Rich_(1981)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:28" }, { "id": "53bb8a70-f1e7-401b-a4f2-952e95673d3b", "slug": "but-like-everybody", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-cornish-trilogy/but-like-everybody", "text": "But like everybody else, as Hollier says, I live in a muddle of eras, and some of my ideas belong to today, and some to an ancient past, and some to periods of time that seem more relevant to my parents than to me. If I could sort them and control them I might know better where I stand, but when I most want to be contemporary the Past keeps pushing in, and when I long for the Past … the Present cannot be pushed away.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robertson Davies", "slug": "robertson-davies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies" }, "book": { "title": "The Cornish Trilogy", "slug": "the-cornish-trilogy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-cornish-trilogy" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "time", "slug": "time", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cornish_Trilogy#The_Rebel_Angels", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:15" }, { "id": "9881457f-51b4-487a-99ea-bc1e6be51c6b", "slug": "life-as-he-conceived", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-salterton-trilogy/life-as-he-conceived", "text": "Life, as he conceived of it, was a long decline from a glorious past, and if a reader approaches a newspaper in that spirit, he can find much to confirm him in his belief, particularly if he has never examined any short period of the past in day-to-day detail.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robertson Davies", "slug": "robertson-davies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies" }, "book": { "title": "The Salterton Trilogy", "slug": "the-salterton-trilogy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-salterton-trilogy" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "media", "slug": "media", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Salterton_Trilogy#Leaven_of_Malice", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:14" }, { "id": "699200eb-85ea-4fc3-a3b4-6e8ab022ae64", "slug": "whatever-you-do-do-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-moon-is-a-harsh-mistress/whatever-you-do-do-not", "text": "Whatever you do, do not let the past be a straitjacket!", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert A. Heinlein", "slug": "robert-a-heinlein", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein" }, "book": { "title": "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress", "slug": "the-moon-is-a-harsh-mistress", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-moon-is-a-harsh-mistress" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Moon_Is_a_Harsh_Mistress#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:59" }, { "id": "f150a5f4-a87b-40ae-a4ee-41606f330781", "slug": "ive-got-news", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/bluebeard/ive-got-news", "text": "I've got news for Mr. Santayana: we're doomed to repeat the past no matter what. That's what it is to be alive.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kurt Vonnegut", "slug": "kurt-vonnegut", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut" }, "book": { "title": "Bluebeard", "slug": "bluebeard", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/bluebeard" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 91, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut#Bluebeard_(1987)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:42" }, { "id": "94ffb55e-8c8f-4525-ada2-dd00aae0aea4", "slug": "to-live-in-such", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/henry-james/the-portrait-of-a-lady/to-live-in-such", "text": "To live in such a place was, for Isabel, to hold to her ear all day a shell of the sea of the past. This vague eternal rumour kept her imagination awake.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Henry James", "slug": "henry-james", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/henry-james" }, "book": { "title": "The Portrait of a Lady", "slug": "the-portrait-of-a-lady", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/henry-james/the-portrait-of-a-lady" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "imagination", "slug": "imagination", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/imagination" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_James#The_Portrait_of_a_Lady_(1881)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:23" }, { "id": "0fa6a474-d204-433d-9d75-59ba471fec79", "slug": "whatever-we-had", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather/my-antonia/whatever-we-had", "text": "Whatever we had missed, we possessed together the precious, the incommunicable past.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Willa Cather", "slug": "willa-cather", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather" }, "book": { "title": "My Antonia", "slug": "my-antonia", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather/my-antonia" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "friendship", "slug": "friendship", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/friendship" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Willa_Cather#My_Antonia_(1918)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:03" }, { "id": "46a4a212-d0bf-4afe-a514-bb7e6be0eb02", "slug": "everything-is-funnier", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/stranger-than-fiction/everything-is-funnier", "text": "Everything is funnier in retrospect, funnier and prettier and cooler. You can laugh at anything from far enough away.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Chuck Palahniuk", "slug": "chuck-palahniuk", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk" }, "book": { "title": "Stranger Than Fiction", "slug": "stranger-than-fiction", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/stranger-than-fiction" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Chuck_Palahniuk#Stranger_Than_Fiction:_True_Stories_(2004)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:59" }, { "id": "609c10f7-4f68-4711-987f-53382f0ef6d1", "slug": "while-i-complain", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/claude-levi-strauss/tristes-tropiques/while-i-complain", "text": "While I complain of being able to glimpse no more than the shadow of the past, I may be insensitive to reality as it is taking shape at this very moment, since I have not reached the stage of development at which I would be capable of perceiving it. A few hundred years hence, in this same place, another traveller, as despairing as myself, will mourn the disappearance of what I might have seen, but failed to see.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Claude Lévi-Strauss", "slug": "claude-levi-strauss", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/claude-levi-strauss" }, "book": { "title": "Tristes Tropiques", "slug": "tristes-tropiques", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/claude-levi-strauss/tristes-tropiques" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 43, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "the present moment", "slug": "the-present-moment", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-present-moment" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Claude_L%C3%A9vi-Strauss#Tristes_Tropiques_(1955)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:57" }, { "id": "0f0cfb1d-e72c-4c36-9565-8d7e9db522c4", "slug": "isnt-there-any", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/the-three-stigmata-of-palmer-eldritch/isnt-there-any", "text": "“Isn’t there any way—” He broke off. Can’t the past be altered? he asked himself. Evidently not. Cause and effect work in only one direction, and change is real. So what’s gone is gone, and I might as well get out of here.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Philip K. Dick", "slug": "philip-k-dick", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick" }, "book": { "title": "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch", "slug": "the-three-stigmata-of-palmer-eldritch", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/the-three-stigmata-of-palmer-eldritch" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 173, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "change", "slug": "change", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick#The_Three_Stigmata_of_Palmer_Eldritch_(1965)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:05" }, { "id": "794951a5-2466-41e6-b01f-ae9d0ed743b3", "slug": "the-haze-of-nostalgia", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/god-emperor-of-dune/the-haze-of-nostalgia", "text": "The haze of nostalgia covers their days among their sisters, making those days into something different than they were. That's the way today changes history. All contemporaries do not inhabit the same time. The past is always changing, but few realize it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Frank Herbert", "slug": "frank-herbert", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert" }, "book": { "title": "God Emperor of Dune", "slug": "god-emperor-of-dune", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/god-emperor-of-dune" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "nostalgia", "slug": "nostalgia", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nostalgia" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dune#God_Emperor_of_Dune_(1981)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:54" }, { "id": "fa817423-f80f-431f-877d-ebd633f0ab57", "slug": "the-future-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/dune/the-future-the", "text": "The future, the past and the present are intertwined, a weave that forms any point in time.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Frank Herbert", "slug": "frank-herbert", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert" }, "book": { "title": "Dune", "slug": "dune", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/dune" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "time", "slug": "time", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time" }, { "name": "the future", "slug": "the-future", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dune#Dune:_The_Machine_Crusade_(2003)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:50" }, { "id": "d9885006-614a-4c52-a371-e14106e3e683", "slug": "there-is-no-escape", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/dune/there-is-no-escape", "text": "There is no escape — we pay for the violence of our ancestors.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Frank Herbert", "slug": "frank-herbert", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert" }, "book": { "title": "Dune", "slug": "dune", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/dune" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "violence", "slug": "violence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/violence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dune#Book_1:_Dune", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:48" }, { "id": "1a723393-e5a9-4c52-a954-cd50aa3a2a59", "slug": "as-the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america/as-the-past", "text": "As the past has ceased to throw its light upon the future, the mind of man wanders in obscurity.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Alexis de Tocqueville", "slug": "alexis-de-tocqueville", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville" }, "book": { "title": "Democracy in America", "slug": "democracy-in-america", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the future", "slug": "the-future", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alexis_de_Tocqueville#Democracy_in_America,_Volume_II_(1840)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:39" }, { "id": "a463546c-1639-4aca-a6d9-b84cbb7c8f13", "slug": "who-really-can", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig/zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance/who-really-can", "text": "Who really can forget the past? What else is there to know?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert M. Pirsig", "slug": "robert-m-pirsig", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig" }, "book": { "title": "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", "slug": "zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig/zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_M._Pirsig#Afterword_(1984)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:34" }, { "id": "0b8c5530-1087-45b4-8947-6457d8c33aa8", "slug": "you-look-at-where", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig/zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance/you-look-at-where", "text": "You look at where you're going and where you are and it never makes sense, but then you look back at where you've been and a pattern seems to emerge. And if you project forward from that pattern, then sometimes you can come up with something.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert M. Pirsig", "slug": "robert-m-pirsig", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig" }, "book": { "title": "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", "slug": "zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig/zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the future", "slug": "the-future", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_M._Pirsig#Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_Maintenance_(1974)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:32" }, { "id": "a2bb4b43-6c84-4b69-8fa6-1dcc1de26642", "slug": "there-are-things", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman/trigger-warning-short-fictions-and-disturbances/there-are-things", "text": "There are things that upset us. That’s not quite what we’re talking about here, though. I’m thinking rather about those images or words or ideas that drop like trapdoors beneath us, throwing us out of our safe, sane world into a place much more dark and less welcoming. Our hearts skip a ratatat drumbeat in our chests, and we fight for breath. Blood retreats from our faces and our fingers, leaving us pale and gasping and shocked.\n\nAnd what we learn about ourselves in those moments, where the trigger has been squeezed, is this: the past is not dead. There are things that wait for us, patiently, in the dark corridors of our lives. We think we have moved on, put them out of mind, left them to desiccate and shrivel and blow away; but we are wrong. They have been waiting there in the darkness, working out, practicing their most vicious blows, their sharp hard thoughtless punches into the gut, killing time until we came back that way.\n\nThe monsters in our cupboards and our minds are always there in the darkness, like mold beneath the floorboards and behind the wallpaper, and there is so much darkness, an inexhaustible supply of darkness. The universe is amply supplied with night.\n\nWhat do we need to be warned about? We each have our little triggers.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Neil Gaiman", "slug": "neil-gaiman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman" }, "book": { "title": "Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances", "slug": "trigger-warning-short-fictions-and-disturbances", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman/trigger-warning-short-fictions-and-disturbances" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fear", "slug": "fear", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "trauma", "slug": "trauma", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/trauma" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Neil_Gaiman#Trigger_Warning_(2015)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:14" }, { "id": "81c345a1-9524-47c0-849c-295b4268fe07", "slug": "i-ts-human-to-choose", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kingsley-amis/girl-20/i-ts-human-to-choose", "text": "[I]t's human to choose any sort of path into the future rather than face the long road back to what you've left behind.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kingsley Amis", "slug": "kingsley-amis", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kingsley-amis" }, "book": { "title": "Girl, 20", "slug": "girl-20", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kingsley-amis/girl-20" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 157, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the future", "slug": "the-future", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kingsley_Amis#Girl,_20_(1971)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:03" }, { "id": "ca7ca551-5005-4f1d-b50a-d38dc4efbb3c", "slug": "he-hated-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/silas-marner/he-hated-the", "text": "He hated the thought of the past; there was nothing that called out his love and fellowship toward the strangers he had come amongst; and the future was all dark.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George Eliot", "slug": "george-eliot", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot" }, "book": { "title": "Silas Marner", "slug": "silas-marner", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/silas-marner" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 17, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "loneliness", "slug": "loneliness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness" }, { "name": "the future", "slug": "the-future", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Eliot#Silas_Marner:_The_Weaver_of_Raveloe_(1861)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:50" }, { "id": "58ea994b-d8e6-4172-a53a-91cf1a51a269", "slug": "nature-repairs-her-ravages", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/the-mill-on-the-floss/nature-repairs-her-ravages", "text": "Nature repairs her ravages, but not all. The uptorn trees are not rooted again; the parted hills are left scarred; if there is a new growth, the trees are not the same as the old, and the hills underneath their green vesture bear the marks of the past rending. To the eyes that have dwelt on the past, there is no thorough repair.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George Eliot", "slug": "george-eliot", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot" }, "book": { "title": "The Mill on the Floss", "slug": "the-mill-on-the-floss", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/the-mill-on-the-floss" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "nature", "slug": "nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Eliot#The_Mill_on_the_Floss_(1860)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:50" }, { "id": "8acbd00a-4a09-4a85-b447-973e1dbc26d1", "slug": "its-but-little", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/adam-bede/its-but-little", "text": "It's but little good you'll do a-watering the last year's crop.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George Eliot", "slug": "george-eliot", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot" }, "book": { "title": "Adam Bede", "slug": "adam-bede", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/adam-bede" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Eliot#Adam_Bede_(1859)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:49" }, { "id": "9c581a7a-8dcf-4894-8278-9904fec2577f", "slug": "the-past-is-never", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-faulkner/requiem-for-a-nun/the-past-is-never", "text": "The past is never dead. It's not even past.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Faulkner", "slug": "william-faulkner", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-faulkner" }, "book": { "title": "Requiem for a Nun", "slug": "requiem-for-a-nun", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-faulkner/requiem-for-a-nun" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Faulkner#Requiem_for_a_Nun_(1951)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:47" }, { "id": "97a41cb9-dc1d-4a55-988a-0762a26d7f43", "slug": "between-what-did", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-faulkner/the-town/between-what-did", "text": "... between what did happen and what ought to happened, I dont never have trouble picking ought.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Faulkner", "slug": "william-faulkner", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-faulkner" }, "book": { "title": "The Town", "slug": "the-town", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-faulkner/the-town" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Faulkner#The_Town_(1957)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:47" }, { "id": "d20a53cb-7570-498d-9110-7a2955af2621", "slug": "its-all-now", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-faulkner/intruder-in-the-dust/its-all-now", "text": "It's all now you see. Yesterday won't be over until tomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago. For every Southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he wants it, there is the instant when it's still not yet two o'clock on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades are in position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and ready in the woods and the furled flags are already loosened to break out and Pickett himself with his long oiled ringlets and his hat in one hand probably and his sword in the other looking up the hill waiting for Longstreet to give the word and it's all in the balance, it hasn't happened yet, it hasn't even begun yet, it not only hasn't begun yet but there is still time for it not to begin against that position and those circumstances which made more men than Garnett and Kemper and Armistead and Wilcox look grave yet it's going to begin, we all know that, we have come too far with too much at stake and that moment doesn't need even a fourteen-year-old boy to think This time. Maybe this time with all this much to lose and all this much to gain: Pennsylvania, Maryland, the world, the golden dome of Washington itself to crown with desperate and unbelievable victory the desperate gamble, the cast made two years ago; or to anyone who ever sailed a skiff under a quilt sail, the moment in 1492 when somebody thought This is it: the absolute edge of no return, to turn back now and make home or sail irrevocably on and either find land or plunge over the world's roaring rim.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Faulkner", "slug": "william-faulkner", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-faulkner" }, "book": { "title": "Intruder in the Dust", "slug": "intruder-in-the-dust", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-faulkner/intruder-in-the-dust" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Faulkner#Intruder_in_the_Dust_(1948)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:46" }, { "id": "875a0c20-6848-4ed5-875c-c720cc5fddfe", "slug": "happen-is-never", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-faulkner/absalom-absalom/happen-is-never", "text": "Happen is never once.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Faulkner", "slug": "william-faulkner", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-faulkner" }, "book": { "title": "Absalom, Absalom!", "slug": "absalom-absalom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-faulkner/absalom-absalom" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Faulkner#Absalom,_Absalom!_(1936)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:45" }, { "id": "4923d022-2295-44da-af0a-5a6021fde48b", "slug": "a-fellow-is-more", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-faulkner/light-in-august/a-fellow-is-more", "text": "... a fellow is more afraid of the trouble he might have than he ever is of the trouble he’s already got. He’ll cling to trouble he’s used to before he’ll risk a change. Yes. A man will talk about how he’d like to escape from living folks. But it’s the dead folks that do him the damage. It’s the dead ones that lay quiet in one place and don’t try to hold him, that he can’t escape from.’", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Faulkner", "slug": "william-faulkner", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-faulkner" }, "book": { "title": "Light in August", "slug": "light-in-august", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-faulkner/light-in-august" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fear", "slug": "fear", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear" }, { "name": "change", "slug": "change", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Faulkner#Light_in_August_(1932)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:45" }, { "id": "cd847376-d683-4458-a896-bfa40296f5dd", "slug": "without-the-faculty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born/without-the-faculty", "text": "Without the faculty of forgetting, our past would weigh so heavily on our present that we should not have the strength to confront another moment, still less to live through it. Life would be bearable only to frivolous natures, those in fact who do not remember.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Emil Cioran", "slug": "emil-cioran", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran" }, "book": { "title": "The Trouble With Being Born", "slug": "the-trouble-with-being-born", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "forgetting", "slug": "forgetting", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/forgetting" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emil_Cioran#The_Trouble_With_Being_Born_(1973)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:42" }, { "id": "fbc5e406-d280-4ebc-b16d-93b6cd43b560", "slug": "i-dont-think", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/the-moon-and-sixpence/i-dont-think", "text": "I don't think of the past. The only thing that matters is the everlasting present.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Somerset Maugham", "slug": "william-somerset-maugham", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham" }, "book": { "title": "The Moon And Sixpence", "slug": "the-moon-and-sixpence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/the-moon-and-sixpence" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 79, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "the present moment", "slug": "the-present-moment", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-present-moment" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/W._Somerset_Maugham#The_Moon_and_Sixpence_(1919)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:26" }, { "id": "c59cfe64-2384-4c41-a73a-485e03015823", "slug": "and-the-upshot", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/and-the-upshot", "text": "\"And the upshot of all this,\" so I have been told more than once and by more than one person, \"will be simply that all you will succeed in doing will be to drive people to the wildest Catholicism.\" And I have been accused of being a reactionary and even a Jesuit. Be it so! ...I know very well it is madness to seek to turn the waters of the river back to their source, and that it is only the ignorant who seek to find in the past a remedy for their present ills; but I know too that anyone who fights for any ideal whatever, although his ideal may seem to lie in the past, is driving the world on to the future, and that the only reactionaries are those who find themselves at home in the present. Every supposed restoration of the past is a creation of the future, and if the past which it is sought to restore is a dream, something imperfectly known, so much the better.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Miguel de Unamuno", "slug": "miguel-de-unamuno", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno" }, "book": { "title": "Tragic Sense of Life", "slug": "tragic-sense-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the future", "slug": "the-future", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "idealism", "slug": "idealism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/idealism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Miguel_de_Unamuno#Conclusion_:_Don_Quixote_in_the_Contemporary_European_Tragi-Comedy", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:23" }, { "id": "a257c36e-10eb-48f5-8440-9218a631e42a", "slug": "the-mutability-of-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/nineteen-eighty-four/the-mutability-of-the", "text": "The mutability of the past is the central tenet of Ingsoc. Past events, it is argued, have no objective existence, but survive only in written records and in human memories. The past is whatever the records and the memories agree upon. And since the Party is in full control of all records and in equally full control of the minds of its members, it follows that the past is whatever the Party chooses to make it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George Orwell", "slug": "george-orwell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell" }, "book": { "title": "Nineteen Eighty-Four", "slug": "nineteen-eighty-four", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/nineteen-eighty-four" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "manipulation", "slug": "manipulation", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/manipulation" }, { "name": "totalitarianism", "slug": "totalitarianism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/totalitarianism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four#Chapter_9", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:15" }, { "id": "3a528f04-4f4c-4b41-9b47-0f85af966568", "slug": "the-past-he-reflected", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/nineteen-eighty-four/the-past-he-reflected", "text": "The past, he reflected, had not merely been altered, it had been actually destroyed. For how could you establish even the most obvious fact when there existed no record outside your own memory?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George Orwell", "slug": "george-orwell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell" }, "book": { "title": "Nineteen Eighty-Four", "slug": "nineteen-eighty-four", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/nineteen-eighty-four" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "truth", "slug": "truth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four#Chapter_3", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:12" }, { "id": "f3e6d184-4318-4413-b41d-b3ea7fd4484f", "slug": "people-will-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edmund-burke/reflections-on-the-revolution-in-france/people-will-not", "text": "People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edmund Burke", "slug": "edmund-burke", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edmund-burke" }, "book": { "title": "Reflections on the Revolution in France", "slug": "reflections-on-the-revolution-in-france", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edmund-burke/reflections-on-the-revolution-in-france" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 274, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the future", "slug": "the-future", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edmund_Burke#Reflections_on_the_Revolution_in_France_(1790)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:38" }, { "id": "d9ed219c-72a2-4096-b0a9-978b156104fd", "slug": "the-birds-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-frost/new-hampshire/the-birds-that", "text": "The birds that came to it through the air\n\nAt broken windows flew out and in,\n\nTheir murmur more like the sigh we sigh\n\nFrom too much dwelling on what has been.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert Frost", "slug": "robert-frost", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-frost" }, "book": { "title": "New Hampshire", "slug": "new-hampshire", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-frost/new-hampshire" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Frost#New_Hampshire_(1923)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:37" }, { "id": "a0c1180d-53b5-4c15-a075-d020afcc6d71", "slug": "all-history-shows", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/prelude-to-foundation/all-history-shows", "text": "All history shows that we do not learn from the lessons of the past.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Isaac Asimov", "slug": "isaac-asimov", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov" }, "book": { "title": "Prelude to Foundation", "slug": "prelude-to-foundation", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/prelude-to-foundation" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 17, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov#Prelude_to_Foundation_(1988)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:23" }, { "id": "ec158814-7a0e-4bd7-8337-67c828a50ae8", "slug": "first-you-refused", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/foundation/first-you-refused", "text": "\"First, you refused to admit that there was a menace at all! Then you reposed an absolutely blind faith in the Emperor! Now you've shifted it to Hari Seldon. Throughout you have invariably relied on authority or on the past – never on yourselves. It amounts to a diseased attitude – a conditioned reflex that shunts aside the independence of your minds whenever it is a question of opposing authority. There seems no doubt ever in your minds that the Emperor is more powerful than you are, or Hari Seldon wiser. And that's wrong, don't you see? It isn't just you. It's the whole Galaxy. Pirenne heard Lord Dorwin's idea of scientific research. Lord Dorwin thought the way to be a good archaeologist was to read all the books on the subject – written by men who were dead for centuries. He thought that the way to solve archaeological puzzles was to weigh the opposing authorities. And Pirenne listened and made no objections. Don't you see that there's something wrong with that? And you men and half of Terminus as well are just as bad. We sit here,considering the Encyclopedia the all-in-all. We consider the greatest end of science is the classification of past data. It is important, but is there no further work to be done? We're receding and forgetting, don't you see? Here in the Periphery they've lost nuclear power. In Gamma Andromeda, a power plant has undergone meltdown because of poor repairs, and the Chancellor of the Empire complains that nuclear technicians are scarce. And the solution? To train new ones? Never! Instead they're to restrict nuclear power. Don't you see? It's Galaxy wide. It's a worship of the past. It's a deterioration – a stagnation!\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Isaac Asimov", "slug": "isaac-asimov", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov" }, "book": { "title": "Foundation", "slug": "foundation", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/foundation" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "science", "slug": "science", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science" }, { "name": "thinking", "slug": "thinking", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov#Foundation_(1951)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:21" }, { "id": "ac5cb222-b6f6-42cc-bb2b-548f2494e945", "slug": "i-tell-you", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-caves-of-steel/i-tell-you", "text": "I tell you I know the type of people that become Medievalists. They’re soft, dreamy people who find life too hard for them here and get lost in an ideal world of the past that never really existed.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Isaac Asimov", "slug": "isaac-asimov", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov" }, "book": { "title": "The Caves of Steel", "slug": "the-caves-of-steel", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-caves-of-steel" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 141, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "illusions", "slug": "illusions", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/illusions" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov#The_Caves_of_Steel_(1954)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:19" }, { "id": "a857c2e8-e46e-460d-8b99-2cca5a7019cf", "slug": "the-future-is-built", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/the-collected-stories-of-arthur-c-clarke/the-future-is-built", "text": "The future is built on the rubble of the past; wisdom lies in facing that fact, not in fighting against it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Arthur C. Clarke", "slug": "arthur-c-clarke", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke" }, "book": { "title": "The Collected Stories Of Arthur C. Clarke", "slug": "the-collected-stories-of-arthur-c-clarke", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/the-collected-stories-of-arthur-c-clarke" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 265, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "wisdom", "slug": "wisdom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/wisdom" }, { "name": "the future", "slug": "the-future", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke#The_Collected_Stories_of_Arthur_C._Clarke_(2001)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:16" }, { "id": "6cd494be-a64c-42a5-b033-dfd3429a29bf", "slug": "i-was-assailed", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-stranger/i-was-assailed", "text": "I was assailed by memories of a life that wasn't mine anymore, but one in which I'd found the simplest and most lasting joys.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Albert Camus", "slug": "albert-camus", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus" }, "book": { "title": "The Stranger", "slug": "the-stranger", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-stranger" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Camus#The_Stranger_(1942)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:37:55" }, { "id": "563702d8-ac8b-441f-a89e-7808cff1bd5a", "slug": "there-was-a-time", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dave-barry/ill-mature-when-im-dead/there-was-a-time", "text": "There was a time when the human race did not have technology. This time was called \"the 1950s.\" I was a child then, and it was horrible. There were only three TV channels, and at any given moment at least two of them were showing men playing the accordion in black and white. There was no remote control, so if you wanted to change the channel, you had to yell at your little brother, \"Phil! Change the channel!\" (In those days people named their children \"Phil.\") Your household had one telephone, which weighed eleven pounds and could be used as a murder weapon. It was permanently tethered to the living-room wall, and you had to dial it by manually turning a little wheel, and if you got a long-distance call, you'd yell, \"It's long distance!\" in the same urgent tone you would use to yell \"Fire!\" Everybody would come sprinting into the living room, because in the 1950s long distance was more exciting than sex. In fact there was no sex in the 1950s, that I know of.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Dave Barry", "slug": "dave-barry", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dave-barry" }, "book": { "title": "I'll Mature When I'm Dead", "slug": "ill-mature-when-im-dead", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dave-barry/ill-mature-when-im-dead" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 51, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dave_Barry#I'll_Mature_When_I'm_Dead_(2010)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:37:41" }, { "id": "339c377e-36fe-45e0-b810-da8629ca3556", "slug": "how-can-i-tell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/the-salmon-of-doubt/how-can-i-tell", "text": "How can I tell,\" said the man, \"that the past isn't a fiction designed to account for the discrepancy between my immediate physical sensations and my state of mind?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Douglas Adams", "slug": "douglas-adams", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams" }, "book": { "title": "The Salmon of Doubt", "slug": "the-salmon-of-doubt", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/the-salmon-of-doubt" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "doubt", "slug": "doubt", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/doubt" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Douglas_Adams#The_Salmon_of_Doubt_(2002)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:32:39" } ] }