Site uses cookies to provide basic functionality.

OK
1 2 ▲ ▼
Link Quote Stars Tags Author
6d24a8e The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. dreams future inspirational misattributed-eleanor-roosevelt Eleanor Roosevelt
9d1e7dc If you want to be happy, do not dwell in the past, do not worry about the future, focus on living fully in the present. focus future happiness happy inspiration inspirational inspirational-quotes letting-go-of-the-past life life-and-living life-quotes live living living-in-the-present living-life living-life-to-the-fullest living-now worry Roy T. Bennett
671ad19 Why didn't I learn to treat everything like it was the last time. My greatest regret was how much I believed in the future. inspirational life future Jonathan Safran Foer
1f3247a Knowing too much of your future is never a good thing. future knowledge Rick Riordan
df03351 Do not let the memories of your past limit the potential of your future. There are no limits to what you can achieve on your journey through life, except in your mind. future inspiration inspirational inspirational-attitude inspirational-life inspirational-quotes inspire inspiring life life-and-living life-lessons life-quotes limit living motivation motivational optimism optimistic positive positive-affirmation positive-life positive-thinking potential Roy T. Bennett
f65764f Real generosity towards the future lies in giving all to the present. future present Albert Camus
c25f7d1 Unfortunately, the clock is ticking, the hours are going by. The past increases, the future recedes. Possibilities decreasing, regrets mounting. future past possibilities ticking time Haruki Murakami
b3140af Listen to the people who love you. Believe that they are worth living for even when you don't believe it. Seek out the memories depression takes away and project them into the future. Be brave; be strong; take your pills. Exercise because it's good for you even if every step weighs a thousand pounds. Eat when food itself disgusts you. Reason with yourself when you have lost your reason. bravery courage depression eating exercise food future life living love loved-ones medication memories reason strength Andrew Solomon
4546411 I have learned that if you must leave a place that you have lived in and loved and where all your yesteryears are buried deep, leave it any way except a slow way, leave it the fastest way you can. Never turn back and never believe that an hour you remember is a better hour because it is dead. Passed years seem safe ones, vanquished ones, while the future lives in a cloud, formidable from a distance. attachment belonging future home homelessness leaving memories memory moving-on past reminiscence roots uncertainty Beryl Markham
2c8fc49 Once you realize you deserve a bright future, letting go of your dark past is the best choice you will ever make. choice future inspiration inspirational inspirational-attitude inspirational-life inspirational-quotes inspire inspiring letting-go letting-go-and-moving-on life life-and-living life-lessons life-quotes living motivation motivational optimism optimistic positive positive-affirmation positive-life positive-thinking Roy T. Bennett
a6b65dd "Ester asked why people are sad. "That's simple," says the old man. "They are the prisoners of their personal history. Everyone believes that the main aim in life is to follow a plan. They never ask if that plan is theirs or if it was created by another person. They accumulate experiences, memories, things, other people's ideas, and it is more than they can possibly cope with. And that is why they forget their dreams." future happiness life plans sadness Paulo Coelho
3a78ec1 It is by no means an irrational fancy that, in a future existence, we shall look upon what we think our present existence, as a dream. age dark dreaming dreams future inspirational past time Edgar Allan Poe
cd9070f Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present. equanimity future inspirational reason stoic stoicism worry Marcus Aurelius
6af3435 I love that you get cold when it's 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you're looking at me like I'm nuts. I love that after I spend the day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it's not because I'm lonely, and it's not because it's New Year's Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible. declarations-of-love foibles future harry-burns in-love life love marriage-proposal new-year-s-eve romance sally-albright simple-life simple-pleasures true-love when-harry-met-sally Nora Ephron
9ed460a Walk with the dreamers, the believers, the courageous, the cheerful, the planners, the doers, the successful people with their heads in the clouds and their feet on the ground. Let their spirit ignite a fire within you to leave this world better than when you found it... courage dreams future inspirational life spirit success Wilferd Peterson
bb2d708 It is difficult to live in and enjoy the moment when you are thinking about the past or worrying about the future. You cannot change your past, but you can ruin the present by worrying about your future. Learn from the past, plan for the future. The more you live in and enjoy the present moment, the happier you will be. future happiness inspiration inspirational inspirational-attitude inspirational-life inspirational-quotes inspire inspiring learning life life-and-living life-lessons life-quotes live-in-the-present living optimism optimistic positive positive-affirmation positive-life positive-thinking worry Roy T. Bennett
04126ba The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next. future philosophy Ursula K. Le Guin
87a5967 I am a drifter, and as lonely as that can be, it is also remarkably freeing. I will never define myself in terms of anyone else. I will never feel the pressure of peers or the burden of parental expectation. I can view everyone as pieces of a whole, and focus on the whole, not the pieces. I have learned to observe, far better than most people observe. I am not blinded by the past or motivated by the future. I focus on the present because that is where I am destined to live. future lonely loner past David Levithan
6e634ee Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life. adversity failure future harvard-commencement-speech hope inspirational life-lessons rock-bottom J.K. Rowling
6e0e4f0 Gratitude looks to the Past and love to the Present; fear, avarice, lust, and ambition look ahead. future gratitude love past present C.S. Lewis
9c5061c Forgiving isn't something you do for someone else. It's something you do for yourself. It's saying, 'You're not important enough to have a stranglehold on me.' It's saying, 'You don't get to trap me in the past. I am worthy of a future. future past trap yourself Jodi Picoult
2262449 A weird time in which we are alive. We can travel anywhere we want, even to other planets. And for what? To sit day after day, declining in morale and hope. existentialism future hopelessness Philip K. Dick
1f8a94e No, our science is no illusion. But an illusion it would be to suppose that what science cannot give us we can get elsewhere. future gains hope illusion inspirational knowledge progress science understanding Sigmund Freud
1ea4757 The life where nothing was ever unexpected. Or inconvenient. Or unusual. The life without colour, pain or past. future life sci-fi the-giver utopia Lois Lowry
59bab82 You are constantly told in depression that your judgment is compromised, but a part of depression is that it touches cognition. That you are having a breakdown does not mean that your life isn't a mess. If there are issues you have successfully skirted or avoided for years, they come cropping back up and stare you full in the face, and one aspect of depression is a deep knowledge that the comforting doctors who assure you that your judgment is bad are wrong. You are in touch with the real terribleness of your life. You can accept rationally that later, after the medication sets in, you will be better able to deal with the terribleness, but you will not be free of it. When you are depressed, the past and future are absorbed entirely by the present moment, as in the world of a three-year-old. You cannot remember a time when you felt better, at least not clearly; and you certainly cannot imagine a future time when you will feel better. cognition depression future issues judgment present troubles Andrew Solomon
020ca52 If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings. future life Henry David Thoreau
a69c5c9 I can't deceive myself that out of the bare stark realization that no matter how enthusiastic you are, no matter how sure that character is fate, nothing is real, past or future, when you are alone in your room with the clock ticking loudly into the false cheerful brilliance of the electric light. And if you have no past or future which, after all, is all that the present is made of, why then you may as well dispose of the empty shell of present and commit suicide. future loneliness suicide Sylvia Plath
f6dd9ca Its more fun to think of the future than dwell on the past. future inspirational past Sara Shepard
d263a06 The future was one thing that could never be broken, because it had not yet had the chance to be anything. be-anything choice future inspirational sarah-dessen unbroken wisdom Sarah Dessen
a7f910d It's possible to go on, no matter how impossible it seems. future possible Nicholas Sparks
a468474 It is wrong to bear children out of need, wrong to use a child to alleviate loneliness, wrong to provide purpose in life by reproducing another copy of oneself. It is wrong also to seek immortality by spewing one's germ into the future as though sperm contains your consciousness! children future immortality life procreation Irvin D. Yalom
1bf4dfa The Future is, of all things, the thing least like eternity. It is the most temporal part of time--for the Past is frozen and no longer flows, and the Present is all lit up with eternal rays. future past present C.S. Lewis
14ec3d2 How can the past and future be, when the past no longer is, and the future is not yet? As for the present, if it were always present and never moved on to become the past, it would not be time, but eternity. future past present St. Augustine of Hippo
f0d1116 Your beliefs affect your choices. Your choices shape your actions. Your actions determine your results. The future you create depends upon the choices you make and the actions you take today. action belief beliefs believe choice choices decision future inspiration inspirational inspirational-quotes inspire inspiring leader leaders leadership life life-quotes living motivation motivational optimism optimistic positive positive-affirmation positive-life positive-thinking Roy T. Bennett
8026b43 Tomorrow belongs to those who can hear it coming future inspirational life David Bowie
2baf4c5 "Wisdom's daughter walks alone--" "Ella!" Frank stood suddenly. "Maybe it's not the best time--" Ella continued, cupping her hands over her ears and raising her voice. " ella future heroes-of-olympus percy-jackson-and-the-olympians prophecy sybillene-books the-mark-of-athena Rick Riordan
793b39b Religion can never reform mankind because religion is slavery. It is far better to be free, to leave the forts and barricades of fear, to stand erect and face the future with a smile. It is far better to give yourself sometimes to negligence, to drift with wave and tide, with the blind force of the world, to think and dream, to forget the chains and limitations of the breathing life, to forget purpose and object, to lounge in the picture gallery of the brain, to feel once more the clasps and kisses of the past, to bring life's morning back, to see again the forms and faces of the dead, to paint fair pictures for the coming years, to forget all Gods, their promises and threats, to feel within your veins life's joyous stream and hear the martial music, the rhythmic beating of your fearless heart. And then to rouse yourself to do all useful things, to reach with thought and deed the ideal in your brain, to give your fancies wing, that they, like chemist bees, may find art's nectar in the weeds of common things, to look with trained and steady eyes for facts, to find the subtle threads that join the distant with the now, to increase knowledge, to take burdens from the weak, to develop the brain, to defend the right, to make a palace for the soul. This is real religion. This is real worship development dream facts fear feeling free future gods heart inspirational joy knowledge purpose reform slavery thought threat weak worship burden Robert Green Ingersoll
f2388d2 No reflection was to be allowed now, not one glance was to be cast back; not even one forward. Not one thought was to be given either to the past or the future. The first was a page so heavenly sweet, so deadly sad, that to read one line of it would dissolve my courage and break down my energy. The last was an awful blank, something like then world when the deluge was gone by. future heartbreak hopelessness past sadness Charlotte Brontë
7658a33 I feel very adventurous. There are so many doors to be opened, and I'm not afraid to look behind them. doors future inspirational life Elizabeth Taylor
5a4fbeb But, in her life, nothing was going to happen. Such was the will of God! The future was a dark corridor, and at the far end the door was bolted. future life Gustave Flaubert
be18574 "[..]Although personally, I think cyberspace means the end of our species." Yes? Why is that?" Because it means the end of innovation," Malcolm said. "This idea that the whole world is wired together is mass death. Every biologist knows that small groups in isolation evolve fastest. You put a thousand birds on an ocean island and they'll evolve very fast. You put ten thousand on a big continent, and their evolution slows down. Now, for our own species, evolution occurs mostly through our behaviour. We innovate new behaviour to adapt. And everybody on earth knows that innovation only occurs in small groups. Put three people on a committee and they may get something done. Ten people, and it gets harder. Thirty people, and nothing happens. Thirty million, it becomes impossible. That's the effect of mass media - it keeps anything from happening. Mass media swamps diversity. It makes every place the same. Bangkok or Tokyo or London: there's a McDonald's on one corner, a Benetton on another, a Gap across the street. Regional differences vanish. All differences vanish. In a mass-media world, there's less of everything except the top ten books, records, movies, ideas. People worry about losing species diversity in the rain forest. But what about intellectual diversity - our most necessary resource? That's disappearing faster than trees. But we haven't figured that out, so now we're planning to put five billion people together in cyberspace. And it'll freeze the entire species. Everything will stop dead in its tracks. Everyone will think the same thing at the same time. Global uniformity. [..]" future globalisation mankind mass-media Michael Crichton
7f4becc Even if it were possible to cast my horoscope in this one life, and to make an accurate prediction about my future, it would not be possible to 'show' it to me because as soon as I saw it my future would change by definition. This is why Werner Heisenberg's adaptation of the Hays Office--the so-called principle of uncertainty whereby the act of measuring something has the effect of altering the measurement--is of such importance. In my case the difference is often made by publicity. For example, and to boast of one of my few virtues, I used to derive pleasure from giving my time to bright young people who showed promise as writers and who asked for my help. Then some profile of me quoted someone who disclosed that I liked to do this. Then it became something widely said of me, whereupon it became almost impossible for me to go on doing it, because I started to receive far more requests than I could respond to, let alone satisfy. Perception modifies reality: when I abandoned the smoking habit of more than three decades I was given a supposedly helpful pill called Wellbutrin. But as soon as I discovered that this was the brand name for an antidepressant, I tossed the bottle away. There may be successful methods for overcoming the blues but for me they cannot include a capsule that says: 'Fool yourself into happiness, while pretending not to do so.' I should actually my mind to be strong enough to circumvent such a trick. assistance bupropion depression future happiness hays-office horoscopes life measurement mentorship perception publicity reality self-delusion smoking soothsaying uncertainty-principle virtues werner-heisenberg writers Christopher Hitchens
e2bcb71 When they asked me what I wanted to be I said I didn't know. future grow-up sylvia-plath the-bell-jar Sylvia Plath
d7facf9 Futures not achieved are only branches of the past: dead branches. future missed-opportunities Italo Calvino
052da11 Other men look up and down, left and right; but men like us are different. We are visionaries. future inspirational men Eoin Colfer
07d121d POZZO: I am blind. (Silence.) ESTRAGON: Perhaps he can see into the future. funny future humor pessimism Samuel Beckett
a9835cc Dinosaurs are extinct today because they lacked opposable thumbs and the brainpower to build a space program. extinction future space Neil deGrasse Tyson
310b7ef The visions we offer our children shape the future. It _matters_ what those visions are. Often they become self-fulfilling prophecies. Dreams are maps. dreams future hope Carl Sagan
63d36af I'm 65 years old. Everyday the future looks a little bit darker. But the past, even the grimy parts of it, well, it just keeps on getting brighter all the time. future memories past silk-spectre watchmen Alan Moore
323869f In such seconds of decision entire futures are made. future time Dan Simmons
96986e0 Everybody has to start somewhere. You have your whole future ahead of you. Perfection doesn't happen right away. future life perfection starting work Haruki Murakami
1b59b6a Sometimes it was harder to change the past than it was the future. future kate-atkinson past Kate Atkinson
a078eda The future will be what it will, and fretting about it will only make your fears more likely to come true. future wisdom worries worrying Christopher Paolini
8d23667 "To four years until freedom," she said lifting her glass. He raised his in salute. "To you, Celaena." Their eyes met, and Chaol didn't hide his smile as she grinned at him. Perhaps four years with her might not be enough." four-years future sweet throne-of-glass Sarah J. Maas
ceb65ab In these downbeat times, we need as much hope and courage as we do vision and analysis; we must accent the best of each other even as we point out the vicious effects of our racial divide and pernicious consequences of our maldistribution of wealth and power. We simply cannot enter the twenty-first century at each other's throats, even as we acknowledge the weighty forces of racism, patriarchy, economic inequality, homophobia, and ecological abuse on our necks. We are at a crucial crossroad in the history of this nation--and we either hang together by combating these forces that divide and degrade us or we hang separately. Do we have the intelligence, humor, imagination, courage, tolerance, love, respect, and will to meet the challenge? Time will tell. None of us alone can save the nation or world. But each of us can make a positive difference if we commit ourselves to do so. change courage future hope inequalities justice race Cornel West
35eec9d I was doing something I'd never done before. And what will I be able to do tomorrow that I cannot yet do today? future Elizabeth Gilbert
5d6f549 "What's done is done. Say good-bye to the past, and hello to the future And we're wasting time, when already we've wasted enough. We've got everything ahead, waiting for us." Just the right words to make me feel real, alive, free! Free enough to forget thoughts of revenge." -- alive complete done everything fin finished free future goodbyes real revenge thoughts time waiting wasted wasting-time V.C. Andrews
550656f If New Orleans is not fully in the mainstream of culture, neither is it fully in the mainstream of time. Lacking a well-defined present, it lives somewhere between its past and its future, as if uncertain whether to advance or to retreat. Perhaps it is its perpetual ambivalence that is its secret charm. Somewhere between Preservation Hall and the Superdome, between voodoo and cybernetics, New Orleans listens eagerly to the seductive promises of the future but keeps at least one foot firmly planted in its history, and in the end, conforms, like an artist, not to the world but to its own inner being--ever mindful of its personal style. conformity future history mainstream new-orleans past present time timelessness Tom Robbins
e0519db The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory. future hope now the-present victory Howard Zinn
2c86a35 There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in...We should be thankful we cannot see the horrors and degradations lying around our childhood, in cupboards and bookshelves, everywhere. childhood future Graham Greene
f3a79fd Cultural survival is not about preservation, sequestering indigenous peoples in enclaves like some sort of zoological specimens. Change itself does note destroy a culture. All societies are constantly evolving. Indeed a culture survives when it has enough confidence in its past and enough say in its future to maintain its spirit and essence through all the changes it will inevitably undergo. culture david-marbury-lewis evolve future misattributed past survival Wade Davis
6e2e82d History always constitutes the relation between a present and its past. Consequently fear of the present leads to mystification of the past future history mystification past present John Berger
0c92303 ...Coca-Cola and fries, the wafer and wine of the Western religion of commerce. dystopia future Tad Williams
1cb372b ... truth, whose mother is history, who is the rival of time, depository of deeds, witness of the past, example and lesson to the present, and warning to the future. depository example future history lesseon past present rival time truth warning witness Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
53885c0 We're the ones who will fill in the blank places. Maybe we can make it different. freedom future Lois Lowry
88d1c6f I have no word of yours to assure me that our brief friendship held for you the same significance it held for me, but I must go on believing so. Every hope of the future is meaningless unless I have faith that you and I will share it together. future hope letter love together Elizabeth George Speare
b906f72 Am I racially kin to this man? Baynes wondered. So closely so that for all intents and purposes it is the same? Then it is in me, too, the psychotic streak. A psychotic world we live in. The madmen are in power. How long have we known this? Faced this? And--how many of us do know it? fascism future german government nazism power psychosis totalitarianism Philip K. Dick
76f7f59 The scientific man does not aim at an immediate result. He does not expect that his advanced ideas will be readily taken up. His work is like that of the planter--for the future. His duty is to lay the foundation for those who are to come, and point the way. foundation future ideas results science scientist work Nikola Tesla
df6a989 In the space between yes and no, there is a lifetime. It's the difference between the path you walk and one you leave behind; it's the gap between who you thought you could be and who you really are; it's the legroom for the lies you will tell yourself in the future. decisions future leave-behind no past path yes Jodi Picoult
c71608b "The future is there," Cayce hears herself say, "looking back at us. Trying to make sense of the fiction we will have become. And from where they are, the past behind us will look nothing at all like the past we imagine behind us now." -- future William Gibson
c5fca86 "You talk as if a god had made the Machine," cried the other. "I believe that you pray to it when you are unhappy. Men made it, do not forget that. Great men, but men. The Machine is much, but not everything." -- future machine science-fiction E.M. Forster
167f558 The future is what matters -- because one never reaches it, but always stays in the present -- like the White Queen who had to run like the wind to remain in the same spot. future Sylvia Plath
36cb365 You can't insure against the future, except by really believing in the best bit of you, and in the power beyond it. confidence future D.H. Lawrence
fc0af4d Now I wonder if it means that the future is a place, or like a place, that I could go to; that is go to in some way other than just getting older. future life place time Audrey Niffenegger
3925e0a There's been terrible things we seen, en't there? And more a coming, more'n likely. So I think I'd rather not know what's in the future. I'll stick to the present. future philosophy present Philip Pullman
f7b16ce The choices we're working with here are a block universe, where past, present and future all coexist simultaneously and everything has already happened; chaos, where anything can happen and nothing can be predicted because we can't know all the variables; and a Christian universe in which God made everything and it's all here for a purpose but we have free will anyway. choices free-will future god life past present universe Audrey Niffenegger
500c08b This is everyone's fight. Because it's everyone's future. fight future life Jennifer L. Armentrout
7b7de19 We're not hunter-gatherers anymore. We're all living like patients in the intensive care unit of a hospital. What keeps us alive isn't bravery, or athleticism, or any of those other skills that were valuable in a caveman society. It's our ability to master complex technological skills. It is our ability to be nerds. We need to breed nerds. athleticism brainiac brains bravery breed caveman complexity future gatherer geeks genius hospital humanity hunter hunter-gatherer intelligence intensive-care mastery nerds patients society technology Neal Stephenson
ea1e422 Most people trusted in the future, assuming that their preferred version of it would unfold. fate future Jhumpa Lahiri
fe57ab8 People who take a long view of their lives and careers always seem to make much better decisions about their time and activities than people who give very little thought to the future. future hard-decisions life people success thought Brian Tracy
000b98b "As I write this, we are in an especially divisive era in American politics. There are questions about who holds power, who abuses it, who profits from it, and at what cost to our democracy. It is a time of questions about what makes us American, of shifting identities, inclusion and exclusion, protest, civil and human rights, the strength of our compassion versus the weakness of our fears, and the seductive lure of a mythic "great" past that never was versus the need for the consciousness and responsibility necessary if we are truly to live up to the rich promise of "We the People." We are a country built by immigrants, dreams, daring, and opportunity. We are a country built by the horrors of slavery and genocide, the injustice of racism and exclusion. These realities exist side by side. It is our past and present. The future is unwritten. This is a book about ghosts. For we live in a haunted house." americans future inspirational-quote past present Libba Bray
dde6a97 "Because the night you asked me, the small scar of the quarter moon had healed - the moon was whole again; because life seemed so short; because life stretched out before me like the halls of a nightmare; because I knew exactly what I wanted; because I knew exactly nothing; because I shed my childhood with my clothes - they both had years of wear in them; because your eyes were darker than my father's; because my father said I could do better; because I wanted badly to say no; because Stanly Kowalski shouted "Stella...;" because you were a door I could slam shut; because endings are written before beginnings; because I knew that after twenty years you'd bring the plants inside for winter and make a jungle we'd sleep in naked; because I had free will; future love marriage Linda Pastan
75330de "Sorry Johnny." "Sorry for what " "For shouting at you. It's just that when I think about the future I keep panicking. It's like falling from the top of the stairs in the dark not knowing where I'll end up." He put his arm around my shoulders. "I understand. Life is precarious for most of us but more so for you. What you forget is what most of your friends see in you." "What's that " "The ability to beat the odds..." "And fall on my feet " He nodded. "I just hope that lasts." "It will Catkin it will. It wouldn't dare fail you." future hope survival Julia Golding
c9982b8 "This Voyager spacecraft was constructed by the United States of America. We are a community of 240 million human beings among the more than 4 billion who inhabit the planet Earth. We human beings are still divided into nation states, but these states are rapidly becoming a single global civilization. civilization future milky-way president space voyager Jimmy Carter
34e6e71 I bought new strings of colored lights. This served as a profession of faith in the future. I take the opportunity for such professions where and when I can invent them, since I do not yet actually feel this faith in the future. future hope new-life opportunity Joan Didion
7696824 Few travelled in these days, for, thanks to the advance of science, the earth was exactly alike all over. Rapid intercourse, from which the previous civilization had hoped so much, had ended by defeating itself. What was the good of going to Peking when it was just like Shrewsbury? Why return to Shrewsbury when it would all be like Peking? Men seldom moved their bodies; all unrest was concentrated in the soul. civilisation civilization future machine science-fiction soul travel unrest E.M. Forster
33eb66d "UP You wake up filled with dread. There seems no reason for it. Morning light sifts through the window, there is birdsong, you can't get out of bed. It's something about the crumpled sheets hanging over the edge like jungle foliage, the terry slippers gaping their dark pink mouths for your feet, the unseen breakfast--some of it in the refrigerator you do not dare to open--you will not dare to eat. What prevents you? The future. The future tense, immense as outer space. You could get lost there. No. Nothing so simple. The past, its density and drowned events pressing you down, like sea water, like gelatin filling your lungs instead of air. Forget all that and let's get up. Try moving your arm. Try moving your head. Pretend the house is on fire and you must run or burn. No, that one's useless. It's never worked before. Where is it coming form, this echo, this huge No that surrounds you, silent as the folds of the yellow curtains, mute as the cheerful Mexican bowl with its cargo of mummified flowers? (You chose the colours of the sun, not the dried neutrals of shadow. God knows you've tried.) Now here's a good one: you're lying on your deathbed. You have one hour to live. fear forgiveness future life past poetry Margaret Atwood
9cca028 In the same way, teenagers imagine dying young because death is more imaginable than the person that all the decisions and burdens of adulthood may make of you. beath burden childhood decision dying future imagination present suicide teenager young-adult youth Rebecca Solnit
7411972 Don't think about what you could have done, concentrate on what you plan to do; it is more useful. future useful what-if whatif Brian Jacques
739196e Are we truly obeying the command to love our neighbor as ourselves if we're storing up money for potential future needs when our neighbor is laboring today under actual present needs? compassion current future hoarding justice labor love need neighbor present saving selfish sharing stewardship Randy Alcorn
a3f11a2 Do we miss not only the past but every future the lost past describes? Is that just the nature of missing? All the lost might-have-beens? The certainty that those uncertain futures are gone? future miss Mark Z. Danielewski
18d131d " was of the opinion... that his ideas were generally misunderstood and distorted even by those who professed to be his disciples. He doubted he would be better understood in the future. He once said he felt as though he were writing for people who would think in a different way, breathe a different air of life, from that of present-day men. doubt future ideas ludwig-wittgenstein misunderstood opinion wittgenstein Georg Henrik von Wright
c7ef268 "Books'll be back," Esther-in-Unalaq predicts. "Wait till the power grids start failing in the 2030s and the datavats get erased. It's not far away. The future looks a lot like the past." future David Mitchell
05edcba "...I've spent the last fifteen years of my life railing against the game of soccer, an exercise that has been lauded as "the sport of the future" since 1977. Thankfully, that future dystopia has never come." future humor soccer sports Chuck Klosterman
58b5e88 "When young people are cynical, and snarky, they shoot down their own future. When you keep saying "No," all that's left is what other people said "Yes" to before you were born. Really, "No" is no choice at all." future Caitlin Moran
0f44225 Sam was the only member of the party who had not been over the river before. He had a strange feeling as the slow gurgling stream slipped by: his old life lay behind in the mists, dark adventure lay in front. feeling future past river stream J.R.R. Tolkien
0495200 Strange are the pictures of the future that mankind can thus draw with this brush of faith and these many-coloured pigments of the imagination! Strange, too, that no one of them tallies with another! disagreement dreams faith future hopes ignorance illusions imagination mankind religion vain-hopes H. Rider Haggard
28f6785 When I save, I lay something aside for future need. If I sense God's leading, I will give it away to meet greater needs. When I hoard, I'm unwilling to part with what I've saved to meet others' needs, because my possible future needs outweigh their actual present needs. I fail to love my neighbor as myself. compassion future hoarding needs present protection saving sharing stewardship Randy Alcorn
97e3315 "I guess if there's one thing I can say about the 21st century, it's that the 21st century is all flash and no substance... everything is digital, nothing but files of invisible electronic data on computers and mindless zombies on their cellular phones... it's sad how because of the digital age, society is ultimately doomed. Nothing in the digital age is real anymore, and you know, they say celluloid film and ray tube televisions and maybe even paper might become obsolete in this century? ...What's most annoying is that nobody cares, they've just learned to accept the digital age and get addicted to it... none of them are ever going to step up and say to the world, "you're all a bunch of sheep!" and even if they did say anything, I doubt anyone would listen... they're all too obsessed and attached to their cellular phones and overly big televisions and whatever other moronic things they've got these days... it almost makes me want an apocalypse to happen, to erase digital technology and force the world to start over again." apocalypse bleak book books camera cell-phones celluloid depressingly-honest digital doom film future paper photography poison scary super-8 Rebecca McNutt
c70c4f6 It is capitalism, not Marxism, that trades in futures. capitalism criticisms-of-marxism future futures-exchange marxism utopianism Terry Eagleton
5d545fd You are walking along a road peacefully. You trip. You fall into blackness. That's the past - or perhaps the future. And you know that there is no past, no future, there is only this blackness, changing faintly, slowly, but always the same. future past Jean Rhys
efd305b Alford, Massachusetts: Mandy stood there with her old Nikon film camera, snapping photo after photo of the rural landscape. It was difficult to describe the wonderful feeling of there not being a single cell phone in sight; the only modern technology around was the faint blue glow of a cathode ray tube television in the window of a nearby house, and a few cars and trucks parked in crumbling gravel driveways. She was allowed to see this place, one that would likely be ruined by the 21st century as time went on... places like these were extremely hard to find these days. A world of wood-burning cookstoves and the waxy smell of Paraffin, laundry hung out to dry, rusty steel bridges over streams that reflected the bright blue skies, apple pies left out on windowsills... a world of hard work with very little to show for it aside from the sunlight beaming down on a proud community. And Mandy wanted to trap it all in her Kodak film rolls and rescue it from the future. cell-phone cook-stove country digital earth farm film future glow grim kodachrome kodak laundry love massachusetts missing nikon nostalgic past peace photography pie small-town television texting traditional Rebecca McNutt
b54f8fd If one bad thing befell me, I immediately linked it to every bad thing that had happened in the last week or might happen in the coming week. And when I became sad, I was prone to wallow in grief, piling up my woes and sprawling on them like a dragon on a hoard. bad bad-habit befall befell complain depression dragon fear future happen hoard loss mourn much occur occurence past predict sadness sorrow tendency wallow woe woes Robin Hobb
07c5373 His gut was stitched up good and tight, but that didn't prevent it from flopping. He wiped his damp palms on the legs of his jeans and stood up shakily, leaning heavily on his cane. He called himself a masochist for putting himself through this torture day after day. He braced himself for the disappointment of having to go home alone. He braced himself for happiness like he'd never known in his entire life. He watched the door they would come through. emotion feelings future happiness hope lethal love sandra-brown Sandra Brown
a17f87b In general I lacked principally the ability to provide even in the slightest detail for the real future. I thought only of things in the present and their present condition, not because of thoroughness or any special, strong interest, but rather, to the extent that weakness in thinking was not the cause, because of sorrow and fear - sorrow, because the present was so sad for me that I thought I could not leave it before it resolved itself into happiness; fear, because, like my fear of the slightest action in the present, I also considered myself, in view of my contemptible, childish appearance, unworthy of forming a serious, responsible opinion of the great, manly future which usually seemed so impossible to me that every short step forward appeared to me to be counterfeit and the next step unattainable. counterfeit fear future impossible sorrow unattainable unworthy Franz Kafka
bb82bfd Rarely did events play out as imagined, in any case. The order of future events was transient. In the same way that the past was reconfigured by selective memory, future events, too, were moving targets. One could only act on instinct, grab hold of an intuited perfect moment, and spring into action. future instinct past James Luceno
10be694 "That part of your life is over. Set it aside as something you have finished. Complete or no, it is done with you. No being gets to decide what his life is "supposed to be"...'Be a man. Discover where you are now, and go on from there, making the best of things. Accept your life, and you might survive it. If you hold back from it, insisting this is not your life, not where you are meant to be, life will pass you by. You may not die from such foolishness, but you might as well be dead for all the good your life will do you or anyone else." aside be complete dead decide destiny discover done end fate finish forget forgo future good honesty life meant not over part past path present section set survive to truth Robin Hobb
fe0aaee And the Flatline aligned the nose of Kuang's sting with the center of the dark below. And dove. Case's sensory input warped with their velocity. His mouth filled with an aching taste of blue. His eyes were eggs of unstable crystal, vibrating with a frequency whose name was rain and the sounds of trains, suddenly sprouting a humming forest of hair-fine spines. The spines split, bisected, split again, exponential growth under the dome of the Tessier-Ashpool ice. future matrix science science-fiction William Gibson
b9fc8b3 He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. We must have felt what it is to die, Morrel, that we may appreciate the enjoyments of life. Live, then, and be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never forget, that until the day when God will deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is contained in these two words, - 'Wait and hope.' - Your friend, Edmond Dantes, Count of Monte Cristo. The eyes of both were fixed on the spot indicated by the sailor, and on the blue-line separating the sky from the Mediterranean Sea, they perceived a large white sail. future grief happiness hope horizon live wait Alexandre Dumas
3b617cc Atlas said, 'Must my future be so heavy?' Hera said, 'That is your present, Atlas. Your future hardens every day, but it is not fixed.' 'How can I escape my fate?' 'You must choose your destiny. fate future mythology Jeanette Winterson
ef5e17f I am bold to Say that neither you nor I, will live to See the Course which 'the Wonders of the Times' will take. Many Years, and perhaps Centuries must pass, before the current will acquire a Settled direction... yet , , Hindoo, and cabalistic Christianity, . Yet so strong is his constitution, that he may endure for centuries before he expires. { } death-blow future hindu hinduism jefferson monster mortal-wound plato platonic pythagoras pythagoric thomas-jefferson John Adams
6dbf94d Sometimes, without effort, you live in the moment. You don't regret the past or worry about the future, and in that moment everything flashes before your eyes , a clear snapshot of what has to be done, and everything pauses. clarity clear dream future imagination kodak-moment life moment nostalgia past pause photography regret snapshot time worry Rebecca McNutt
181fc05 "We were poor back then. Not living in a cardboard carton poor, not "we might have to eat the dog" poor, but still poor. Poor like, no insurance poor, and going to McDonald's was a really big excitement poor, wearing socks for gloves in the winter poor, and collecting nickels and dimes from the washing machine because she never got allowance, that kind of poor... poor enough to be nostalgic about poverty. So, when my mom and dad took me here for my tenth birthday, it was a really big deal. They'd saved up for two months to take me to the photography store and they bought me a Kodak Instamatic film camera... I really miss those days, because we were still a real family back then... this mall doesn't even have a film photography store anymore, just a cell phone and digital camera store, it's depressing..." birthday camera canada cape-breton cardboard coins digital dog film future instamatic insurance kodak mall mcdonald-s nostalgia nostalgic nova-scotia past poor poverty shopping washing-machine wishes Rebecca McNutt
cd15dac Film photography will always be superior to digital - because no matter how many lasers and instant buttons and HD pixels you've got, a human being can take a photograph with much more integrity and meaning than one a built-in robot took. art camera cellulod compassion digital film future hd history human instant kodak magic nature nostalgia photo photography robot Rebecca McNutt
08551c6 Listen, Legs, I'm going to die anyway. I'm human. And I don't know about you, but I don't believe in visions of the future. I believe we choose our own destiny. You didn't give me a choice last time. You just left. But I'm here now. And I love you. Stay with me. Don't fear the future; we'll face it together. blue-bloods destiny future lost-in-time love melissa-de-la-cruz prophecy Melissa de la Cruz
e9bd55a No past to make us sentimental, no future to embarrass us...a difficult moment when you are out of practice - a moment that makes you go cold, cold and wary. future past sentimental wary Jean Rhys
55a2106 "Shut up!" I say, holding my hands to my ears. "Shut up!" But the stupid gummy won't shut up; he's trying to tell me something important even though I'm covering my ears and I don't want to hear it and I don't want to think about who I am or what's wrong with me or why I'm out here at the edge of the Urb, at the edge of the known world, listening to some old mope who's so crazy, he think about the future when everyone knows that the future doesn't exist." denial future Rodman Philbrick
1279e8f In fact a favourite problem of is--Given the molecular forces in a mutton chop, deduce Hamlet or Faust therefrom. He is confident that the Physics of the Future will solve this easily. faust favorite forces future goethe hamlet johann-wolfgang-von-goethe john-tyndall physics problem science shakespeare tyndall william-shakespeare Thomas Henry Huxley
d839fda That's one benefit of travelling to your own future, and making the trip part of your past. decisions future lessons past philosophy time James A. Owen
834c48c Bigotry is the disease of ignorance, of morbid minds; enthusiasm of the free and buoyant. Education and free discussion are the antidotes of both. We are destined to be a barrier against the returns of ignorance and barbarism. Old Europe will have to lean on our shoulders, and to hobble along by our side, under the monkish trammels of priests and kings, as she can. What a Colossus shall we be when the Southern continent comes up to our mark! What a stand will it secure as a ralliance for the reason & freedom of the globe! I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past. So good night. I will dream on, always fancying that Mrs Adams and yourself are by my side marking the progress and the obliquities of ages and countries. dreams future history ignorance inspirational progress Thomas Jefferson
50c2cc0 [T]he concern of man is not his future but his present, not the world but his soul. We must be just, we must strive, we must engage ourselves with the business of the world for our own sake, because through that, and through contemplation in equal measure, our soul is purified and brought closer to the divine. ... Thought and deed conjoined are crucial. ... The attempt must be made; the outcome is irrelevant. Right action is a pale material reflection of the divine, but reflection it is, nonetheless. Define your goal and exert reason to accomplish it by virtuous action; successs or failure is secondary. deeds divinity failure future goals mankind philosophy present purification souls success thought Iain Pears
01b8a97 "Their conversation ceased abruptly with the entry of an oddly-shaped man whose body resembled a certain vegetable. He was a thickset fellow with calloused and jaundiced skin and a patch of brown hair, a frizzy upheaval. We will call him Bell Pepper. Bell Pepper sidled up beside The Drippy Man and looked at the grilled cheese in his hand. The Drippy Man, a bit uncomfortable at the heaviness of the gaze, politely apologized and asked Bell Pepper if he would like one. "Why is one of your legs fatter than the other?" asked Bell Pepper. The Drippy Man realized Bell Pepper was not looking at his sandwich but towards the inconsistency of his leg sizes. "You always get your kicks pointing out defects?" retorted The Drippy Man. "Just curious. Never seen anything like it before." "I was raised not to feel shame and hide my legs in baggy pants." "So you flaunt your deformity by wearing short shorts?" "Like you flaunt your pockmarks by not wearing a mask?" Bell Pepper backed away, kicking wide the screen door, making an exit to a porch over hanging a dune of sand that curved into a jagged upward jab of rock. "He is quite sensitive," commented The Dry Advisor. "Who is he?" "A fellow who once manipulated the money in your wallet but now curses the fellow who does." authors books conspiracy dubai dystopia dystopian-fiction economic-collapse economics end-of-the-world espionage future maine politics satire small-press spy-thriller writers writing Jeff Phillips
7c67009 It was the kind of summer evening that made Ursula want to be alone. 'Oh,' Izzie said, 'You're at an age when a girl is simply by the sublime.' Ursula wasn't sure what she meant ('No one is ever sure what she means,' Sylvie said) but she thought she understood a little. There was a strangeness in the shimmering air, a sense of that made Ursula's chest feel full, as if her heart was growing. It was a kind of high holiness - she could think of no other way of describing it. Perhaps it was the future, she thought, coming nearer all the time. future summer teenage-girl teenage-years time Kate Atkinson
e4432d2 Night and day, wind and storm, tide and earthquake, impeded man no longer. He had harnessed Leviathan. All the old literature, with its praise of Nature, and its fear of Nature, rang false as the prattle of a child. future leviathan man nature science-fiction E.M. Forster
6c70666 There were certain moments upon which the whole of the future course of one's life might turn. And almost inevitably they popped out at one without any warning at all, leaving one with no time to consider or engage in a reasoned debate with oneself. One had to make a split second decision, and much depended upon it. Perhaps everything. future moments Mary Balogh
796c23d Those first few weeks are an unearthly season. From the outside you remain so ordinary, no one can tell from looking that you have experienced an earthquake of the soul. You've been torn asunder, invested with an ancient, incomprehensible magic. It's the one thing that we never quite get over: that we contain our own future. dreams future pregnancy Barbara Kingsolver
b2d5e14 The modern mind is forced towards the future by a certain sense of fatigue, not unmixed with terror, with which it regards the past. It is propelled towards the coming time; it is, in the exact words of the popular phrase, knocked into the middle of next week. And the goad which drives it on thus eagerly is not an affectation for futurity Futurity does not exist, because it is still future. Rather it is a fear of the past; a fear not merely of the evil in the past, but of the good in the past also. The brain breaks down under the unbearable virtue of mankind. There have been so many flaming faiths that we cannot hold; so many harsh heroisms that we cannot imitate; so many great efforts of monumental building or of military glory which seem to us at once sublime and pathetic. The future is a refuge from the fierce competition of our forefathers. The older generation, not the younger, is knocking at our door. It is agreeable to escape, as Henley said, into the Street of By-and-Bye, where stands the Hostelry of Never. It is pleasant to play with children, especially unborn children. The future is a blank wall on which every man can write his own name as large as he likes; the past I find already covered with illegible scribbles, such as Plato, Isaiah, Shakespeare, Michael Angelo, Napoleon. I can make the future as narrow as myself; the past is obliged to be as broad and turbulent as humanity. And the upshot of this modern attitude is really this: that men invent new ideals because they dare not attempt old ideals. They look forward with enthusiasm, because they are afraid to look back. ease enthusiasm fatigue fear future heroism ideals imaginary past variety G.K. Chesterton
0b579c5 The two of us in that room. No past, no future. All intense deep that-time-only. A feeling that everything must end, the music, ourselves, the moon, everything. That if you get to the heart of things you find sadness for ever and ever, everywhere; but a beautiful silver sadness, like a Christ face. beauty christ deep end ending ever everywhere feeling future heart intense moon music ourselves past sad sadness silver John Fowles
ef3bf14 "The Future," says Ian, in a film-trailer voice. "Coming soon, to a Present near you." future present David Mitchell
3c0330f "Sweet Pocket, you mustn't ask about my life before I came here. What I am now, I have always been, and everything I am is here with you." "Sweet Thalia," said I. "That is a fiery flagon of dragon toss." future humor life past Christopher Moore
1ce64a0 "I guess that's how they were able to do it, in the way they did, all at once, without anyone knowing beforehand. If there had still been portable money, it would have been more difficult. "It was after the catastrophe, when they shot the president and machine-gunned the Congress and the army declared a state of emergency. They blamed it on the Islamic fanatics, at the time. "Keep calm, they said on television. Everything is under control. "I was stunned. Everyone was, I know that. It was hard to believe. The entire government, gone like that. How did they get in, how did it happen? "That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary. There wasn't even any rioting in the streets. People stayed at home at night, watching television, looking for some direction. There wasn't even an enemy you could point your finger at. ... "Newspapers were censored and some were closed down, for security reasons they said. The roadblocks began to appear, and Identipasses. Everyone approved of that, since it was obvious you couldn't be too careful." culture feminism future media newspapers reproduction Margaret Atwood
d943731 "But I cannot be worrying-worrying all the time about the I have to worry about the truth that can be And that is the difference between losing your marbles drinking the salty sea, or swallowing the stuff from the streams. My Niece-of-Shame believes in the talking cure, eh?" says Alsana, with something of a grin. "Talk, talk, talk and it will be better. Be honest, slice open your heart and spread the red stuff around. But the past is made of more than words, dearie. We married old men, you see? These bumps"--Alsana pats them both --"they will always have daddy-long-legs for fathers. One leg in the present, one in the past. No talking will change this. Their roots will always be tangled. And roots get dug up. Just look in my garden - birds at the coriander every bloody day..." future honesty past pregnancy relativism sanity talking truth worrying Zadie Smith
e59fe9f Was she acting entirely consciously? No: women are always sincere, even in the midst of their most shocking duplicities, because it is always some natural emotion which dominates them. Perhaps, having given this young man such a hold on her, by having openly demonstrated her affection for him, Delphine was merely responding to a sense of personal dignity, which led her either to revoke any concessions she might have made or, at least, to enjoy suspending them. Even at the very moment when passion seizes her, it is perfectly natural for a Parisian woman to delay her final fall, as a way of testing the heart of the man into whose hands she is about to deliver herself and her future! duplicities future heart love passion pretend sincerity test Honoré de Balzac
dfc21eb "The influence of the future on the past," said Morel enthusiastically, almost inaudibly." future influence past Adolfo Bioy Casares
0781ec0 There is not, in a material sense, any benefit to being right about a future you will not experience. But there are intrinsic benefits to constantly probing the possibility that our assumptions about the future might be wrong: humility and wonder. future humility wonder Chuck Klosterman
c98279f ... the future is a teenage crackhead who makes shit up as he goes along. crackhead future metaphor Chuck Klosterman
e745e4e There's a hardness I'm seeing in modern people. Those little moments of goofiness that used to make the day pass seem to have gone. Life's so serious now. Maybe it's just because I'm with an older gang now.[...]I mean nobody even has hobbies these days. Not that I can see. Husbands and wives both work. Kids are farmed out to schools and video games. Nobody seems able to endure simply being themselves, either - but at the same time they're isolated. People work much more, only go home and surf the Internet and send e-mail rather than calling or writing a note or visiting each other. They work, watch TV, and sleep. I see these things. The world is only about work: work work work get get get...racing ahead...getting sacked from work...going online...knowing computer languages...winning contracts. I mean, it's just not what I would have imagined the world might be if you'd asked me seventeen years ago. People are frazzled and angry, desperate about money, and, at best, indifferent to the future. future modern-life today work Douglas Coupland
3d76c90 "I'm beginning to think that maybe it's okay to be a blank canvas. Maybe it's okay that my future is unknown. And maybe," I say with another smile, "it's okay to be inspired by the people who do know their future." future inspiration isla-and-the-happily-ever-after stephanie-perkins Stephanie Perkins
ad59a7a Two years hence you will be as calm as I am now, - and far, far happier, I trust, for you are a man and free to act as you please future happiness men women Anne Brontë
bb144b3 Truthfully she felt incredibly miserable, seeing university students and tourists bustling in and out of the place with their cell phones in hand, texting like there was no tomorrow. Living behind a screen, they'd likely text with their last breath. cell-phone depressing digital-age future phone sad text Rebecca McNutt
b769edb The future was in our own hands. If we wanted a world where such things were possible, it was for us to make it. change choice future world Juliet Marillier
cc3d8b9 "One thing seems certain. Our galaxy is now in the brief springtime of its life--a springtime made glorious by such brilliant blue-white stars as Vega and Sirius, and, on a more humble scale, our own Sun. Not until all these have flamed through their incandescent youth, in a few fleeting billions of years, will the real history of the universe begin. future nostalgia space time Arthur C. Clarke
b3eda01 All that had gone before was not a thousandth of what was yet to come; the story of this star had barely begun. future hope Arthur C. Clarke
1ae57e7 Dwelling on the past only defeated her chances for changing the future. future past Francine Rivers
1 2 ▲ ▼