353 Quotes About The-past

What is past is not dead; it is not even past. We cut ourselves off from it; we pretend to be strangers.

Long after the poor departed have gone from our hearts, their insignificant dust continues to be mingled, to be used as an alloy, with the events of the past.

Another circumstance of note was the fact that they never spoke about the past: that particular novel, they both seemed to agree, was over and done with, doubtless because it seemed so improbable and false, rather like the books we were mad about in our youth and which, in our maturity, seem somewhat paltry.

Someone once told me that part of you lives on so long as somebody remembers you.

The past was something that had happened to another version of himself, a version that could be lit and hurled away.

We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.

Perhaps you need to look back before you can move ahead.

It was revolting that I had been like that. Shameful. Disgraceful, in the old-time sense of the word. And what was even worse? That I could now see myself so wretchedly clearly. I had changed, I recognized bitterly.I hated that I could see myself as I was. What a terrible thing to know. I would never be able to not know it, to forget it.I didn't see how I could ever forgive River for that.

It turns out that sharing the past with someone is different from reliving it when you're alone. It feels less like a wound and more like a poultice.