How We Should Define Our Past — 5 Famous Quotes About PAST That You Can’t Ignore
We need to forget our past, right? But how about seeing it as a part of your life?
Life is not perfect and as we. But this is the most natural thing as a human being. We all want perfection in every aspect of our life. Facing some difficulties and accepting challenges are not our cup of tea. All we want is to stay in our super comfort zone — be it our personal or professional life. And if we ever experience something bad, it feels like we cannot get out of it. We always try to erase our past and give our best to delete that part from our life. We often wish if there were a backspace button in our life.
When we have gone through any toxic relationships with our intimates or have encountered some issues in our careers, we tend to think — no, this never happened to me. But what if you try to see your past as a part of life? Try to see it like the older version of yourself?
Let’s explore the view of some great people about the past. And try to understand what they believe or want to convey through their writings.
“Those who cannot remember their past are condemned to repeat it” — George Santayana, Spanish philosopher.
Just try to think, what it will be like if you lost your memory? Apart from forgetting everything, you will also forget the things that you did wrong in your past, right? Therefore, if you choose to forget your past and not remember the things you went through, you will make the same mistake over and over. So, eliminating the past from our memory is not the wise thing but analyzing what we did, and why we did is the right thing.
“Study the past if you want to define the future” — Confucius, Chinese philosopher.
A very simple line but holds so much power. When we look back at our past, when we study it, we can learn so much about ourselves. People related with our past and things that we experienced — every single incident conveys to us some most valuable understanding. Those past experiences will help us to build our future. They are meant to guide us to bring out the best version of ourselves.
“Let the past make you better, not bitter” — Buddha.
Sometimes we hold grudges against people or any events related to our past. Does this make us a better person? Do these things improve our life? Obviously not, it can’t be. We need to uproot the hatred and plant forgiveness. If you live in the past it takes you back to those memory lanes which are already dead. But if you see your past as your teacher, it will give you so much opportunity for your present to make your future meaningful — not the bitter one but the better one.
“Life is divided into three terms — that which was, which is, and which will be. Let us learn from the past to profit by the present, and from the present, to live better in the future” — William Wordsworth.
It is very clear what this World’s most famous romantic poet wants to convey. If we do not learn from our past, it is impossible to do something great in the present. What we do in the present will shape our future based on the lessons we learn in the past. If we try to erase our past, there will be no one to tell us how to make our future worth living. We should see the past as a stepping stone rather than a milestone.
“Remembering the past gives power to the present” — Fae Myenne Ng, American Novelist.
This is the most promising way to define the value of the past in our life. You can understand a person’s true character if you dig deeper into his past — it is the only thing that shapes anyone’s present. What we are and what we will be — is related to our past version — and we can’t deny this. Remembering the past is not a curse but a gift to make our present powerful and our future fearless.
Final Thought
“Let us remember the past with gratitude, live the present with enthusiasm, and look forward to the future with confidence” — Pope John Paul II.
I think this is the best quote to conclude my story. We can’t change our past. But what we can do is — we can change our attitudes towards it. Our life is just like reading a storybook. The pages that we already read — we should remember those pages with gratitude; pages that we are reading right now — read that with enthusiasm, and the pages that we are going to read, just stay excited to read them with confidence.
Thank you for reading my story. If you enjoyed it, don’t forget to check out the below one also. Bye for now. 😃
