748 – “When you realize the value of all life, you dwell less on what is past and concentrate more on the preservation of the future.”

–Dian Fossey [Attributed]

671 – “The historical sense involves a perception, not only of the pastness of the past, but of its presence.”

–T S Eliot

475 – “When suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but – I hope – into a better shape.”

–Estella Havisham in Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations

448 – “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.”

–W L Sheldon [Often falsely attributed to Ernest Hemingway, see Source Notes]

408 – “The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.”

–Lord Illingworth in Oscar Wilde’s play “Woman of No Importance“

330 – “All the traditions of our past, all the lessons of our heritage, all the promises of our future point to another path, the path of common purpose and the restoration of American values. That path leads to true freedom for our Nation and ourselves.”

–Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the United States of America

267 – “On most nights, I am torn between missing who I was and desiring to know who I would be.”

–anonymous

219 – “The past can hurt. But, from the way I see it, you can either run from it or learn from it.”

–Rafiki (Voiced by Robert Guillaume) in Disney’s The Lion King (1994)

213 – “When she transformed into a butterfly, the caterpillars spoke not of her beauty, but of her weirdness. They wanted her to change back into what she always had been. But she had wings.”

–Dean Jackson

211 – “A great nation does not hide its history. It faces its flaws and corrects them.”

–George W Bush, 43rd President of the United States of America