The past holds memories and lessons but getting stuck in it can hinder our future.
People often struggle to move on from both good memories and past traumas leading to negative beliefs and behaviors.
It’s important to let go of past hurt and resentment to love ourselves and strive to be our best.
Reflecting on past moments can bring happiness and strengthen connections with loved ones.
Contrary to the belief that nostalgia traps us it can actually offer a glimpse of a better future.
Quotes about looking back can be powerful inspiring us to appreciate the past while focusing on the future.
They’re found in literature, movies and various media motivating us to excel and learn from our experiences.
Let’s get started.
Looking Back Quotes
I’m tipping the hat and looking back. ~ Robert Plant.
You know, I try not to look back, because looking forward is so much better than looking backward. ~ Jim Bakker.
Ever since I made tomorrow my favorite day, I’ve been uncomfortable looking back. ~ Paul Harvey.
Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things. ~ Robert Breault.
Do not look back upon what has been done. Go ahead! ~ Swami Vivekananda.
I’m going to look forward to the future as opposed to looking back at the past. ~ Finn Balor.
Looking back isn’t going to help you. Moving forward is the thing you have to do. ~ McKayla Maroney.
Stop looking back when your future is ahead of you. ~ Ricky Maye.
There’s only one boss in your life . . . and that’s you! The person looking back in the mirror at you is the one you have to answer to every day. ~ Wayne Dyer.
At my age you find yourself looking back from time to time and you begin to appreciate some of the things that happened to you. ~ Bob Dole.
Looking back, my life seems like one long obstacle race, with me as the chief obstacle. ~ Jack Paar.
Never look back. Nothing ever changes there. ~ Steffi Graf.
Looking back you realize that a very special person passed briefly through your Life ~ and it was you. It is not too late to find that person again. ~ Robert Breault.
They say not to look back, but if you’re not sure what lies ahead, what else is there but looking back? ~ Laurell K. Hamilton.
Inspirational Looking Back Quotes
Almost all the people who’ve had the most effect on me I seem to have met by chance, yet looking back it seems as though I couldn’t but have met them. ~ W. Somerset Maugham.
Strange, how the best moments of our lives we scarcely notice except in looking back. ~ Joe Abercrombie.
College. I didn’t even realize it was carefree at the time, but looking back, that was the most carefree time ever. ~ Blake Griffin.
Looking back, I wish I could bottle the stuff that made it better, but how can one bottle time? ~ Scott Woods.
I don’t like looking back. ~ Tommy Shaw.
Avoid the trap of looking back unless it is to glorify God for what He has done. ~ T. B. Joshua
From the outer edge of his life, looking back, there was only one remorse, and that was only that he wished to go on living. ~ Ray Bradbury
Be yourself; everyone else is taken. ~ Oscar Wilde
Looking back, I realize that nurturing curiosity and the instinct to seek solutions are perhaps the most important contributions education can make. ~ Paul Berg.
Looking back, nothing seems so simple than a utopian vision realised. ~ Wernher von Braun
Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you. ~ Satchel Paige
If you simply ignored the feeling, you would never know what might happen, and in many ways that was worse than finding out in the first place. Because if you were wrong, you could go forward in your life without ever looking back over your shoulder and wondering what might have been. ~ Nicholas Sparks
Looking back, I’m proud of what I’ve been able to do, grateful for the fact that I really have very few, if almost zero, nightmare stories of being on sets and working with the wrong people. ~ Tyler Hoechlin
The whole thing was so intense, so full of hurt that when I look back at it I squint. I want it forgotten. ~ Helen Oyeyemi
Fifty years, I hackneyed, is a long time. Not when you’re looking back at them, she said. You wonder how they vanished so quickly. ~ Isaac Asimov.
Quotes about Looking Back
Seems like the only one who doesn’t see your beauty is the face in the mirror looking back at you. ~ Taylor Swift.
Look not mournfully into the past, it comes not back again. Wisely improve the present, it is thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy future without fear and with a manly heart. ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Looking back through life, you will find the pleasure of achieving your dreams is always greater than the pain you met while achieving them. ~ Moffat Machingura
Once you make the decision to move on, don’t look back. Your destiny will never be found in the rear view mirror. ~ Mandy Hale
We only irritate ourselves when we scratch at an itch that no longer exists. ~ Jason N Versey
You live life looking forward, you understand life looking backward. ~ Soren Kierkegaard
I never looked through a keyhole without finding someone who was looking back. ~ Judy Garland.
My Life is like driving down a road. I occasionally glance in the rearview mirror, but I’m not focused on the past or looking back anymore. ~ Scott Hall.
I’m an incurable optimist, and I’m a great believer in never looking back. Life is too short, and new challenges are exciting. ~ Cherie Blair
You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. ~ Steve Jobs
When you’re single, you go out and party and it’s fun, but in a relationship, you experience things together. It’s just sharing the memories and looking back on them together, remembering that it was an amazing time. And then thinking about it like it was just yesterday. ~ Andrew W.K.
That’s the funny thing about time. It is only in looking back that it’s easy to connect the dots. To see exactly why everything needed to happen the way that it did. ~ Rebecca Serle.
Don’t look back unless it’s a good view. ~ Tupac Shakur.
Sooner or later we’ll be looking back on everything and we’ll laugh about it like we knew what all was happening ~ Michael Tolcher.
Inspiring Looking Back Quotes
Looking back at it now, I really feel like it was a gift because I don’t know if I have the talent to become a prima ballerina. It’s such a hard job to have. I don’t have any regrets about it. ~ Diane Kruger
Looking back you realize that a very special person passed briefly through your life ~ and it was you. It is not too late to find that person again. ~ Robert Breault , Looking back quotes on life
The years go by. The time, it does fly. Every single second is a moment in time that passes. And it seems like nothing–but when you’re looking back… well, it amounts to everything. ~ Ray Bradbury
Looking back now, if I went to film school, it probably would have helped to know what the best of the best of foreign films were, but that wasn’t the case. In some ways, I think that led to my originality, because I hadn’t seen anybody else. ~ Wes Craven.
Looking out at the road rushing under my wheels. Looking back at the years gone by like so many summer fields. ~ Jackson Browne
I’ve never particularly liked the idea of looking back; I’d rather look forward. ~ Jane Asher.
The only reason time seems to be moving rather fast is that sometimes we’re too busy living in the past. ~ Dominic Riccitello
Never look back unless you are planning to go that way. ~ Henry David Thoreau
No excuses and no sob stories. Life is full of excuses if you’re looking. I have no time to gripe over misfortune. I don’t waste time looking back. ~ Junior Seau.
Looking back through life you will find the pleasure of achieving your dreams is always greater than the pain you met while achieving them. ~ Moffat Machingura.
It is not possible to go forward while looking back. ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
Let hope inspire you, but let not idealism blind you. Don’t look back, you can never look back. ~ Don Henley.
Too much looking backwards is bad for progress. ~ Henry Ward Beecher.
It’s said to know I’m done. But looking back, I’ve got a lot of great memories. ~ Bonnie Blair.
I always knew looking back on my tears would bring me laughter, but I never knew looking back on my laughter would make me cry. ~ Cat Stevens.
Looking back, I guess I used to play-act all the time. For one thing, it meant I could live in a more interesting world than the one around me. ~ Marilyn Monroe
Looking back, I think we were very much a part of democratizing music, and we wanted to demystify the process of making music – to show it’s a myth. ~ Stephen Mallinder
You can almost measure where you are in life by the degree to which you have begun looking back rather than ahead. ~ Ted Koppel
You know, I try not to look back because looking forward is so much better than looking backward. ~ Jim Baker
Vonnegut could not help looking back, despite the danger of being turned metaphorically into a pillar of salt, into an emblem of the death that comes to those who cannot let go of the past ~ Kurt Vonnegut
But there’s no point in looking back and saying I was unlucky. ~ Jamie Redknapp.
It’s sad to know I’m done. But looking back, I’ve got a lot of great memories. ~ Bonnie Blair , Looking back quotes on memories
Don’t look back and ask, Why? Look ahead and ask, Why not? ~ Neil Patel.
Yes, I’m looking at you, looking at me, looking at you, looking at me, looking back at you. ~ Sammy Hagar
Looking back, I have this to regret, that too often when I loved, I did not say so. ~ Ray Stannard Baker
When a thing is done, it’s done. Don’t look back. Look forward to your next objective. ~ George C. Marshall.
When the most important times are occurring, we don’t even recognize them or notice. We are just busy living our lives. Only looking back do we know what was a great moment in our lives. ~ Federico Fellini.
I’m an incurable optimist, and I’m a great believer in never looking back. Life is too short, and new challenges are exciting. ~ Cherie Blair.
Living the past is a dull and lonely business; looking back strains the neck muscles, causing you to bump into people not going your way. ~ Edna Ferber.
Looking back, we see with great clarity, and what once appeared as difficulties now reveal themselves as blessings. ~ Dan Millman
For me, growing up felt like a roller coaster ride at times, but looking back, I don’t think that it was such a bad thing. It was all part of the excitement of being young. ~ Jameela Jamil.
Always look at what you have left. Never look at what you have lost. ~ Robert H. Schuller
Looking back, we were the luckiest people in the world. There was no choice but to be pioneers, no time to be beginners. ~ Margaret Hamilton.
Looking back upon my work today, I think the best I have done grew out of things deeply felt, the worst from a pride in mere talent. ~ Diego Rivera
Never look backwards or you’ll fall down the stairs. ~ Rudyard Kipling
Looking back, the biggest mistake I made was feeling ashamed of it. Acne is a part of Life. You don’t need to be embarrassed of it. ~ Cameron Dallas.
Ever since I made tomorrow my favorite day, I’ve been uncomfortable looking back. ~ Paul Harvey.
Best Looking Back Quotes
Obviously everyone has things in their past that they don’t enjoy looking back on [Laughs], but no, you can’t change it. ~ Taylor Momsen
Sometimes, the bravest thing you can do is to never look back. ~ Sushil Jain
If you make the mistake of looking back too much, you aren’t focused enough on the road in front of you. ~ Brad Paisley.
We ought not to look back, unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors and for the purpose of profiting by dear bought experience. ~ George Washington.
Sometimes, of all the people in the world, the one who is the hardest to forgive – as well as perhaps the one who is most in need of our forgiveness is the person looking back at us in the mirror. ~ Dieter F. Uchtdorf.
There was a time when I thought I was doing a good thing with good guys for a good cause. Looking back, I think I really wanted to be a warrior. ~ Steven Seagal.
I don’t like looking back…I’m too busy looking for the next cow. ~ Gordon Ramsay.
Looking back on the production of ‘Nevermind,’ I’m embarrassed by it now.’ It’s closer to a Motley Crue record than it is a punk rock record. ~ Kurt Cobain
Don’t look back! For a bright future is ahead of you. ~ Joel Brown.
When you’re in your nineties and looking back, it’s not going to be how much money you made or how many awards you’ve won. It’s really what did you stand for. Did you make a positive difference for people? ~ Elizabeth Dole
I have been, on the whole, a lucky man. And I would say that even now. Perhaps especially I would say it now. ~ Iris Murdoch
Always look ahead, but never look back. ~ Miles Davis
For me, I find that even though I’ve accomplished a few things in my life, looking back on accomplishments doesn’t give me a sense of satisfaction. ~ Alan Alda.
Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving. ~ Albert Einstein
We don’t want to get distracted by looking back, we need to move forward. ~ Valerie Jarrett.
I don’t like looking back. I’m always constantly looking forward to it. I’m not the one to sort of sit and cry over spilt milk. ~ Gordon Ramsay.
I don’t know whether you can look at your past and find, woven like the hidden symbols on a treasure map, the path that will point to your final destination. ~ Jodi Picoult, ‘Handle With Care’.
Looking back, I think we were all quite mature, surprisingly responsible. In earlier wars, boys of our age had just gone off to raise hell or enlist or both, but we stayed dutifully at our desks doing tomorrow’s homework. ~ John Knowles.
Looking back… it’s hard to understand what all the fuss was about as things changed in just a few years. When you look at all the things that have happened in the world, it seems very small. ~ Zola Budd
Too much looking backward … is bad for progress. ~ Henry Ward Beecher
Hopefully, through all aspects of life, you learn from things you’ve got right, things you’ve got wrong, but I’m not one for looking back. I’m looking ahead; you’ve got to. ~ Nigel Farage.
I’ve had the good fortune of having a long and varied career. Looking back, some might think things have been plain sailing but, as with anything, there have been both highs and lows. ~ Vera Lynn.
Traditionally art is to create and not to revive. To revive: leave that to the historians, who are looking backward. ~ Josef Albers
Looking back at my life’s voyage, I can only say that it has been a golden trip. ~ Ginger Rogers.
Whatever we have done, we can always make amends for it without ever looking back in guilt or sorrow. ~ Eknath Easwaran
I fear looking back and wishing I had done things I hadn’t. ~ Tom Hiddleston
Looking back, I wince at the careless way I tossed out my opinions. ~ Luke Ford.
In looking back, I see nothing to regret, and little to correct. ~ John C. Calhoun.
I tend to not look back. It’s confusing. ~ Walter Hill.
Top Looking Back Quotes
I hate that word: ‘lucky.’ It cheapens a lot of hard work. ~ Peter Dinklage
It’s sad to know I’m done. But looking back, I’ve got a lot of great memories. ~ Bonnie Blair
Doors are opening. There’s no reason to turn back. ~ Mandy Hale.
I had this vivid image of myself at the age of 60 looking back on my life and truly regretting the fact that I hadn’t tried to be an actor. ~ Lupita Nyong’o
I don’t think I made any really big mistakes; it’s just that I chose something difficult to do. Looking back, I suppose I should be grateful that I got as far as I got. ~ Harvey Pekar
If you want to live your life in a creative way, as an artist, you have to not look back too much. You have to be willing to take whatever you’ve done and whoever you were and throw them away. ~ Steve Jobs
The first time I made myself up, I was looking at my reflection in the mirror and it wasn’t me looking back. It allowed me to do things I couldn’t do as myself. I found out how powerful that was and how much that can mean to an actor. ~ Rick Baker
Do not look backwards if your goal is to move forward. ~ Germany Kent
Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness. ~ James Thurber.
Very quickly, without really looking back or trying, I was just suddenly lifted into another sphere. ~ Diane Cilento
If you make the mistake of looking back too much, you aren’t focused enough on the road in front of you. ~ Brad Paisley
Looking back on my career, I think I’ve been extremely fortunate to be in the right place at the right time in order to have the influence that I did. ~ Peter Singer
But there’s no point in looking back and saying I was unlucky. ~ Jamie Redknapp
Start wide, expand further, and never look back. ~ Arnold Schwarzenegger.
My happiest moment is the day they call wrap and I’m free. I’m not looking back. ~ Brad Pitt.
What are you going to do? Are you going to keep looking backwards, full of anger, resentment and unfulfilled desire. Or are you going to be here now. Because everything is available for you in the here and now. Love, compassion, silence, bliss and Oneness. ~ Leonard Jacobson
You can’t look back, you have to keep looking forward. ~ Lucy Liu.
Don’t stumble over something behind you. ~ Akash Gautam.
Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the Superman-a rope over an abyss. A dangerous crossing, a dangerous wayfaring, a dangerous looking-back, a dangerous trembling, and halting ~ Friedrich Nietzsche.
STOP looking back!!!! When your past calls do NOT pick up!! it has nothing new to say. ~ Joseph Simmons.
I’m not a great one for looking back. ~ Ian Botham.
Wisdom is looking back at your life and realizing that every single event, person, place, and idea was part of the perfected experience you needed to build your dream. Not one was a mistake. ~ John Frederick Demartini.
A photograph can be an instant of life captured for eternity that will never cease looking back at you. ~ Brigitte Bardot.
Look up, always. Look back, never. ~ Karen Quan.
I never look back, darling. It distracts from the now. ~ Walt Disney.
