65 Past Quotes to Inspire You to Move Ahead in Life

The importance of reflecting on the past is underscored in these quotes, emphasizing how past experiences, particularly mistakes, can serve as significant learning opportunities.

By drawing lessons from past errors, one can devise better strategies and actions to achieve success in the future.

Nonetheless, it’s crucial to strike a balance; while our past can provide valuable insight for future aspirations, it shouldn’t dominate our present life.

Some people advocate for never looking back, others see past experiences as catalysts for future goals.

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Ultimately, the past serves as a resource for learning and growth; if certain aspects are unbeneficial, it’s necessary to recognize this and move forward.

These quotes inspire readers to utilize their past constructively, encouraging them to continually progress in life.


Best Past Quotes

Your past is always your past. Even if you forget it, it remembers you. ~ Sarah Dessen.

The past is never where you think you left it. ~ Katherine Anne Porter.

To put the past behind you, you must accept that you’ve moved beyond it. ~ Ruth.

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I tell you the past is a bucket of ashes. ~ Carl Sandburg.

Forgiveness means letting go of the past. ~ Gerald Jampolsky.

The past has no power over the present moment. ~ Eckhart Tolle.

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The past is a guidepost, not a hitching post. ~ L. Thomas Holdcroft.

The past is not a package one can lay away. ~ Emily Dickinson.

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Whatever with the past has gone, the best is always yet to come. ~ Lucy Larcom.

You realize that our mistrust of the future makes it hard to give up the past. ~ Chuck Palahniuk.

Bring the past only if only you are going to build from it. ~ Domenico Cieri Estrada.

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment. ~ Buddha.

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The past can’t hurt you anymore, not unless you let it. ~ Alan Moore.

Don’t make excuses, don’t blame the past. The rest of your life can be the best of your life! ~ Joel Osteen.

Famous Past Quotes

The one charm of the past is that it is the past. ~ Oscar Wilde.

Your past is just a story. And once you realize this it has no power over you. ~ Chuck Palahniuk.

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It’s okay to look back at your past. Just don’t stare. ~ Benjamin Dover.

The past is strapped to our backs. We do not have to see it; we can always feel it. ~ Mignon McLaughlin.

My past has not defined me, destroyed me, deterred me, or defeated me; it has only strengthened me. ~ Steve Maraboli.

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The past beats inside me like a second heart. ~ John Banville.

You have to know the past to understand the present. ~ Carl Sagan.

Related: Spiritual Healing Quotes for Inspiration and Encouragement and Time Flies Quotes to Reflect on Past Memories

Events in the past may be roughly divided into those which probably never happened and those which do not matter. ~ William Ralph Inge.

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I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past. ~ Thomas Jefferson.

Forget the past. ~ Nelson Mandela.

The core principle for being at peace in the present moment is to act or accept, but never stay stuck. ~ John Kuypers.

If you can create something inspirational for the future, it’s easy to let go of the past. ~ Melchor Lim.

I like to use the hard times in the past to motivate me today. ~ Dwayne Johnson.

Some of the best lessons we ever learn are learned from past mistakes. The error of the past is the wisdom and success of the future. ~ Dale Turner.

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The past speaks to us in a thousand voices, warning and comforting, animating and stirring to action. ~ Felix Adler.

Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin. ~ Mother Teresa.

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The past is behind, learn from it. The future is ahead, prepare for it. The present is here, live it. ~ Thomas S. Monson.

Scars have the strange power to remind us that our past is real. ~ Cormac McCarthy.

Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present. ~ Bill Keane.

Top Past Quotes

I think when you move past your fear and you go after your dreams wholeheartedly, you become free. ~ LL Cool J.

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Whenever I think of the past, it brings back so many memories. ~ Steven Wright.

The present changes the past. Looking back you do not find what you left behind. ~ Kiran Desai.

The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. ~ Lesley Hartley.

The only person with whom you have to compare ourselves, is that you in the past. And the only person better you should be, this is who you are now. ~ Sigmund Freud.

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We are products of our past, but we don’t have to be prisoners of it. ~ Rick Warren.

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. ~ Søren Kierkegaard.

History is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past rushing into the future. To try to hold fast is to be swept aside. ~ John F. Kennedy.

Short Past Quotes

The past is just a story we tell ourselves. ~ Spike Jonze.

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We go to the past to lay the blame – since the past can’t argue. ~ Glen Duncan.

Whatever we think of the past, we must not be prisoners to it. ~ Barack Obama.

Don’t think about the past. Just be here now. ~ Ram Dass.

Look back and smile on perils past. ~ Walter Scott.

When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche.

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Study the past, if you would divine the future. ~ Confucius.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. ~ George Santayana.

The past explains how I got here, but the future is up to me – and I love to live life at full throttle. ~ Janice Dickinson.

There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future. ~ Saint Augustine.

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The past is always judged by the present. ~ Neith Boyce.

Don’t judge me by my past. I don’t live there anymore. ~ Zig Ziglar.

We need not destroy the past. It is gone. ~ John Cage.

Inspiring Past Quotes

We can draw lessons from the past, but we cannot live in it. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson.

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Always look at what you have left. Never look at what you have lost. ~ Robert H. Schuller.

Your past doesn’t define who you are. It just gives you the starting point for who you’re going to be. ~ Agent Carolina.

We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility of our future. ~ George Bernard Shaw.

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The past is always tense, the future perfect. ~ Zadie Smith.

Don’t brood on the past, but don’t forget it either. ~ Thomas H. Raddal.

I’m looking forward to the future and feeling grateful for the past. ~ Mike Rowe.

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The past is a stepping stone, not a millstone. ~ Robert Plant.

Don’t let the past steal your present. This is the message of Christmas: We are never alone. ~ Taylor Caldwell.

The one charm of the past is that it is the past. ~ Oscar Wilde.


So these were the 65 quotes about Past.

If these quotes and sayings connect with you, check out our other posts on introspection quotes and destination quotes.

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Chandan Negi
Chandan Negi

I’m the Founder of Internet Pillar - I love sharing quotes and motivational content to inspire and motivate people - #quotes #motivation #internetpillar