If you wait for tomorrow, tomorrow comes. If you don’t wait for tomorrow, tomorrow comes.
—African Proverb
No yesterdays are ever wasted for those who give themselves to today.
—Brendan Behan (1923–64) Irish Poet, Novelist, Playwright
Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. This day is all that is good and fair. It is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on yesterdays.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Trust no future, howe’er pleasant! Let the dead past bury its dead! Act,—act in the living Present! Heart within and God o’erhead.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
It’s not what if, it’s what now.
—Unknown
If you have one eye on yesterday, and one eye on tomorrow, you’re going to be cockeyed today.
—Unknown
We are always getting ready to live, but never living.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon—instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.
—Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American Self-Help Author
I can feel guilty about the past, apprehensive about the future, but only in the present can I act. The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness.
—Abraham Maslow (1908–70) American Psychologist, Academic, Humanist
Eternity is not something that begins after you’re dead. It is going on all the time. We are in it now.
—Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935) American Feminist, Writer
God made the world round so we would never be able to see too far down the road.
—Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen) (1885–1962) Danish Novelist, Short-story Writer
The future is an opaque mirror. Anyone who tries to look into it sees nothing but the dim outlines of an old and worried face.
—Jim Bishop (1907–87) American Journalist, Author
Life lived for tomorrow will always be just a day away from being realized.
—Leo Buscaglia (1924–98) American Motivational Speaker
Old times never come back and I suppose it’s just as well. What comes back is a new morning every day in the year, and that’s better.
—George Edward Woodberry (1855–1930) American Literary Critic, Poet
Slight not what’s near through aiming at what’s far.
—Euripides (480–406 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
We can easily manage, if we will only take, each day, the burden appointed for it.—But the load will be too heavy for us if we carry yesterday’s burden over again today, and then add the burden of the morrow to the weight before we are required to bear it.
—John Newton (1725–1807) English Clergyman, Writer
Waste not fresh tears over old griefs.
—Euripides (480–406 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
If a man carefully examine his thoughts he will be surprised to find how much he lives in the future. His well-being is always ahead. Such a creature is probably immortal.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
If you worry about what might be, and wonder what might have been, you will ignore what is.
—Anonymous
It’s but little good you’ll do a-watering the last year’s crops.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
The past is a good place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.
—Anonymous
It is only possible to live happily-ever-after on a day-to-day basis.
—Margaret Wander Bonanno American Writer, Publisher
The Past is the textbook of tyrants; the Future the Bible of the Free. Those who are solely governed by the Past stand like Lot’s wife, crystallized in the act of looking backward, and forever incapable of looking before.
—Herman Melville (1819–91) American Novelist, Short Story Writer, Essayist, Poet
The future is an unknown, but a somewhat predictable unknown. To look to the future we must first look back upon the past. That is where the seeds of the future were planted. I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
Nothing ever gets anywhere. The earth keeps turning round and gets nowhere. The moment is the only thing that counts.
—Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French Poet, Playwright, Film Director
Why be saddled with this thing called life expectancy? Of what relevance to an individual is such a statistic? Am I to concern myself with an allotment of days I never had and was never promised? Must I check off each day of my life as if I am subtracting from this imaginary hoard? No, on the contrary, I will add each day of my life to my treasure of days lived. And with each day, my treasure will grow, not diminish.
—Robert Brault
We cannot carry our father’s corpse with us everywhere we go.
—Guillaume Apollinaire (1880–1918) Italian-born French Poet, Playwright
We steal if we touch tomorrow. It is God’s.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
The past is a bucket of ashes, so live not in your yesterdays, nor just for tomorrow, but in the here and now. Keep moving and forget the post-mortems. And remember, no one can get the jump on the future.
—Carl Sandburg (1878–1967) American Biographer, Novelist, Socialist
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