It may be enough to study history in all its nuance and ambiguity for its own sake. But there is no country free of the need to find new ways of reading the past as an inspiring way of thinking about everything else, including the present.
Colm Toibin
Related The unfortunate thing is that, sometimes, we slip, but, fortunately, consciously or unconsciously, w... ERNEST AGYEMANG YEBOAH Be kind. We never know what people are going through. Give grace and mercy because one day your circ... GERMANY KENT There is (as I now find) no remorse for time long past, even for what may have mortified us or made ... GEORGE SANTAYANA However much history may be invoked in support of these policies (affirmative action), no pol... THOMAS SOWELL London has the trick of making its past, its long indelible past, always a part of its present. And ... ANNA QUINDLEN May I never neither turn left nor turn right in my journey of life, but may I go straight to Christ ... ERNEST AGYEMANG YEBOAH If New Orleans is not fully in the mainstream of culture, neither is it fully in the mainstream of t... TOM ROBBINS The more God is glorified the more man is energic and the more satan is weak. INDONESIA123 How should I know?" said Alice, surprised at her own courage. "It's no business of mine." The Q... LEWIS CARROLL Beauty is desired in order that it may be befouled; not for its own sake, but for the joy brought by... GEORGES BATAILLE India may be the only country in the world that has been free of anti-Semitic prejudice throughout i... GARY WEISS Kindness is universal. Sometimes being kind allows others to see the goodness in humanity through yo... GERMANY KENT Deliberately to pursue happinesss is not the surest way of achieving it. Seek it for its own sake an... ROBERT J. MCCRACKEN I don't know if I have a favorite color. KATE MIDDLETON It's very special having a new little girl. KATE MIDDLETON History always constitutes the relation between a present and its past. Consequently fear of the pre... JOHN BERGER [The Church] has lived through its early travails and has now come to accept an easier way of life. ... A.W. TOZER For starters, that’s a rather simple principle of Time Travel right there – and according to the... CHRISTINA ENGELA To get over the past, you first have to accept that the past is over. No matter how many times you r... MANDY HALE I like to open for a band as it brings on sort of a challenge and it makes things more interesting. ... KELLY JONES No use thinking of the past for its gone, don't think of the future because it has to come, think of... KAZI SHAMS Reach out and help others. If you have the power to make someone happy, do it. Be a vessel, be the c... GERMANY KENT No one should let yesterday use up too much of today. Easy to say, hard to live. ANDREA HAIRSTON Truth is power, but only when one has patience and requires of it no immediate effect. And one must ... ROMANO GUARDINI In the spiritual world there are no time divisions such as the past, present and future; for they ha... DAISETZ T. SUZUKI Have no fear of change as such and, on the other hand, no liking for it merely for its own sake ROBERT MOSES Now is everything Now is the essence Now is the focus Focus on the now For that ... KAREN HACKEL I don't define lust as anything evil or nasty. Lust as defined by me, is the feeling of desire: a de... C. JOYBELL C. The public must be put in its place, so that it may exercise its own powers, but no less and perhaps... WALTER LIPPMANN Avoid the temptation to force a moment so you won’t miss the one with your name on it. GINA GREENLEE The very concept of history implies the scholar and the reader. Without a generation of civilized pe... GEORGE F. KENNAN New York is an ugly city, a dirty city. Its climate is a scandal, its politics are used to frighten ... JOHN STEINBECK What is pertinent is the calmness of beauty, its sense of restraint. It is as though the land knows ... KAZUO ISHIGURO Clay in the hands of a good potter suffers so many good turns, but in the end, we see its real and t... ERNEST AGYEMANG YEBOAH Unexpected clashes between past and present may arouse a surge of bewilderment, but ‘time’ can b... ERIK PEVERNAGIE Each age tries to form its own conception of the past. Each age writes the history of the past anew ... FREDERICK JACKSON TURNER The ascendancy over men's minds of the ruins of the stupendous past, the past of history, legend and... ROSE MACAULAY An open mind is all very well in its way, but it ought not to be so open that there is no keeping an... SAMUEL BUTLER Thinking about the future and thinking about the past is really only a way of ignoring the present. BILLY CORGAN From the Kindle Book Reflections in the Mirror of Life: “In a slum somewhere in India As... THE PROPHET OF LIFE I think every once in a while country has lost its way, but found its way back. It's always goin... RANDY TRAVIS In the journey of life, certain paths may seem to be leading nowhere because of a mountain or hill o... ERNEST AGYEMANG YEBOAH Human beings are too important to be treated as mere symptoms of the past. They have a value which i... LYTTON STRACHEY Only he who can view his own past as an abortion sprung from compulsion and need can use it to full ... WALTER BENJAMIN ... I realized that my father had learned something in his recovery that I still hadn't totally gras... RENEE CARLINO But you have to let go of it sometime, Gaby. You can't change the past, any of it, and hanging on ju... SOHEIR KHASHOGGI I was reading a book... 'the history of glue' - I couldn't put it down. TIM VINE We're doomed to repeat the past no matter what. That's what it is to be alive. It's pretty dense kid... KURT VONNEGUT It is not the creation of wealth that is wrong, but the love of money for its own sake. MARGARET THATCHER Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinki... CHRISTOPHER MORLEY Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinki... CHRISTOPHER MORLEY Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, everyday, something no one else is thinkin... CHRISTOPHER MORLEY When you live in the present, the past is forgotten & the future takes care of itself. MANDY HALE Each mind conceives god in its own way. There may be as many variation of the god figure as there ar... BANGAMBIKI HABYARIMANA The history of liberty is a history of resistance. WOODROW WILSON The history of astronomy is a history of receding horizons. EDWIN POWELL HUBBLE The history of mankind is a history of war. MIKE LOVE History has been the history of warfare. GODFREY REGGIO I am thinking about the past, I am living in the past but my body is in the present. Where am I? I m... EPHDAN In the two-room flat where I live in Japan, I try to take time every day to step away from the bomba... PICO IYER Understand the causes of terror? Yes, we should try, but let there be no moral ambiguity about this:... TONY BLAIR No use thinking of the past for its gone, don't think of the future because it has to come, think of... KAZI SHAMS Don't you ever get the feeling that all your life is going by and you're not taking advantage of it?... ERNEST HEMINGWAY If God give you strength and courage, don't use it to intimidate people or overpower them, rather us... ANTHONY LICCIONE Mindfulness is observing the beauty of every moment unfolding before us. AMIT RAY The history of the past is but one long struggle upward to equality. ELIZABETH CADY STANTON The past ignorance has great lessons for us in our present day. Until we take real lessons from the ... ERNEST AGYEMANG YEBOAH Empathy is the new measurement of everything. It doesn't matter what religion you have, what God you... C. JOYBELL C. For all its vanity about its own courage, the film is afraid of itself. It is soaked in the sweat of... LEON WIESELTIER Being different is not just a great thing, it is a blessing! SUJISH KANDAMPULLY Surely it is foolish to hate facts. The struggle against the past is a futile struggle. Acceptance s... LEON WIESELTIER Only by acceptance of the past, can you alter it. T.S. ELIOT My wife and I don't consider ourselves just the owners of the railroad. We consider ourselves guardi... AL HARPER Life begins somewhere and ends somewhere with time but to get somewhere with the life you have depen... ERNEST AGYEMANG YEBOAH That's really sad," Beth said softly, "To have no one left. R.J. SCOTT You never find virtuosity for its own sake. DANIEL HOPE If it is the mark of the artist to love art before everything, to renounce everything for its sake, ... ELLEN TERRY If it is the mark of the artist to love art before everything, to renounce everything for its sake, ... ELLEN TERRY I lead no party; I follow no leader. I have given the best part of my life to careful study of Islam... MUHAMMAD IQBAL Integrity is not everything, but it is the only thing that matters. JEFFREY FRY To have the cognitive abilities to do research and development is vital to a forever expanding world... GARY F EVANS... Battle for the sake of honor may be a fine thing for bards to sing of, but it is no way to preserve ... JACQUELINE CAREY I have always wished the present to resemble memory: because the present can be flat at times, and b... LYDIA MILLET Though denigrated by some outside academia and research, she embraced knowledge for its own sake and... THOMM QUACKENBUSH It may be argued that the past is a country from which we have all emigrated, that its loss is part ... SALMAN RUSHDIE I like to define biology as the history of the earth and all its life — past, present, and future.... RACHEL CARSON Pause & Remember- If you empty yourself of yesterday's sorrows, you will have much more room for... JENNI YOUNG I sent American troops to Iraq to make its people free, not to make them American. Iraqis will write... GEORGE W. BUSH There is no one way to salvation, whatever the manner in which a man may proceed. All forms and vari... MIYAMOTO MUSASHI What has gained more and more importance in recent years in Germany is the search for the past, for ... JO GROEBEL To the man who loves art for its own sake, it is frequently in its least important and lowliest mani... ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE She said 'Over my dead body!' so I took her at her word. DIANA WYNNE JONES The end of the world is a strange concept. The world is always ending, and the end is always being a... NEIL GAIMAN What is the Other?" they ask. The Other is the one who taught me whatI should be like, but not ... PAULO COELHO Now is the only time we have, and the only time that we have any control over. RICHARD CARLSON The fear of God is the only cure for the fear of people. CRAIG GROESCHEL It is not history which uses men as a means of achieving - as if it were an individual person - its ... KARL MARX Beautify your breath – beautify your life. AMIT RAY Laziness acknowledges the relation of the present to the past but ignores its relation to the future... W.H. AUDEN It's all to do with the training: you can do a lot if you're properly trained. QUEEN ELIZABETH II
More Colm Toibin
Between the time I was 16 until I was about 20, the books I read were by people like Thomas Mann, Ja... COLM TOIBIN When I was 19, I thought I wanted to be an English civil servant. It was the most exotic thing at th... COLM TOIBIN Look at Austen. In her novels, you get a dance, followed by an encounter, followed by a letter, then... COLM TOIBIN You create a world away from home and make new rooms for yourself. But when you arrive back home in ... COLM TOIBIN I lived in the Republic of Ireland. I wrote a book about the North but as an outsider. The hatreds t... COLM TOIBIN I write with a sort of grim determination to deal with things that are hidden and difficult, and thi... COLM TOIBIN I am violently untidy. My desk is overcrowded. I write my first drafts in longhand in a long noteboo... COLM TOIBIN I have to write a first draft with a fountain pen before I type it up as a second. COLM TOIBIN Life has a funny way of becoming ordinary as soon as it can. 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