Look back, and smile on perils past.

Look back, and smile on perils past.

Nostalgia is a seductive liar.

Nostalgia is a seductive liar.

May the dreams of your past be the reality of your future

May the dreams of your past be the reality of your future

Some are so very studious of learning what was done by the ancients that they know not how to live read more

Some are so very studious of learning what was done by the ancients that they know not how to live with the moderns.

The Present is the living sum-total of the whole Past.

The Present is the living sum-total of the whole Past.

Man... cannot learn to forget, but hangs on the past: however far or fast he runs, that chain runs with read more

Man... cannot learn to forget, but hangs on the past: however far or fast he runs, that chain runs with him.

The good of other times let people state;
I think it lucky I was born so late.
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The good of other times let people state;
I think it lucky I was born so late.
[Lat., Prisca juvent alios; ego me nunc denique natum Gratulor.]

You can clutch the past so tightly to your chest that it leaves your arms too full to embrace the read more

You can clutch the past so tightly to your chest that it leaves your arms too full to embrace the present.

Listen to the Water-Mill:
Through the live-long day
How the clicking of its wheel
read more

Listen to the Water-Mill:
Through the live-long day
How the clicking of its wheel
Wears the hours away!
Languidly the Autumn wind
Stirs the forest leaves,
From the field the reapers sing
Binding up their sheaves:
And a proverb haunts my mind
As a spell is cast,
"The mill cannot grind
With the water that is past."