Quotations about:
    future

All things pass in time. We are far less significant than we imagine ourselves to be. All that we are, all that we have wrought, is but a shadow, no matter how durable it may seem. One day, when the last man has breathed his last breath, the sun will shine, the mountains will stand, the rain will fall, the streams will whisper — and they will not miss him.

Jim Butcher (b. 1971) American author

Princeps’ Fury, Epilogue [Gaius Sextus] (2008)
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Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) American poet

“A Psalm of Life” (1838)

The future is already here — it’s just not very evenly distributed.

William Gibson (b. 1948) American-Canadian speculative fiction novelist and essayist

Comment (1990s)

Original use is unconfirmed, earliest reference is in 1992. See here.

What a day-to-day affair life is.

Jules Laforgue (1860-1887) Franco-Uruguayan Symbolist poet

“Complainte sur certains ennuis,” Les Complaintes (1885)

You have no lease of your lives, and death is not bound to give you warning before it gives you that deadly blow that will send you to everlasting misery or everlasting felicity.

Thomas Brooks (1608-1680) English Puritan divine, writer

The Hypocrite Detected, Anatomized (1650)

Don’t take tomorrow to bed with you.

Norman Vincent Peale (1898-1993) American preacher, writer

Inspiring Messages for Daily Living (1981 ed.)

Science is as yet in its infancy, and we can foretell little of the future save that the thing that has not been is the thing that shall be; that no beliefs, no values, no institutions are safe. So far from being an isolated phenomenon the late war is only an example of the disruptive result that we may constantly expect from the progress of science. The future will be no primrose path. It will have its own problems. Some will be the secular problems of the past, giant flowers of evil blossoming at last to their own destruction. Others will be wholly new. Whether in the end man will survive his ascensions of power we cannot tell. But the problem is no new one. It is the old paradox of freedom re-enacted with mankind for actor and the earth for stage.

J.B.S. Haldane (1892-1964) English geneticist [John Burden Sanderson Haldane]

“Daedalus, or Science and the Future,” speech, Cambridge (24 Feb 1923)
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The cruelties and the obstacles of this swiftly changing planet will not yield to obsolete dogmas and outworn slogans. It cannot be moved by those who cling to a present which is already dying, who prefer the illusion of security to the excitement and danger which comes with even the most peaceful progress. This world demands the qualities of youth: not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease.

Robert Francis Kennedy (1925-1968) American politician

“Day of Affirmation,” address, University of Capetown, South Africa (6 Jun 1966)
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When the country goes temporarily to the dogs, cats must learn to be circumspect, walk on fences, sleep in trees, and have faith that all this woofing is not the last word.

Garrison Keillor (b. 1942) American entertainer, author

“The Meaning of Life,” We Are Still Married (1989)

A politician, for example, is a man who thinks of the next election; while the statesman thinks of the next generation.

James Freeman Clarke (1810-1888) American theologian and author

“Wanted, a Statesman!”, Old and New Magazine (Dec 1870)
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Often paraphrased: "A politician thinks of the next election; a statesman thinks of the next generation."

The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.

Buddha (c.563-483 BC) Indian mystic, philosopher [b. Siddharta Gautama]

In Bukkyõ Dendõ Kyõkai, The Teaching of Buddha (1966)

Likely a paraphrase of a variety of the Buddha's teachings.

I wouldn’t want to live in Tomorrowland, where the social patterns and infrastructure are all so spiff and modern and rational and well-designed that any remaining problems must needs be insoluble, and so a cause for despair.

Teresa Nielsen Hayden (b. 1956) American editor, writer, essayist

“On Time” (1995)
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My own personal theory is that this is the very dawn of the world. We’re hardly more than an eyeblink away from the fall of Troy, and scarcely an interglaciation removed from the Altamira cave painters. We live in extremely interesting ancient times. I like this idea. It encourages us to be earnest and ingenious and brave, as befits ancestral peoples; but keeps us from deciding that because we don’t know all the answers, they must be unknowable and thus unprofitable to pursue.

Teresa Nielsen Hayden (b. 1956) American editor, writer, essayist

“On Time” (1995)
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It isn’t good to hold on too hard to the past. You can’t spend your whole life looking back. Not even when you can’t see what lies ahead. All you can do is keep on keeping on, and try to believe that tomorrow will be what it should be — even if it isn’t what you expected.

Jim Butcher (b. 1971) American author

Death Masks (2003)

The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is now.

(Other Authors and Sources)

Chinese proverb

As I write these last words, my window, which looks west over the gardens of the Foreign Mission, is open: it is six in the morning; I can see the pale and swollen moon; it is sinking over the spire of the Invalides, scarcely touched by the first golden glow from the East; one might say that the old world was ending, and the new beginning. I behold the light of a dawn whose sunrise I shall never see. It only remains for me to sit down at the edge of my grave; then I shall descend boldly, crucifix in hand, into eternity.

François-René de Chateaubriand (1768-1848) French writer, politican, diplomat

Memoirs from Beyond the Grave [Mémoires d’Outre-Tombe], Book 42, ch. 18 (1848-1850) [tr. Kline]

TURHAN: The past tempts us, the present confuses us, and the future frightens us. And our lives slip away, moment by moment, lost in that vast, terrible in-between.

J. Michael (Joe) Straczynski (b. 1954) American screenwriter, producer, author [a/k/a "JMS"]

Babylon 5, 2×09 “The Coming of Shadows” (1 Feb 1995)

I am certain that after the dust of centuries have passed over our cities, we, too, will be remembered not for victories or defeats in battle or politics, but for our contribution to the human spirit.

John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)

Speech (29 Nov 1962)

New technologies create new customs, new laws, new ethics, new crimes.

Larry Niven (b. 1938) American writer

The Long Arm of Gil Hamilton (1976)

We always say, one day we will laugh at this. I always try to make sure that this one day is today.

Jacob Aagaard (b. 1973) Danish-Scottish chess grandmaster, author

“Are chess players intelligent?” Quality Chess Blog (6 Oct 2010)
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If you learn one thing from having lived through decades of changing views, it is that all predictions are necessarily false.

M. H. Abrams (1912-2015) American literary critic [Meyer (Mike) Howard Abrams]

In “Honored literary scholar M. H. Abrams continues his labors (of love),” interview, The Cornell Chronicle (10 Jun 1999)

Nothing stands between the people’s miserable present and its glorious future, except a minority, perhaps a majority, of perverse or merely ignorant individuals. All that is necessary is to liquidate a few thousands, or it may be a few millions, of these living obstacles to progress, and then to coerce and propagandize the rest into acquiescence. When these unpleasant but necessary preliminaries are over, the governage will begin. Such is the theory that secular apocalypticism, which is the religion of the revolutionaries. But in practice, it is hardly necessary to say, the means employed positively guarantee that the end actually reached shall be profoundly different form that which the prophetic theorists envisage.

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic

“Religion and Time,” in Christopher Isherwood, ed. Vedanta for the Western World (1945)

Therefore, two bad habits must be forbidden, both the fear of the future and the memory of by-gone trouble; the latter no longer belongs to me, the former, not yet.

Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]

Moral Letters to Lucilius [Epistulae morales ad Lucilium], letter 78, sec. 14

You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.

Henry Ford (1863-1947) American industrialist

(Attributed)

Troubles forereckoned are doubly suffered.

Christian Nestell Bovee (1820-1904) American epigrammatist, writer, publisher

(Attributed)
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Quoted in Orison Swett Marden, The Secret of Achievement (1898).

To-morrow to fresh Woods, and Pastures new.

John Milton (1608-1674) English poet

“Lycidas,” l. 193 (1638)
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It is reasonable to assume that, by and large, what is not read now will not be read, ever. It is also reasonable to assume that practically nothing that is read now will be read later. Finally, it is not too far-fetched to imagine a future in which novels are not read at all.

Gore Vidal (1925-2012) American novelist, dramatist, critic

“Thomas Love Peacock: The Novel of Ideas” (1980)

Power-worship blurs political judgment because it leads almost unavoidably to the belief that present trends will continue. Whoever is winning at the moment will always seem invincible.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]

“James Burnham and the Managerial Revolution” (May 1946)

ANTONIO: Whereof what’s past is prologue, what to come
In yours and my discharge.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet

Tempest, Act 2, sc. 1, l. 289ff (2.1.289-290) (1611)
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The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit, dramatist

A Woman of No Importance, Act 3 [Lord Illingworth] (1894)
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See also Sohrab.

Forecast: To observe that which has passed, and guess it will happen again; to anticipate the future by guessing at the past; to predict that an event will happen, if it does, by basing calculations on events that have already happened, if they did.

Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) American writer, businessman, philosopher

The Roycroft Dictionary (1914)
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The best Qualification of a Prophet is to have a good Memory.

George Savile, Marquis of Halifax (1633-1695) English politician and essayist

“Experience,” Political, Moral, and Miscellaneous Reflections (1750)
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For I can assure you that we love our country, not for what it was, though it has always been great — not for what it is, though of this we are deeply proud — but for what it someday can, and, through the efforts of us all, someday will be.

John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)

Speech, National Industrial Conference Board (13 Feb 1961)
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Man partly is and wholly hopes to be.

Robert Browning (1812-1889) English poet

“A Death in the Desert,” l. 586, Dramatis Personae (1864)

When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.

Helen Keller (1880-1968) American author and lecturer

We Bereaved (1929)

Also in The Open Door (1957).

Deserves death! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some die that deserve life. Can you give that to them? Then be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends.

J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) English writer, fabulist, philologist, academic [John Ronald Reuel Tolkien]

The Lord of the Rings, Vol. 2: The Two Towers, Book 4, ch. 1 “The Taming of Sméagol” (1954)
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Frodo recalling the words of Gandalf (approximately) in The Fellowship of the Ring.

Your job today tells me nothing of your future — your use of your leisure today tells me just what your tomorrow will be.

Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954) US Supreme Court Justice (1941-54), lawyer, jurist, politician

Speech, Building Dedication, Jamestown High School, New York (1935-11-15)
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Quoted in Eugene Gerhart, America's Advocate: Robert H. Jackson, ch. 24 (1958).

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]

(Spurious)

A common "inspirational" quote, frequently attributed to Twain, but not found in writings. Earliest found is in H. Jackson Brown, P.S. I Love You (1990), attributed to Brown's mother. More info here.

The present, as historians well know, re-creates the past. This is partly because, once we know how things have come out, we tend to rewrite the past in terms of historical inevitability.

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. (1917-2007) American historian, author, social critic

“The Historian as Participant,” Daedalus (Spring 1971)

I do not know many Negroes who are eager to be “accepted” by white people, still less to be loved by them; they, the blacks, simply don’t wish to be beaten over the head by the whites every instant of our brief passage on this planet. White people will have quite enough to do in learning how to accept and love themselves and each other, and when they have achieved this — which will not be tomorrow and may very well be never — the Negro problem will no longer exist, for it will no longer be needed.

James Baldwin (1924-1987) American novelist, playwright, activist

“Letter from a Region of My Mind,” The New Yorker (17 Nov 1962)

Republished as "Down at the Cross: Letter from a Region in My Mind" in The Fire Next Time (1963)

Any real change implies the breakup of the world as one has always known it, the loss of all that gave one an identity, the end of safety. And at such a moment, unable to see and not daring to imagine what the future will now bring forth, one clings to what one knew, or dreamed that one possessed. Yet, it is only when a man is able, without bitterness or self-pity, to surrender a dream he has long cherished or a privilege he has long possessed that he is set free — he has set himself free — for higher dreams, for greater privileges.

James Baldwin (1924-1987) American novelist, playwright, activist

“Faulkner and Desegregation,” Partisan Review (Fall 1956)

Who are you, reader, reading my poems an hundred years hence?

I cannot send you one single flower from this wealth of the spring, one single streak of gold from yonder clouds.

Open your doors and look abroad.

From your blossoming garden gather fragrant memories of the vanished flowers of an hundred years before.

In the joy of your heart may you feel the living joy that sang one spring morning, sending its glad voice across a hundred years.

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) Indian Bengali poet, philosopher [a.k.a. Rabi Thakur, Kabiguru]

The Gardener, #85 (1915)
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So, as you go into battle, remember your ancestors and remember your descendants.

[Et majores vestros et posteros cogitate]

Tacitus (c.56-c.120) Roman historian, orator, politician [Publius or Gaius Cornelius Tacitus]

Agricola, ch. 32 [tr. Acheson, ch. 4, para. 22 (1938)]
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Alt. trans: "Think of your ancestors and your posterity" or "Think of your forefathers and posterity."

I have complete faith in the continued absurdity of whatever’s going on.

Jon Stewart (b. 1962) American satirist, comedian, and television host. [b. Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz]

Interview, Philadelphia Inquirer (2007-04-22)
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When a man is in doubt about this or that in his writing, it will often guide him if he asks himself how it will tell a hundred years hence.

Samuel Butler (1835-1902) English novelist, satirist, scholar

The Note-Books of Samuel Butler, “Writing for a Hundred Years Hence” (1912)

Full text.

We know nothing of tomorrow; our business is to be good and happy today.

Sydney Smith (1771-1845) English clergyman, essayist, wit

Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith, by His Daughter, Lady Holland, Vol. 1, ch. 12 (1855)
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To complain of the age we live in, to murmur at the present possessors of power, to lament for the past, to conceive extravagant hopes of the future, are the common dispositions of the greatest part of mankind.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher

“Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents” (23 Apr 1770)

The greatest of human problems, and the greatest of our common tasks, is to keep the peace and to save the future. All that we have built in the wealth of nations, and all that we plan to do toward a better life for all, will be in vain if our feet should slip, or our vision falter, and our hopes ended in another worldwide war. If there is one commitment more than any other that I would like to leave with you today, it is my unswerving commitment to the keeping and to the strengthening of the peace. Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time.

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)

Speech (1963-12-17), United Nations General Assembly
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John Kennedy had used the same "journey" phrase from Lao-tzu early that year, before his assassination.

The mind is never satisfied with the objects immediately before it, but is always breaking away from the present moment, and losing itself in schemes of future felicity …. The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic

The Rambler, #2 (24 Mar 1750)
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Sufficient to today are the duties of today. Don’t waste life in doubts and fears; spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour’s duties will be the best preparation for the hours and ages that will follow it.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet

“Immortality,” Letters and Social Aims (1876)
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ARCHBISHOP:O thoughts of men accursed!
Past and to come seems best; things present, worst.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet

Henry IV, Part 2, Act 1, sc. 3, l. 112ff (1.3.112-113) (c. 1598)
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When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.

Thomas Paine (1737-1809) American political philosopher and writer

Common Sense (14 Feb 1776)

Source essay

Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.

J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) English writer, fabulist, philologist, academic [John Ronald Reuel Tolkien]

The Lord of the Rings, Vol. 1: The Fellowship of the Ring, Book 1, ch. 2 “The Shadow of the Past” [Gandalf] (1954)
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Frodo later recounts these words (approximately) to Sam in The Two Towers.

Whether the succeeding generation is to be more virtuous than their predecessors, I cannot say; but I am sure they will have more worldly wisdom, and enough, I hope, to know that honesty is the 1st chapter in the book of wisdom.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)

Letter to Nathaniel Macon (1819-01-12)
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Usually just the last phrase is given, and transcribed as "Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom."

More information about this quotation:

• Honesty Is the 1st Chapter in the Book of Wisdom – Quote Investigator®
• Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom (Quotation) | Thomas Jefferson's Monticello
• Image 2 of Thomas Jefferson to Nathaniel Macon, January 12, 1819 | Library of Congress

Evils in the journey of life are like the hills which alarm travelers on their road. Both appear great at a distance, but when we approach them we find they are far less insurmountable than we had conceived.

Charles Caleb "C. C." Colton (1780-1832) English cleric, writer, aphorist

Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 2, § 241 (1822)
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