Frederick Douglass Quotes

History is the interpretation of the significance that the past has for us.

The history of the past interests us only in so far as it illuminates the history of the present.

We can neither ignore the history of the past nor create the future.

Presidents look back seeking both inspiration for the future and sanction for the moment

I hope my journals relating to World War II will help clarify issues of the past and thereby contribute to understanding the issues and conditions of the present and future.

As an architect, you design for the present, with an awareness of the past, for a future which is essentially unknown.

I believe that patterns tend to repeat themselves and there are connections between the past and the present. There is the old proverb that reads, 'You can't know where you're going if you don't know where you've been'. For me, history is like that. When you take history and combine it with myth, then you get mystery.

Those who try to obliterate the past are injuring the present.

It takes a long time to bring the past up to the present.

What would we do without plaques to tell us who lived where and when? They introduce the past into the present, and are the quickest and most interesting way of reminding us that our streets exist above and beyond the here-and-now.

One faces the future with one's past.

Happy is the person who knows what to remember of the past, what to enjoy in the present, and what to plan for in the future.

Never underestimate how history injects itself into the present.

History isn’t just what happened before we came on the scene. We are a part of history..

Ere we can forecast the future we must understand the present and bring a just sense of proportion to our review of the history of the past.

The past is the present and the future too.

Study the past, if you would divine the future.

It is not well to go into things long past, unless to learn something for our present guidance.

Ancient histories provide windows to knowing current affairs.

History is written not only for posterity but by posterity as well.

Everything new appears from the elements of the Past, because “ex nihilo nihil fit.” The prolific development of culture requires that the inventory of values be kept in the memory of tradition and passed to future generations

It would be well if, in studying the past, we could always bear in mind the problems of the present

The future is unknowable, but the past may give us hope.

Each day has its own destiny. Yesterday is history, today is opportunity while tomorrow is mystery.

You can’t just wave a magic wand and make our history go away..