Thinking About The Future

You can tell a lot about a topic by Googling the words >>quotes about topic<< and seeing how much people have said about it. "The Future" is one of those subjects people think about quite a bit, and about which much has been said. Even though we're urged to live in the present, it's a pretty big challenge. It's not entirely healthy to neglect the future altogether.

While going through some notes I came across these two quotes about the future which connected with me. The Lapham quote jumped out at me because I'm currently reading Mark Twain's autobiography. Twain gave instructions that it not be published till one hundred years in the future after his death. He wanted to be blunt and totally frank in the recording of his life observations, and did not want his words to be injurious to anyone still living, or their children. He figured one hundred years was a fairly safe distance.

“Twain said that history doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” ~ Lewis Lapham

"Nothing ages so quickly as yesterday's vision of the future" ~ Richard Corliss

These quotes set me thinking there may be other thoughts about the future that would make good food for thought today. So I decided to see what I could mine from the 1607 quotations about the future gathered at Goodreads. Here's a smattering.

“Why didn't I learn to treat everything like it was the last time. My greatest regret was how much I believed in the future.” ~ Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

“The future depends on what you do today.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

“Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.” ~ Malcolm X

“The future is uncertain but the end is always near.” ~ Jim Morrison

"Drink like there's no tomorrow and pretty soon there's no tomorrow." ~ Author Unknown

“The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine.” ~ Nikola Tesla

“It's possible to go on, no matter how impossible it seems.” ~ Nicholas Sparks, Dear John

“The past is made out of facts... I guess the future is just hope.” ~ Isaac Marion, Warm Bodies

“The past was gone and the future had yet to unfold, and he knew he should focus his life on the present…yet his day-to-day existence suddenly struck him as endless and unbearable.” ~ Nicholas Sparks, The Choice

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” ~ Søren Kierkegaard


Speaking of the future, as I write this there's an opening reception at the Duluth Art Institute this evening that you won't want to miss if you're here in the Twin Ports. Starts at 5:00 p.m., about ten hours from now.

Meantime, life goes on .... all around you. Embrace it.