QuoteProject
Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.
Henry David Thoreau
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Avoid dwelling on the past unless it's for a purposeful reason.

This quote suggests that one should not fixate on the past, except when there is an intention of learning from it or using it to inform future decisions. Thoreau emphasizes the importance of moving forward in life and focusing on the present and future rather than getting stuck in previous experiences.

Themes

PastFutureMoving OnIntentionsPlanning

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be shared during a motivational speech to encourage individuals to focus on their future aspirations.

More from Henry David Thoreau

None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Henry David ThoreauRead
Through want of enterprise and faith men are where they are, buying and selling and spending their lives like servants.
Henry David ThoreauRead
An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.
Henry David ThoreauRead
Have no mean hours, but be grateful for every hour, and accept what it brings. The reality will make any sincere record respectable.
Henry David ThoreauRead
As every season seems best to us in its turn, so the coming in of spring is like the creation of Cosmos out of Chaos and the realization of the Golden Age.
Henry David ThoreauRead
That grand old poem called Winter
Henry David ThoreauRead

Similar quotes

People now live their lives like an open wound to be famous - they do bad things because they're rewarded for it.
Ricky GervaisRead
Ordinary women attempt to change our bodies to resemble a pornographic ideal. Ordinary women construct a false self and come to hate this self.
Susan GriffinRead
One must pass through the network of influence. One is obligated to be influenced, and one accepts this influence very naturally. From the start, one doesn't realize this. The first thing to know: one doesn't realize one is influenced. One thinks he is already liberated, and one is far from it!
Marcel DuchampRead
I still don't even know if the sheriff will let me see him. And suppose he did; what then? What do I say to him? Do I know what a man is? Do I know how a man is supposed to die? I'm still trying to find out how a man should live. Am I supposed to tell someone how to die who has never lived?
Ernest GainesRead
The Universal Declaration... as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations...it not only crystallizes the political thought of our times on these matters, but it has also influenced the thinking of legislators all over the world.
Dag HammarskjoldRead
Our little solos are a note in an immense chorus vibrating grandly through the universe, a chorus which accepts and harmonizes the whir of the cricket and the long drum-roll of the stars.
Harriet MonroeRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.