Who controls the past now controls the future._x000D_ Who controls the present now controls the past._x000D_ Who controls the past now controls the future._x000D_ Who controls the present now?
Interpretation
The way we interpret history shapes our understanding of the present and future.
This quote emphasizes the power of perspective in shaping reality. It implies that those who influence our understanding of history and current events hold significant power over societal beliefs and future directions, suggesting a cycle of control over time that hinges on the narrative constructed by the present.
In practice
In a speech about media influence, you might use this quote to highlight how narratives are shaped.
I think every revolutionary act is an act of love. Every song that I've written, it is because of my desire to use music as a way to empower and re-humanize people who are living in a dehumanizing setting. The song is in order to better the human condition.
Brothers and sisters, our democracy has been hijacked. Brothers and sisters, all electoral freedoms in this country are over so long as it's controlled by corporations. Brothers and sisters, we are not going to allow these streets to be taken over by the Democrats or the Republicans. Because it's all of us who have built this city, and we can tear it down unless they give us what we need.
Yes I know my enemies. They're the teachers who taught me to fight me, compromise, conformity, assimilation, submission, ignorance, hypocrisy, brutality, the elite, all of which are American dreams.
It has to start somewhere, it has to start sometime, what better place than here? What better time than now?
I think that communism was a major force for violence for more than 100 years, because it was built into its ideology - that progress comes through class struggle, often violent.
It is far more important to me to preserve an unblemished conscience than to compass any object however great.
Our fortunes rise together, and they fall together. 'All men are brothers,' said the Analects. We have a collective responsibility-to bring about a more stable and more prosperous world, a world in which every person in every country can reach their full potential.
Mankind today is still making history without having any conscious idea of what it really wants or under what conditions it would stop being unhappy; in fact what it is doing seems to be making itself more unhappy and calling that unhappiness progress.
You cannot reshape human nature without mutilating human beings.
People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.
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