The past stays put, I just keep moving farther away from it.
Interpretation
The past is fixed and unchangeable, while we can choose to move forward in life.
This quote by Thomas Jefferson emphasizes the idea that the past is immutable and does not change, while our actions and decisions drive us into the future. It serves as a reminder that we have the power to leave behind what has already occurred, allowing us to focus on growth and progress as we navigate through life.
In practice
This quote can be used in a motivational speech to encourage people to focus on their future rather than dwelling on past mistakes.
The firmness with which the (American) people have withstood the... abuses of the press, the discernment they have manifested between truth and falsehood, show that they may safely be trusted to hear everything true and false and to form a correct judgment between them.
I, place economy among the first & most important republican virtues, & public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared
βWe must make our choice between economy and liberty or confusion and servitude...If we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and comforts, in our labor and in our amusements...if we can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people, under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy.
Very many and very meritorious were the worthy patriots who assisted in bringing back our government to its republican tack. To preserve it in that, will require unremitting vigilance.
A nation, as a society, forms a moral person, and every member of it is personally responsible for his society.
Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.
The ancients were afraid that if they went to the end of the earth they would fall off and be consumed by dragons. But once we understand that Christianity is true to what is there, true to the ultimate environment - the infinite, personal God who is really there - then our minds are freed. We can pursue any question and can be sure that we will not fall off the end of the earth.
Freedom means you are unobstructed in living your life as you choose. Anything less is a form of slavery.
To be ashamed of one's immorality: that is a step on the staircase at whose end one is also ashamed of one's morality.
America is a willingness of the heart.
I was by birth a gentleman, living neither in any considerable height nor yet in obscurity.
He had possessed the arrogance of a tall member of a short race, with no obligation save to be tall.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.