
I have never been able, really, to regret anything in all my life. I have always been far much too absorbed in the present moment or the immediate future to think back.
Albert Camus in The Stranger

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Related quotes
Life can be found only in the present moment. The past is gone, the future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life.
quote by Thich Nhat Hanh

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Present
Bury the Past
Forget the Future
Think about the Present
Be alert and cautious in the present
Do not regret about the past
Or worry about the future
Past is gone
Future is unknown
Present is what you have today
So utilise it to the fullest extent
Its your life's biggest asset
That will fetch you great dividends
Realize that this is a gift given to you by God
That's why it is called as "PRESENT"
poem by Kavita Iyer

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Lifes a Journey
As I sit and look back at my life and the things I did, whether they were good or bad...I am here...
The past is my life long journey of truely finding my self.
My present is my life journey to correct my past mistakes and improve my present.
My Future is what I make of my present.
So I choose wisely because I only have one past, present and future.....
poem by Yahaira Perez

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Dimension Merge
For us the past has gone and the present moves on
into the yesterday of a future’s present time.
Despite living in the future’s past this will not last,
present and future will very soon combine.
Future or dimension, to some a misapprehension,
but they are one in the same.
If there’s more than one, they will follow on
to leave one, with it’s present name.
On merging we’ll realise we’ve no future to recognise,
and the past and present is all we’ll know.
The past will still be renewed, with each day used,
but the future will mean only tomorrow.
poem by Orlando Belo

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IF I Could Skip A Few Years Ahead
when i get in to the moment
i get deep into the moment
and when im deep in the moment
im in the future
and when im in the future
i want whats in my presents
i dont live for whats now
cause whats today doesnt have my name on it
but whats in the future i can put my name on it
but not only my name
i can put a ring on it
a ring that symbolize
my life and want is my desire
for todays present day
yes i rush because today is
just a tall tale
tomorrow isnt promise
but if i put a destination on life
into the future
i will get there
because today is not my friend
the future is my answer
my answer of life
god told this is the man i am
and im gonna live that man
one day................this is why i only to see the future
cause i know love dont stop hear today
the love is beyond today
and beyond my destination in the future
but i feel love today
its just that the love that in the future
sees me in todays world
and im desting to be that love
poem by James Bost

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You Can Have the Future
You Can Have the Future
by Alex Lewis
The present is malicious.
difficulty=delicious
We will to Hell be sent
If this is only the present.
What is the future if this is present?
Peace must have come and went.
Why should mankind advance?
He started on his last chance.
The present is so bad
That the years just add and Add.
In the future, what will become?
We cannot reverse what is done.
You can have the future.
You can have the future.
Take it far away.
It'll last a day.
Never let me see it again.
wHAT, wHERE, wHEN.
You can have the future.
poem by Alex Lewis

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S e l f' ' s g r a c e
It’s said that we are graced
specifically, in three ways:
(though we might add,
but what is human life but grace?)
those three, firstly the divine grace
which we may turn to, any time,
in the scriptures as set down
(which we must bring to life ourselves..)
and then, the grace which flows
through the good fortune to find
(or does he or she find us?)
a teacher who may steer our course
through life, through teachings, and
through the understanding which we bring;
and third and last – and most mysterious,
most powerful, most firmly set;
and most of all, which all our living life
partakes of: grace of self.
But what is that? So darkly set
by our past thoughts, and words, and acts;
so darkly, lightly, made each moment’s presence
by our present life; and which, darkly again,
must influence our future life in ways
or even in our future bodies, if
such teachings as the Hindus hold
may energize our ways…
Can we, should we, attempt a gratitude
to our mysterious former self – that thus
we are, and to our present moment, brought?
So should we, in some novel, inner way,
dedicate our present self – to… self?
Fall silent, still; and in that place beyond
all thought, all word, all act, all sense, all seeing,
dissolve into ourself; know only, being?
poem by Michael Shepherd

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Only Now
Who knows about the future? What ever will we find?
What things are in store by chance or is it grand design?
What can be done today to alter the future course?
Live fully now and let these actions show their force.
Today at work or play know only present time exists.
Real world has little room for past-present-future trysts.
The future you require, joyful or dire, will never arrive.
Future will always be tomorrow as long as you are alive.
So love and live each instant of this and every day.
Be careful that you or the moment never waste away.
Do not condemn yourself to a life of sanguine sorrow
By treating today as if it were yesterday or tomorrow.
poem by Gregory Huyette

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Beyond the present
It took forever to spend the last few years
I wanted to take life beyond, to the future
But now as i head towards fate, I have a fear
What if its not what i see?
Now i regret, now if i could relieve the gone moments
The ones i spent in planning this day
But now m fed up of this planning and think
Is it even gonna be that way?
I'm tired of thinking got no zeal to act
Enjoy life as it comes, now tis a proven fact
I know why i wanna go back
M scared of the future
And i dnt have memories to rejuvenate my soul
And no close mates to share life with
well, i can't look back as time has pushed me to the brink
the ocean's out there, here i am, ready to sink
Just a few years n future will show its face
I have been imagining a world of my own
any way I'll have to move on
but now i still do wish......
life.......either take me fast to the future end
or back...........so i relive my past.......
poem by Pooja Ladyluck

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mrs P.A.S.T
Past, present, future where am I
Because i still cry 4 past
I still smile because of u present
And i still need u future...
I took a step back yesterday..
And realized I'm still in my previous..
but present told me 2 let go
I said i couldn't
'It Once Made Me Smile'..
Future laughed
And said
so unfortunate Mr Past wont be there in my chapter..
so i cried
poem by Gift Macozoma

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Constant Time
Time past and the future give way to this present picture,
But can somebody tell me how to recognize that gate that leads to the bed of roses,
We speak about the future like the past is a grain of sand on the shore,
Washed away by the ocean tide,
Giving way to new grains to make a portrait of the present,
These past memories stay deep in our heart like the depths of the ocean,
Though it gets washed back to shore ones in a blue moon,
Reminding us that our past is a standard measurement of our strength,
Time moves so fast making the past to fade away,
this makes us seem so secured about the present,
Forgetting the fact that our present becomes our past that was once a present from nature as a new day,
Some take the future to be a dream and a wish,
But I take my future to be what I see when I stand from the bottom of the mountain to look at the top,
And my past to be the depth of the ocean that can always be washed ashore …
The only thing I can control is my present,
Yes cos my mind controls my hands to give you a flash of what goes on in my head
Like this words i write to you was once my future and will become my past, making my future my past and my past my future..So ironical isn’t it?
Standing here I sure know 1 thing,
I will reach the top by that foot path,
Yes of course it’s not to mean that I wouldn’t fall,
But I have to break myself off my present past and walk with grace to stand where I belong,
There where I am the king of my destiny,
The past is just going to be a page of memories,
And my future will become my present making time constant in my head,
Because I stand on my past which was once my present and my present which was once my future, making time equal and constant
As I flip thru this page of life,
By: ade
poem by Adeniran Oluokun

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Time
Who knows about the future? Who knows what we'll find?
What good and bad things are in store by chance or design?
What can be done today to alter the future's course?
If truth be known you alone rule effects of its force.
Today at work or play only the present exists.
A wise world has no room for a past-present-future tryst.
Each future hour, joyful or dour, will never arrive.
The future will be the future as long as you're alive
The past is gone forever never to steal today's times,
Unless could-have-been memories commit awful crimes.
So love and live each instant of each and every day.
You have so little time as each moment passes away.
poem by Gregory Huyette

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How small a portion of our life it is that we really enjoy! In youth we are looking forward to things that are to come; in old age we are looking backward to things that are gone past; in manhood, although we appear indeed to be more occupied in things that are present, yet even that is too often absorbed in vague determinations to be vastly happy on some future day when we have time.
quote by Charles Caleb Colton

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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What matters is to live in the present, live now, for every moment is now. It is your thoughts and acts of the moment that create your future. The outline of your future path already exists, for you created its pattern by your past.
Now!
Out of your whole life give but a moment!
All of your life that has gone before,
All to come after it, -- so you ignore,
So you make perfect the present, condense,
In a rapture of rage, for perfection's endowment,
Thought and feeling and soul and sense,
Merged in a moment which gives me at last
You around me for once, you beneath me, above me --
Me, sure that, despite of time future, time past,
This tick of life-time's one moment you love me!
How long such suspension may linger? Ah, Sweet,
The moment eternal -- just that and no more --
When ecstasy's utmost we clutch at the core,
While cheeks burn, arms open, eyes shut, and lips meet!
poem by Robert Browning

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Mask Of Future
Dreams weren’t farfetched for me
Life wasn’t bad for me
I got everything I wanted,
Power and ability, and even opportunity
But I ignored something unknown.
I got an opportunity,
But I did not complete my wish.
I did not misuse my opportunity,
But this world has a sequence.
A flow which we all follow
Something I failed to do.
I used my powers at the wrong time.
I stepped into higher steps ignoring the lower ones.
But I failed to realize something,
I failed to realize that everything required a basement.
A basement on which it can stand.
A power on which it can function.
I ignored the lower aspects of my life,
I went for the larger ones and accomplished them with ease
But there were two things in the lower steps.
Two things that I ignored.
Time and patience.
I ignored the aspect of time, and looked into the future.
I lacked patience and was eager to reach the future.
But I failed to realize that the future did not exist.
We can never reach our future.
For, when we reach it, it becomes the present.
I failed to realize that the future is yet another present,
A present which I always ignored.
I failed to realize that we can control only our present.
Use the present wisely, and the future will follow up.
I failed to see the hidden mask of future.
A mask, if opened, showed that the future is just another present.
poem by Vivek Kartha

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A Difficult Life! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
no whys
but dies again and again and again
alive again and again and again
no destinations
but orientations again and again and again
lost in forested thoughts
concepts dead like machines
but improvisations again and again and again
future
but present moment-to-moment awareness again and again and again
'The End' of a film'A Difficult Life! ! ! '
History
Yesterday is History.
History brings us to this present moment
but it doesn't shape who we are at this present moment.
We can't let our History control us
and who we wish to be.
Our future is our choice,
Not History's.
poem by Tiana Webb

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Some Where In The Future
We stand together, united as one,
forward on we go, facing friend and foe.
We do not turn back for regret;
we have not time for that.
If we make mistakes
we will repair them at a future time,
we can stop to help an injured soul,
for a brief moment in time as we go.
Our mission lies, somewhere in the future,
so we cannot linger here.
What our mission is, only someone else knows.
We will know what it is
before the final curtains close.
poem by David Harris

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Emergency Exit
I must be present now
before I can have a past;
I must be present now
to create a future then.
If I still my present mind
and exchange present thoughts
for nothing at all,
I have escaped past and future
and achieved a timeless peace
with no yesterday, no tomorrow.
I am
before
Abraham was.
poem by Brian Taylor

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