What would we do without plaques to tell us who lived where and when? They introduce the past into the present, and are the quickest and most interesting way of reminding us that our streets exist above and beyond the here-and-now. – Craig Brown
From about 5 years old on, I was very contemplative and started to become constantly filled with nostalgia for the present moment and the feeling that it’s always fleeting. – Alex Ebert
There was a time when we expected nothing of our children but obedience, as opposed to the present, when we expect everything of them but obedience. – Anatole Broyard
Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now. – Alan Lakein
Everyone working on ‘Tyrant’ wants to present the world and the issues in it in an intelligent, open, fair, non-reductive kind of way. For the actors, we have to try and make these stories as truthful and compelling as possible. – Adam Rayner
Occupation is the Palestinian people’s tragedy, but also Israel’s present. We must liberate both people from the occupation. – Ayman Odeh
The thing I have always tried to do is surprise people: to present them with something they didn’t expect. – Christopher Lee
The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion. – Albert Einstein
In some of the middle colonies the towns and counties were both active and had a relation with each other which was the forerunner of the present system of local government in the Western States. – Albert Bushnell Hart
I wouldn’t say I invented tacky, but I definitely brought it to its present high popularity. – Bette Midler
I like gaps; all my stories have gaps. It seems this is the way people’s lives present themselves. – Alice Munro
Woodstock is the only thing we have going for us in this part of the state in terms of national recognition. The idea is to extract what was good about Woodstock, repackage it, and present it to Middle America. – Alan Gerry
The left has lost touch with popular opinion, thereby making it possible for the right to present itself as the party of common sense. – Christopher Lasch
You can understand a lot about yourself by working out which fairytale you use to present your world to yourself in. – A. S. Byatt
Time starts out as a notion. But after you turn fifty, time is not a notion anymore but a fact that you start feeling clearly, and in a way, it pushes you to become present in the present. – Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
If the Negroes are to remain forever removed from the producing atmosphere, and the present discrimination continues, there will be nothing left for them to do. – Carter G. Woodson
Bring your desires down to your present means. Increase them only when your increased means permit. – Aristotle
Less about politics, ‘The Path to 9/11’ focused on the emergence of radical Islamic terror as a clear and present American threat. – Andrew Breitbart
We talk about characters in literature as though they were built on the model of the real person, but then I often think that the way we present ourselves as real people is based heavily on the way literary psychologies are stylized, and I wonder how the two forms of realistic personhood feed on or fulfill each other. – Alexandra Kleeman
There’s challenges in life that present themselves unexpectedly, and if you rise to them, then those challenges will toughen you up. – Bernard Sumner