Lucille Clifton Quotes

To be born again is to let the past go, and look without condemnation upon the present.

To reach up for the new, you must let go of the old. What lies behind you is not nearly as important as what lies in front of you.

If you asked me for my New Year Resolution, it would be to find out who I am.

When you invoke the agent of change called acceptance, you must accept all that you are, all that you've been, and all that you will be in the future.

There is a fine balance between honoring the past and losing yourself in it. For example, you can acknowledge and learn from mistakes you made, and then move on and refocus on the now. It is called forgiving yourself.

What has happened has happened. What is done cannot be undone. There is no point in looking back and ruminating over the past. I am a forward-looking man. I want to look ahead; I want to put my past behind me. I want to make my country proud.

Your present is shaped by your yesterday, but you don't have to advertise it.

Sometimes in life, you have to make things happen. That you can change your life if you're willing to let go of the old and actively look for the new. That even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.

There are a few things that I regret, but nothing that I need to forget.

There just comes a time when it's so clear that moving on is the best decision.

When you must choose a new path, do not bring old experiences with you. Those who strike out afresh, but who attempt to retain a little of the old life, end up torn apart by their own memories.

Every man should be born again on the first day of January. Start with a fresh page. Take up one hole more in the buckle if necessary, or let down one, according to circumstances; but on the first of January let every man gird himself once more, with his face to the front, and take no interest in the things that were and are past.

What do I want to let go of and what do I want to give myself to?

No one can begin a new life, unless he repent of the old.

You can't look back - you just have to put the past behind you, and find something better in your future.

The pages of your past cannot be rewritten, but the pages of your tomorrows are blank.

The past was always there, lived inside of you, and it helped to make you who you were. But it had to be placed in perspective. The past could not dominate the future.

You've got to let it go and say it was the best I could do at that time and place in my life. You hope that the thing you're doing next is a little bit better.

I don't harp on what I could change about the past, because I can't go back and change it. But definitely a lot of things I would change.

I don't live that life anymore, it's as simple as that.

I try not to dwell on the past. I'm not a big go-back-and-try-to-relive-your-past kinda person.

I don't really regret anything in my life.

That's a part of me going back to what I used to do.

You can't really go back to where you came from. I don't think any of us can.

We all fantasize about a relationship we'd like to do over or something we'd like to change about our past. I think there are a lot more opportunities for second chances in our lives than we think.