Anne Lamott Quotes

I have realized that the past and future are real illusions, that they exist in the present, which is what there is and all there is.

The present moment, if you think about it, is the only time there is. No matter what time it is, it is always now.

I love having no sense of tomorrow or yesterday.

Time is an illusion. Time only exists when we think about the past and the future. Time doesn't exist in the present here and now.

Your entire life only happens in this moment. The present moment is life itself. Yet, people live as if the opposite were true and treat the present moment as a stepping stone to the next moment - a means to an end.

Unless one is able to live fully in the present, the future is a hoax.

Live in the present moment. The past and future are nonexistent. Only the present can be grasped or, better, embraced.

Life is like music for its own sake. We are living in an eternal now, and when we listen to music we are not listening to the past, we are not listening to the future, we are listening to an expanded present.

People don't realize that now is all there ever is; there is no past or future except as memory or anticipation in your mind.

Tomorrow doesn't exist, yesterday is gone. The more I remind myself of that, the stronger I feel.

The past is a ghost, the future a dream, and all we ever have is now.

Time is not a line, but a series of now-points.

There is neither Past nor Future. There is only the Present.

My friend, the sufi is the friend of the present moment. To say tomorrow is not our way.

There is not past, no future; everything flows in an eternal present.

Live in the present, remember the past, and fear not the future, for it doesn't exist and never shall. There is only now.

It's being here now that's important. There's no past and there's no future. Time is a very misleading thing. All there is ever, is the now. We can gain experience from the past, but we can't relive it; and we can hope for the future, but we don't know if there is one.

I wrote 'My Name is Red' just to remember painting, where the hand does it before the intellect. When I'm captive to it, I'm a happier person. Kierkegaard tells us that a happy person is someone who lives in the present; the unhappy person, someone who lives either in the past or the future.

Our present moment is a mystery that we are part of. Here and now is where all the wonder of life lies hidden. And make no mistake about it, to strive to live completely in the present is to strive for what already is the case.

I'm about the present.

Suddenly, you are very much in the present, and you learn it's really the place where you should always live.

Now is the only thing that exists.

There are things that I would say that you could call an instant of time; or better, a now. As we live we seem to move through a succession of instants of time, nows, and the question is, what are they? There are where everything in the universe is at this moment, now.

The dog lives for the day, the hour, even the moment.

I don't think you go out of style when you're living in the present most of the time. And I think that is what I do.