Mary Antin Quotes

It's not like I pretend the past doesn't exist or that I'm not proud to be a part of it.

You don't want to trash what you've done; that's your history.

In fact history does not belong to us; but we belong to it.

… history does not belong to us but rather we to it

For those things which were done either by our fathers or ancestors, and in which we ourselves had no share, I can scarcely call our own.

We can never run away from our past. The past will catch up to us because it is us. It is a part of us; it's what makes us we are. It's what delineates the borders of our societies.

I always had my roots in the past.

We possess nothing certainly except the past

He sank into the rocking chair, the same one in which Rebecca had sat during the early days of the house to give embroidery lessons, and in which Amaranta had played Chinese checkers with Colonel Gerineldo Marquez, and in which Amarana Ursula had sewn the tiny clothing for the child, and in that flash of lucidity he became aware that he was unable to bear in his soul the crushing weight of so much past.

Even if we no longer have much in common, we would have always had the past, which, in some ways, is just as important as the present or future. It is where we come from, what makes us who we are.

The past is the luxury of proprietors.

All the past up to a moment ago is your legacy. You have a right to it.

The past is like the hair on our head. I moved to New York when I was twelve, but you always have this feeling that wherever you come from, you physically leave it, but it doesn't leave you.

It's always good to go home. It's strengthening to see your past and know you have someplace to go where you're part of a people.

Everyone has a past.

I've always been aware that to be named after someone from the past carries with it all kinds of bittersweetness.

I knew I could not cope with the future unless I was able to rediscover the past.

I must admit, maybe I am a piece of history after all.

It's always good to remember where you come from and celebrate it. To remember where you come from is part of where you're going.

I desire no future that will break the ties with the past.

The past is only the present become invisible and mute; and because it is invisible and mute, its memorized glances and its murmurs are infinitely precious. We are tomorrow's past.

You always want to know what happened before you. It's a human instinct to know where you came from and what preceded you.

History takes time... History makes memory.

How will we know it’s us without our past?

You can't build a future if you don't have a past.