Anton Chekhov Quotes

Events are as much the parents of the future as they were the children of the past.

The cause of today is the effect of the past and the cause for the future.

There is not any present moment that is unconnected with some future one. The life of every man is a continued chain of incidents, each link of which hangs upon the former.

The past is what makes now like now makes tomorrow.

The present is the necessary product of all the past, the necessary cause of all the future.

There is no future without a past, because what is to be cannot be imagined except as a form of repetition.

The present contains nothing more than the past, and what is found in the effect is already in the cause.

What happened yesterday affects today; what happens today will affect tomorrow/

There can be neither today without yesterday nor tomorrow without today.

To our critical eyes, the threads of which the past is woven are, by nature, endless and indivisible. Scientifically speaking, we cannot grasp the absolute beginning of anything: everything extends backwards to be prolonged by something else.

The present is determined by our past actions, and the future by the present.

The future is foretold from the past and the future is only possible because of the past. Without past and future, the present is partial. All time is eternally present and so all time is ours. There is no sense in forgetting and every sense in dreaming. Thus the present is made rich.

To-day is the pupil of yesterday

Events do not really have beginnings or ends. Behind every event is the previous one, causing, or helping to cause, what follows.

History dies without the present. There is no future without the path made to it by the past.

The past is the father of the present.

The past, as you suggest, is absolutely present at all times and the present is born from the past. I wouldn't want to suggest that the past determines the present.

You are caught in the current of unceasing change. Your life is a ripple in it. Every moment of your conscious life links the infinite past with the infinite future. Take part in both and you will not find the present empty.

For one change always leaves a dovetail into which another will fit.

There is no man who is not, at each moment, what he has been and what he will be.

Where are the links of the chain ... joining us to the past?

The Past, the Future, O dear, is from you; you should regard both these as one.

The past is the present, isn’t it? It’s the future too.

The secret of the world is the tie between person and event. Person makes event and event person.

The seeds of the past bear fruit in the present.