John Ashbery Quotes

time past and time future what might have been and what has been point to one end, which is always present.

The present, like a note in music, is nothing but as it appertains to what is past and what is to come.

Conventionally, one looks at history as something of the past. But after Einstein, who knows what is in the past and what is in the present?

The experience of every past moment but belies the faith of each present.

Today is, after all, today, but yesterday is of the same substance as tomorrow.

What we call the present is given shape by an accumulation of the past.

Time present and time past / are both perhaps present in time future.

There is no past or future. Using tenses to divide time is like making chalk marks on water.

There was nothing for it but to pace through just behind or ahead of the spooling present that was never there, caught in the nonexistent interval between the nonexistent past and the nonexistent future.

The present is big with the future, the future might be read in the past, the distant is expressed in the near.

In time there is no present, In eternity no future, In eternity no past.

If I have the chance to time travel, might as well go all out.

We must not confuse the present with the past. With regard to the past, no further action is possible.

Nothing has happened in the past; it happened in the Now. Nothing will ever happen in the future; it will happen in the Now.

There is neither past nor future. There is only the present. Yesterday was the present to you when you experienced it, and tomorrow will be also the present when you experience it. Therefore, experience takes place only in the present, and beyond experience nothing exists.

The past is weird. I mean, does it really exist ? It feels like it exists, but where is it ? And if it did exists, but doesn’t now, then where did it go ?

... we may remember what the Romansthought a cultivated person ought to be: one who knows how to choose his company among men, among things, among thoughts, in the present as well as in the past.

Sometimes I think I live more closely to the past than the present.

We know the past but cannot control it. We control the future but cannot know it.

The most notable thing about Time is that it is so purely relative. A large amount of reminiscence is, by common consent, conceded to the drowning man; and it is not past belief that one may review an entire courtship while removing one's gloves.

The past is what the present is doing now.

Today, we don't talk about history. The past is two weeks ago, and the future is two weeks after.

The present is our future past, we've gotta make this moment last

I spend so much time like living in the past or the future. I mean, I think most people do, really. And the moments when you're really present in your life can be pretty rare, really.

The future has no other reality than as present hope, and the past is no more than present memory.