Temporal Orientation Quotes

Why do we remember the past, but not the future?

Humans treat time as a map and always know where they are located on it and respond with the appropriate emotion.

‎No people whose word for 'yesterday' is the same as their word for 'tomorrow' can be said to have a firm grip on the time.

In the West we cling to the past like limpets. In Haiti the present is the axis of all life. As in Africa, past and future are but distant measures of the present, and memories are as meaningless as promises.

Wait a minute! Wait a minute! I figured this out. I know what's wrong with what we've done in Iraq. We've been following time as it goes forward. What a classic mistake. Linear time is so pre-9-11.

Time perspective is one of the most powerful influences on all of human behavior. We're trying to show how people become biased to being exclusively past-, present- or future-oriented.

The common man is not concerned about the passage of time, the man of talent is driven by it.

We are never present with, but always beyond ourselves; fear, desire, hope, still push us on toward the future.

No mind is much employed upon the present; recollection and anticipation fill up almost all our moments.

Orientation in time, space, and status are the essentials of social existence, and the Balinese, although they make very strong spirits for ceremonial occasions, with a few startling exceptions resist alcohol, because if one drinks one loses one's orientation. Orientation is felt as a protection rather than as a strait jacket and its loss provokes extreme anxiety.

I mentioned that one of the tripartite formulas in American worldview involves time: past, present, and future.