Tradition is a matter of much wider significance. It cannot be inherited, and if you want it you must obtain it by great labour. It involves, in the first place, the historical sense, which we may call nearly indispensable to anyone who would continue to be a poet beyond his twenty-fifth year; and the historical sense involves a perception, not only of the pastness of the past, but of its presence.
What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.
We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
Augustine of Hippo·398 ADThe present of things past is memory; the present of things present is sight; and the present of things future is expectation.
Marcus Aurelius·180 ADThat which comes after ever conforms to that which has gone before.
Thich Nhat Hanh·2006The present moment contains past and future. The secret of transformation, is in the way we handle this very moment.
