Reflecting on the past can be a painful and tricky experience. So many things might have happened that still impact you today, and we all have memories which bring up strong feelings. Although it’s important to reflect on the past and the lessons you learned, it’s crucial that you don’t get stuck there. Here are 40 don’t look back quotes to help remind you to focus on the present moment and look to the future.
The past is the past
You might look back on your past with warm feelings, or maybe you are reminded of difficult times in your life. Either way, it’s important to remember that the past only exists in your memory.
As Eckhart Tolle explains, the present moment is all we ever have. Choosing to focus on the present moment is a great way of finding inner peace and clarity. Focusing too much on the past means you miss out on the gift of what’s right in front of you.
If you still have things to process from your past, that’s okay. Consider a form of reflective journaling to help you process what happened, or even seek a mental health professional who can help you move forward. Know that it doesn’t have to define you anymore.
Here are 40 don’t look back quotes to help you release the past and move forward with confidence!
Don’t Look Back Quotes
- “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” – Wayne Dyer
- “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” – John F. Kennedy
- “It’s better to look ahead and prepare, than to look back and regret.” – Jackie Joyner-Kersee
- “Look back, and smile on perils past.” – Walter Scott
- “Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness.” – James Thurber
- “Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too.” – Marcus Aurelius
- “When life knocks you down, try to land on your back. Because if you can look up, you can get up. Let your reason get you back up.” – Les Brown
- “Look at situations from all angles, and you will become more open.” – Dalai Lama
- “When I look into the future, it’s so bright it burns my eyes.” – Oprah Winfrey
Move Forward Quotes
- “In football, the worst things are excuses. Excuses mean you cannot grow or move forward.” – Pep Guardiola
- “I’m reflective only in the sense that I learn to move forward. I reflect with a purpose.” – Kobe Bryant
- “For society to progress, we should not only move forward but also clean up after ourselves.” – Boyan Slat
- “Life is like the monkey bars: you have to let go to move forward. Once you make the decision to leap into entrepreneurship, be sure to loosen your grasp on old concepts so you can swing your way to new ones.” – Leah Busque
- “As long as you as an individual… can convince yourself that in order to move forward as best you can you have to be optimistic, you can be described as ‘one of the faithful,’ one of those people who can say, ‘Well, look, something’s going to happen! Let’s just keep trying. Let’s not give up.” – Tom Hanks
- “You can’t change history. These things happened the way they did. What you can change is how you look at it and how you understand that it takes the good moments and it takes the difficult moments to move forward.” – Margot Lee Shetterly
- “I never dwell on what happened. You can’t change it. Move forward. Don’t waste your energy on being angry at something that somebody did six months ago or a year ago. It’s over. Done. Move forward.” – Joan Rivers
- “When you hold on to anger and unforgiveness, you can’t move forward.” – Mary J. Blige
- “Some people only ask others to do something. I believe that, why should I wait for someone else? Why don’t I take a step and move forward.” – Malala Yousafzai
- “Life is supposed to be about love and good times, and so I’ve forgiven myself after paying the consequences of my bad decisions, and I’m ready to move forward and allow my life to be a light to others that it’s never over, even for a person like me, who has lost a tremendous amount of respect among my peers, my fans, my friends and family.” – Jon Jones
More Don’t Look Back Quotes
- “I tend not to look back. It’s confusing.”- Walter Hill
- “I walk slowly, but I never walk backward.” – Abraham Lincoln
- Don’t look back and ask, Why? Look ahead and ask, Why not?”- Neil Patel
- “There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.”- C.S. Lewis
- “Start wide, expand further, and never look back.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger
- “’Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” – Alfred Lord Tennyson
- “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” – Steve Jobs
- “You can never plan the future by the past.” – Edmund Burke
- “It is never too late to be what you might have been.” – George Eliot
- “I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.” – Mark Twain
Focus on the Now Quotes
- “Change your life today. Don’t gamble on the future, act now, without delay.” – Simone de Beauvoir
- “Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later.” – Og Mandino
- “Go for it now. The future is promised to no one.” – Wayne Dyer
- “I shall pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.” – Stephen Grellet
- “Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally. If you want to take responsibility for your life, you must choose one of those three options, and you must choose now. Then accept the consequences.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “The time for action is now. It’s never too late to do something.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery
- “Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.” – Buddha
- “Life gives you plenty of time to do whatever you want to do if you stay in the present moment.” – Deepak Chopra
- “There is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the present moment. A man’s whole life is a succession of moment after moment. If one fully understands the present moment, there will be nothing else to do, and nothing else to pursue. Live being true to the single purpose of the moment.” – Yamamoto Tsunetomo
- “If you look to your past or even your present to see why you are here or what your purpose is, you may get stuck in a limited view of yourself. Instead, look beyond your years here on earth, reconnect with the divine, and bring forth your soul’s legacy into the present moment.” – Debbie Ford
Don’t Look Back Quotes: Final Thoughts
Use these quotes to help inspire and encourage you to not look back. The past is the past. You don’t need to worry about it anymore. If these quotes inspire you, consider writing your favorite ones in your journal, or sharing them with a loved one. It’s time to move forward and make the most of the present moment!