There is growth. Get out of the past.
Kunta Kinte's strength derives from the knowledge of where he comes from, but it struck me that I don't know where I come from. I understand that my last name is Kirby, that I was born in London, third-generation Jamaican, and at some point along the line, that name was changed. I didn't know my history past my grandparents.
Everything for me has happened so quickly. I finished shooting 'The Blind Side' not this past June, but the June before, and all of sudden up to now, it seems like it's gone from zero to 60 for me. I feel so fortunate to be able to say that.
I think it would be shocking for me to pretend not to have any past. And also, it would be a lie.
Once you get past 100, it is all about not making a mistake.
Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
I can remember back to my early tour days when some fellows didn't think I'd last too long. Nothing physical - they said it was my swing. Some said it was too much of a 'muscle swing' to stand the test of time. One fellow predicted I wouldn't get past 30 out there.
My message always is: No matter where you are from, no matter what past you have, it is all about your future and your goals.
When something's painful, you just avoid it. Why bother dredging up the past if it's nothing but bad stuff?
I have spent the past several years working so hard to just move on, and to try and build a life for myself.
I couldn't wait to look at someone who shared my genes. I thought my baby was going to provide a decoder key to my past. But then I looked at Pippa and realized, no, she's actually the key to my future.
There is plenty of blame to go around for the U.S. housing bubble, but not much of it belongs to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The two giant housing-finance institutions made many mistakes over the decades, some of them real whoppers, but causing house prices to soar and then crater during the past decade weren't among them.
When you realize the value of all life, you dwell less on what is past and concentrate more on the preservation of the future.
Once constituted, capital reproduces itself faster than output increases. The past devours the future.
Hip hop is the new rock n' roll, you know what I mean? And anybody who doesn't think that is just sort of living in the past. It's all just American music, really, when you get right down to it.
It is easier to criticize than to correct our past errors.
One of my favorite activities when I was a teenager was going riding on the back of a horse with a friend of mine. Because we were rather high up, I could see into peoples' lighted windows as we trotted past. Questions would rise up inside: Who lives there? Are they happy? What are they doing? Any dogs or cats in sight?
My past is a bit checkered.
At first, Hendrix went and became a superstar in London, but if he walked past the Apollo in Harlem, no one would know who he was. I'm the hip-hop version of him.
I faced challenges as a kid, but who hasn't? A lot of people have experienced far worse. I was bullied, sure, and it was painful at the time. I even quit high school to get away from it. But I've never been the kind of person to let my past predict my future.
It's great to have a great past and history. But it's even greater to have a good future. So the most important history is the history we make today.
We live trapped, between the churned-up and examined past and a future that waits for our work.
The fact is that we as a party at the Republican National Committee registered 3.4 million new voters in the past two years and brought them into the political process. The president won by 3.5 million votes.
The dark shadow we seem to see in the distance is not really a mountain ahead, but the shadow of the mountain behind - a shadow from the past thrown forward into our future. It is a dark sludge of historical sectarianism. We can leave it behind us if we wish.
It's great to reminisce about good memories of my past. It was enjoyable when it was today. So learning to enjoy today has two benefits: it gives me happiness right now, and it becomes a good memory later.
I've always done a lot of stunts in the past, and I sound like I'm tooting my own horn here, but I've always impressed the people I've worked with, and they've let me do more and more.
In the past, I used to tell everyone that I have never had a boyfriend, because I was still quite young. However, I cannot say the same thing now.
People don't always realize that as a performer, you've got to relive those moments. Memories crash through your brains, and you've got to think about your past and the reason why you wrote the song. All that emotion comes back.
There's no such thing as an aura of mystery anymore. It doesn't exist. That's a thing of the past.
Art need no longer be an account of past sensations. It can become the direct organization of more highly evolved sensations. It is a question of producing ourselves, not things that enslave us.
The American obsession with 'Downton' amuses me slightly because it's such a fiction. I've always been questioned about my historical veracity, and 'Downton' just flies past, when it's completely made up.
If today is anything like the typical day of the past 3 years, three American soldiers will die in Iraq or Afghanistan, the Taliban will get a little stronger in Afghanistan and the civil war will continue to be enhanced in Iraq.
The Cosby years were a major part of my life, but it is the past; I don't really concentrate on it.
By recollecting the pleasures I have had formerly, I renew them, I enjoy them a second time, while I laugh at the remembrance of troubles now past, and which I no longer feel.
I just turned 30 so I got really introspective as you do, questioning my life. And when I stopped and sort of looked back at the past decade, I realized I had done more work than I thought I had done.
I don't think the human mind can comprehend the past and the future. They are both just illusions that can manipulate you into thinking theres some kind of change.
