The man who regards his past is a man who deserves to have no future to look forward to.
 Oscar Wilde, Intentions (1891). copy citation

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Author Oscar Wilde
Source Intentions
Topic past future
Date 1891
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/887/887-h/887-h.htm

Context

“The æsthetic critic, constant only to the principle of beauty in all things, will ever be looking for fresh impressions, winning from the various schools the secret of their charm, bowing, it may be, before foreign altars, or smiling, if it be his fancy, at strange new gods. What other people call one’s past has, no doubt, everything to do with them, but has absolutely nothing to do with oneself. The man who regards his past is a man who deserves to have no future to look forward to. When one has found expression for a mood, one has done with it. You laugh; but believe me it is so. Yesterday it was Realism that charmed one. One gained from it that nouveau frisson which it was its aim to produce.” source