Meaning of “But it’s no use going back to yesterday,…”

Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, Letter IX; represented Cassell & Company 1889 text in Project Gutenberg #3529. The frozen catalog reads “What a long time it requires to know ourselves, and yet every one has more of this knowledge than he is willing to own,” while the represented witness reads “What a long time it requires to know ourselves; and yet almost every one has more of this knowledge than he is willing to own, even to himself.” This collection retains its legacy shortened wording and explicitly records the omitted “almost” / closing phrase rather than silently rewriting it. Wollstonecraft is reflecting on her own solitude, experience and knowledge of the heart.

As a Man Thinketh; Allen uses circumstance as a mirror for character and habitual thought.

The Making of an American, represented by Project Gutenberg #6125. This clause is retained from Riis’s first-person immigrant autobiography as he recalls arriving in New York; it is personal retrospective narrative rather than a general claim about immigration outcomes.

The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, represented by Project Gutenberg #751. The line is spoken in Holmes’s table-talk authorial persona and followed by an Alpine image; it is a literary metaphor for intellectual expansion, not a neurological claim.

The Tempest, Act 2, Scene 1; Antonio says this while urging Sebastian toward a conspiracy against Alonso. The phrase is therefore embedded in morally compromised dramatic persuasion rather than neutral advice.

Just David, represented by Project Gutenberg #440. The sentence appears in a farewell letter from David’s father that other characters read after his death. It is framed fictional advice inside the novel, not Porter speaking autobiographically, and it does not imply that personal attitude can remove every external hardship.