What does this quote mean?

“What’s past is prologue.”

The past is framed as context rather than the whole story, leaving the future open to further action.

Source note: 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.

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.”

The verse places change inside a larger rhythm of seasons and purposes, making it useful for thinking about acceptance when one phase of life gives way to another.

Source note: Ecclesiastes 3:1 in the King James Version, opening the sequence of contrasting times and seasons.

“In a world where all is fleeting, change alone endures.”

Stability is temporary, so practical judgment requires expecting change rather than treating present arrangements as permanent.

Source note: Counsels and Maxims, T. Bailey Saunders translation, in a discussion of fortune and apparent stability.

“It is not a lost year, but one that may prove the most helpful of any you ever know.”

A painful or disappointing period can still become useful experience when it changes judgment, humility, resolve, and the way a person begins again.

Source note: Jo's Boys; the reassurance follows a setback and reframes a difficult year as experience that may later prove unusually helpful rather than simply wasted time.

“For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.”

Life continues forward despite attachment to what has already happened, so care for the past cannot make the present remain there.

Source note: The Prophet, “On Children”; Gibran contrasts parents’ memory of yesterday with children belonging to a life that moves forward.

“The readiness is all.”

The emphasis is not on controlling every outcome but on meeting what comes with preparedness and acceptance.

Source note: Act 5, Scene 2.