Quote Atlassourced quotes & context
Source identified
Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure.
Read & copy the quotation
“Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure.”

Jane Austen

Download image (JPG)

Source
Pride and Prejudice
Date
1813
Local voice
Fictional character · Elizabeth Bennet
Meaning

Meaning of “Think only of the past as its remembrance…”

The advice does not erase the past; it questions repeated attention to memories that no longer help the present.

Source context

Where does it come from?

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 58.

Primary / edition source ↗

Speaker context

Why the local voice matters

Elizabeth says this to Darcy in Pride and Prejudice while discussing his earlier letter and their changed feelings.

Customize your imageTen designs · Square or portrait · Preview and share
Themes

Ideas connected with this quotation

Acceptance Quotes About Reality, Limits & ChangeForgivenessGriefHealingLetting Go Quotes About Release & Moving ForwardMoving OnSadShortWisdom Quotes About Judgment & Living WellLife Goes OnMemoriesPastPleasureWords of Wisdom: Practical & Philosophical Counsel
Related quotations

Continue through nearby ideas

Source identified
To mourn a mischief that is past and gone is the next way to draw new mischief on.
Read & copy

“To mourn a mischief that is past and gone is the next way to draw new mischief on.”

William Shakespeare · Othello · c. 1603
Voice: Fictional character · Duke of Venice
Meaning & context

Grief over what cannot be changed can become a second injury when it prevents attention to what can still be done.

Source details

Othello, Act I, Scene III, reviewed against the scan-backed 1910 First Folio facsimile on Wikisource. The Duke's 'To mourne a Mischeefe that is past and gon' sentence is part of the same attempt to redirect Brabantio after Desdemona's marriage; this collection preserves modernized spelling and punctuation rather than Folio orthography.

↓ Download image (JPG)

Source identified
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
Read & copy

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

Kahlil Gibran · The Prophet · 1923
Meaning & context

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

Source details

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

↓ Download image (JPG)

Source identified
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.
Read & copy

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

Ecclesiastes · King James Bible — Ecclesiastes 3:1 · 1611
Meaning & context

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 details

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

↓ Download image (JPG)

Source identified
We need never be ashamed of our tears.
Read & copy

“We need never be ashamed of our tears.”

Charles Dickens · Great Expectations · 1861
Voice: Fictional narrator · Pip
Meaning & context

Tears are treated as an honest human response rather than evidence of weakness or failure of self-control.

Source details

Great Expectations (1861), global Chapter XIX / Volume I Chapter XIX in the Chapman & Hall three-volume first book edition. As Pip leaves the village and breaks into tears, the retrospective narrator says that “we need never be ashamed of our tears” before reflecting on ingratitude toward Joe. Verified against the scan-backed Wikisource Chapter XIX transcription and cross-checked with Project Gutenberg #1400. The passage remains literary reflection on Pip’s remorse rather than modern clinical or grief-treatment evidence.

↓ Download image (JPG)