The 81 All-Time Best Looking Back Quotes
Enjoy the little things for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.
You live life looking forward, and you understand life looking backward. Good looking back quotes help to tell a story and enhance your life in the present.
Words that are crafted well can leave a lasting impact on the world. Looking back quotes have been an integral part of literature for many decades.
Recently, many movies, dramas, and programs have also highlighted some inspiring looking back quotes. Whatever type of individual you may be, (never) looking back quotes will always motivate you to strive for excellence.
Read on for some of the best looking back quotes that will inspire you and help you focus on your work. You'll find the best looking back quotes, what could have been quotes, where I stared quotes, looking back at what you've learned quotes and more.
If you like this article, check out Carpe Diem quotes and life is short quotes as well.
Best Quotes About Looking Back To Move Forward
People usually don’t look back at the past, instead, they live in the present and enjoy the moment. Quotes about leaving the past behind have been penned by many famous authors.
Looking back quotes usually refers to reminiscing about something that has happened in the past. Here are some of the best looking back quotes that will help you move forward in life.
1. “You live life looking forward, you understand life looking backward.”
- Soren Kierke.
2. “In looking back, I see nothing to regret, and little to correct.”
- John C. Calhoun.
3. “Wisdom is looking back at your Life and realising that every single event, person, place and idea was part of the perfected experience you needed to build your dream. Not one was a mistake.”
- John Federick Demartini.
4. “Looking back we see with great clarity, and what once appeared as difficulties now reveal themselves as blessings.”
- Dan Millman.
5. “The years go by. The time flies. Every single second is a moment in time that passes. And it seems like nothing - but when you’re looking back ... well, it amounts to everything.”
- Ray Bradbury.
6. “Looking back at my life’s voyage, I can only say that it has been a golden trip.”
- Ginger Rogers.
7. “It’s said to know I’m done. But looking back, I’ve got a lot of great memories.”
- Bonnie Blair.
8. “You can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards.”
- Steve Jobs
9. “When the most important times are occurring, we don’t even recognize them or notice. We are just busy living our lives. Only looking back do we know what was a great moment in our lives.”
- Federico Fellini.
10. “Living the past is a dull and lonely business; looking back strains the neck muscles, causing you to bump into people not going your way.”
- Edna Ferber.
11. “Too much looking backwards is bad for progress.”
- Henry Ward Beecher.
12. “Looking back you realize that a very special person passed briefly through your Life- and it was you. It is not too late to find that person again.”
- Robert Breault.
13. “You can’t look back, you have to keep looking forward.”
- Lucy Liu.
14. “I always knew looking back on my tears would bring me laughter, but I never knew looking back on my laughter would make me cry.”
- Cat Stevens.
15. “If you make the mistake of looking back too much, you aren’t focused enough on the road in front of you.”
- Brad Paisley.
16. “I don’t like looking back. I’m always constantly looking forward to it. I’m not the one to sort of sit and cry over spilt milk.”
17. “Looking back, we were the luckiest people in the world. There was no choice but to be pioneers, no time to be beginners.”
- Margaret Hamilton.
18. “Looking back isn’t going to help you. Moving forward is the thing you have to do.”
- McKayla Maroney.
19. “It is not possible to go forward while looking back.”
- Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
20. “Looking back, I wince at the careless way I tossed out my opinions.”
- Luke Ford.
21. “My Life is like driving down a road. I occasionally glance in the rearview mirror, but I’m not focused on the past or looking back anymore.”
- Scott Hall.
22. “Looking back, the biggest mistake I made was feeling ashamed of it. Acne is a part of Life. You don’t need to be embarrassed of it.”
- Cameron Dallas.
23. “No excuses and no sob stories. Life is full of excuses if you’re looking. I have no time to gripe over misfortune. I don’t waste time looking back.”
- Junior Seau.
24. “My happiest moment is the day they call wrap and I’m free. I’m not looking back.”
- Brad Pitt.
25. “Looking back, my life seems like one long obstacle race, with me as the chief obstacle.”
- Jack Paar.
Quotes About Looking Back On Memories
Stop looking back quotes from famous individuals will help you realize the importance of keeping on moving forward in the life. There is no better way to introspect than reading a quote about your past or enjoying insightful looking forward quotes.
Looking back quotes funny or serious, are enjoyable nonetheless. Here are some of the best looking back sayings for your perusal.
26. “Ever since I made tomorrow my favorite day, I’ve been uncomfortable looking back.”
- Paul Harvey.
27. “For me, growing up felt like a roller coaster ride at times, but looking back, I don’t think that it was such a bad thing. It was all part of the excitement of being young.”
- Jameela Jamil.
28. “If you make the mistake of looking back too much, you aren’t focused enough on the road in front of you.”
- Brad Paisley.
29. “That’s the funny thing about time. It is only in looking back that it’s easy to connect the dots. To see exactly why everything needed to happen the way that it did.”
- Rebecca Serle.
30. “A photograph can be an instant of life captured for eternity that will never cease looking back at you.”
- Brigitte Bardot.
31. “I never looked through a keyhole without finding someone who was looking back.”
- Judy Garland.
32. “But there’s no point in looking back and saying I was unlucky.”
- Jamie Redknapp.
33. “We don’t want to get distracted by looking back, we need to move forward.”
- Valerie Jarrett.
34. “I’m an incurable optimist, and I’m a great believer in never looking back. Life is too short, and new challenges are exciting.”
- Cherie Blair.
35. “I’ve had the good fortune of having a long and varied career. Looking back, some might think things have been plain sailing but, as with anything, there have been both highs and lows.”
- Vera Lynn.
36. “Looking back, I think we were all quite mature, surprisingly responsible. In earlier wars, boys of our age had just gone off to raise hell or enlist or both, but we stayed dutifully at our desks doing tomorrow’s homework.”
- John Knowles.
37. “Hopefully, through all aspects of life, you learn from things you’ve got right, things you’ve got wrong, but I’m not one for looking back. I’m looking ahead; you’ve got to.”
- Nigel Farage.
38. “Looking back, I realize that nurturing curiosity and the instinct to seek solutions are perhaps the most important contributions education can make.”
- Paul Berg.
39. “There was a time when I thought I was doing a good thing with good guys for a good cause. Looking back, I think I really wanted to be a warrior.”
- Steven Seagal.
40. “I’m going to look forward to the future as opposed to looking back at the past.”
- Finn Balor.
41. “I don’t know whether you can look at your past and find, woven like the hidden symbols on a treasure map, the path that will point to your final destination.”
- Jodi Picoult, 'Handle With Care'.
42. “Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.”
- Robert Breault.
43. “I don’t like looking back...I’m too busy looking for the next cow.”
- Gordon Ramsay.
44. “Seems like the only one who doesn’t see your beauty is the face in the mirror looking back at you.”
- Taylor Swift.
45. “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.”
- Albert Einstein.
46. “Looking back through life you will find the pleasure of achieving your dreams is always greater than the pain you met while achieving them.”
- Moffat Machingura.
47. “For me, I find that even though I’ve accomplished a few things in my life, looking back on accomplishments doesn’t give me a sense of satisfaction.”
- Alan Alda.
48. “Looking back now, if I went to film school, it probably would have helped to know what the best of the best of foreign films were, but that wasn’t the case. In some ways, I think that led to my originality, because I hadn’t seen anybody else.”
- Wes Craven.
49. “They say not to look back, but if you’re not sure what lies ahead, what else is there but looking back?”
- Laurell K. Hamilton.
50. “Sometimes, of all the people in the world, the one who is the hardest to forgive – as well as perhaps the one who is most in need of our forgiveness is the person looking back at us in the mirror.”
- Dieter F. Uchtdorf.
No Looking Back Quotes
It is often said, never look back at the past or the things that happened in the past, for it will affect you. Keep on going the way where your life takes you. Here are some of the best quotes about not looking back that will drive you forward in life.
51. “I’ve never particularly liked the idea of looking back; I’d rather look forward.”
- Jane Asher.
52. “Doors are opening. There’s no reason to turn back.”
- Mandy Hale.
53. “I tend to not look back. It’s confusing.”
- Walter Hill.
54. “Don’t look back unless it’s a good view.”
- Tupac Shakur.
55. “Don’t look back! For a bright future is ahead of you.”
- Joel Brown.
56. “Don’t look back and ask, Why? Look ahead and ask, Why not?”
- Neil Patel.
57. “Start wide, expand further, and never look back.”
- Arnold Schwarzenegger.
58. “Do not look back upon what has been done. Go ahead!”
- Swami Vivekananda.
59. “Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness.”
60. “Let hope inspire you, but let not idealism blind you. Don’t look back, you can never look back.”
- Don Henley.
61. “When a thing is done, it’s done. Don’t look back. Look forward to your next objective.”
- George C. Marshall.
62. “You know, I try not to look back, because looking forward is so much better than looking backward.”
- Jim Bakker.
63. “We ought not to look back, unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors and for the purpose of profiting by dear bought experience.”
- George Washington.
64. “Look not mournfully into the past, it comes not back again. Wisely improve the present, it is thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy future without fear and with a manly heart.”
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
65. “Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness.”
- James Thurber.
Inspirational Looking Back On Life Quotes
People often need the inspiration to achieve a specific goal in their life to do better. Here are some of the looking back and smiling quotes that will help you inspire never to look back.
66. “Don’t stumble over something behind you.”
- Akash Gautam.
67. “Never look back. Nothing ever changes there.”
- Steffi Graf.
68. “I don’t ever look back. I look forward to it.”
- Steffi Graf.
69. “Look up, always. Look back, never.”
- Karen Quan.
70. “Always look ahead, but never look back.”
- Miles Davis.
71. “Sometimes, the bravest thing you can do is to never look back.”
- Sushil Jain.
72. “Stop looking back when your future is ahead of you.”
- Ricky Maye.
73. “I never look back, darling. It distracts from the now.”
- Walt Disney.
74. “Never look backwards or you’ll fall down the stairs.”
- Rudyard Kipling.
75. “Always look at what you have left. Never look at what you have lost.”
- Robert H. Schuller.
76. “Once you make the decision to move on, don’t look back. Your destiny will never be found in the rear view mirror.”
- Mandy Hale.
77. “Never look back at your past, everything happens for a reason, keep your head up and look forward. The more you look back the more beautiful things you will miss in Life.”
- Brandon Smith.
78. “If you want to live your Life in a creative way, as an artist, you have to not look back too much. You have to be willing to take whatever you’ve done and whoever you were and throw them away.”
- Steve Jobs.
79. “When you get a pinch and decide to give up, you will get a cut when you eventually do so. The consequences of giving up are more harmful than the causes. Just don’t give up!”
- Israelmore Ayivor.
80. “Do not look backwards if your goal is to move forward.”
- Germany Kent.
81. "If I had done this, if I had said that, in the end, you are always more tormented by what you didn’t do than what you did, actions already performed can always be rationalized in time, the neglected deed might have changed the world."
- Damon Galgut.
Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Looking back quotes, then why not take a look at live life to the fullest quotes, or keep smiling quotes.
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Bachelor of Arts specializing in English and Drama, Master of Arts specializing in Performance: Design and Practice
Luca DemetriouBachelor of Arts specializing in English and Drama, Master of Arts specializing in Performance: Design and Practice
Experienced in writing and sub-editing, Luca holds a Bachelor's in English Literature and Drama from the University of Birmingham, where he served as the culture editor at Redbrick Paper. He is currently pursuing a Master's in Performance: Design and Practice at the University of the Arts in London, showcasing his passion for the arts, performance, and history. With a keen interest in traveling, Luca enjoys exploring new cultures and experiencing diverse perspectives.
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