The Contributions of the Past to Today's World

Often, I think of the gifts that those from the past have left us. They have also left us with many lessons to learn individually within our own lifetime and all together as societies of the world, hoping to make better progress and understanding for everyone.

I am just overwhelmed by the thought that these people have left this legacy to us. We should try our best to learn from the past, yet be quick to our all new types of issues in today's world. Also, we should respect those of the past. As individuals, you have to find what you can do to change this world and inspire those of the present and those of the future.

 They left us with their words too.

"Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions."

"As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality."

"It is only to the individual that a soul is given."

  

 "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom."
 

"An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law."

  

“I have decided to stick to love... hate is too great a burden to bear.”

 

 "A 'No' uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a 'Yes' merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble"

 

"As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world - that is the myth of the atomic age - as in being able to remake ourselves."  

 

"Gentleness, self-sacrifice and generosity are the exclusive possession of no one race or religion." 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

" A chief event of life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us."

 

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail"

 

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” 

 

“Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.” 

 

“Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.” 

 

 

“Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and   make your dreams come true.”  

 

 

 Yes, there are many people of the past who looked to make a better future. We should also be thankful to our ancestors who survived through the past, bringing us to the present. We have to try to put our best foot forward for those of the future, no matter how big or small or roles may seem. One person has the power to change another for the better.