“What's past is prologue.”
William Shakespeare (The Tempest)
The PastShort Quotes
Moving On Quotes
158 FAMOUS QUOTES · MOVING ON
Moving On Quotes
Read 200 of the best moving on quotes about letting go, forgiveness and starting over, from Chanakya, the Bhagavad Gita and Shakespeare to Maya Angelou, Viktor Frankl and Robert Frost.
“Let us not burden our remembrances with a heaviness that's gone.”
William Shakespeare (The Tempest)
MemoriesLetting Go
“What's gone and what's past help should be past grief.”
William Shakespeare (The Winter's Tale)
AcceptanceGrief
“Things without all remedy should be without regard: what's done is done.”
William Shakespeare (Macbeth)
AcceptanceThe Past
“Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak whispers the o'er-fraught heart and bids it break.”
William Shakespeare (Macbeth)
GriefExpression
“Look not mournfully into the Past. It comes not back again. Wisely improve the Present. It is thine.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The PastPresent Moment
“Better by far you should forget and smile than that you should remember and be sad.”
Christina Rossetti
ForgettingHappiness
“Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower; we will grieve not, rather find strength in what remains behind.”
William Wordsworth
StrengthLoss
“'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
LoveLoss
“Let the dead Past bury its dead! Act, act in the living Present!”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Present MomentAction
“Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.”
Mary Shelley (Frankenstein)
ChangePain
“No man is rich enough to buy back his past.”
Oscar Wilde
The PastAcceptance
“The only charm of the past is that it is the past.”
Oscar Wilde
The PastWit
“Great minds have purposes, others have wishes. Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above it.”
Washington Irving
PurposeStrength
“It's no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.”
Lewis Carroll (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)
GrowthThe Past
“Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but, I hope, into a better shape.”
Charles Dickens (Great Expectations)
SufferingGrowth
“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby)
The PastReflection
“Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.”
Kahlil Gibran
PainUnderstanding
“What does not destroy me, makes me stronger.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
StrengthResilience
“Blessed are the forgetful, for they get the better even of their blunders.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
ForgettingMistakes
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”
Søren Kierkegaard
ReflectionMoving Forward
“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Fresh StartMistakes
“For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.”
Attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson
AngerHappiness
“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”
Henry David Thoreau
DreamsConfidence
“When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”
Alexander Graham Bell
New OpportunitiesRegret
Related Topics
About Moving On Quotes
Moving on is one of the hardest things we ever do. Whether it's the end of a relationship, the loss of a job, a friendship that faded or a mistake we can't undo, letting go takes courage. The good news is that people have faced this for thousands of years, and their words can help us take the next step.
This collection brings together 200 of the best moving on quotes, from ancient thinkers like Marcus Aurelius, Chanakya and the Bhagavad Gita to Shakespeare, Rabindranath Tagore and modern voices like Maya Angelou, Viktor Frankl, Nelson Mandela and Robert Frost. You'll find quotes about letting go, forgiveness, starting over and finding strength after hard times. For more, explore our [Change Quotes](/topics/change-quotes), [Forgiveness Quotes](/topics/forgiveness-quotes) and [Hope Quotes](/topics/hope-quotes).
## Ancient Wisdom on Moving On
1. No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man. Author: Heraclitus Tags: Change, Growth
2. The only constant in life is change. Author: Attributed to Heraclitus Tags: Change, Short Quotes
3. Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature's delight. Author: Marcus Aurelius Tags: Loss, Change
4. Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present. Author: Marcus Aurelius Tags: Future, Calm
5. Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart. Author: Marcus Aurelius Tags: Acceptance, Love
6. Never say of anything, 'I have lost it'; but, 'I have returned it.' Author: Epictetus Tags: Loss, Acceptance
7. Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems. Author: Attributed to Epictetus Tags: Worry, Stoicism
8. Sometimes even to live is an act of courage. Author: Seneca Tags: Courage, Hard Times
9. We suffer more often in imagination than in reality. Author: Seneca Tags: Worry, Perspective
10. Time heals what reason cannot. Author: Seneca Tags: Healing, Time
11. Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life. Author: Seneca Tags: Fresh Start, Present Moment
12. Time is generally the best doctor. Author: Ovid Tags: Healing, Time
13. Be patient and tough; some day this pain will be useful to you. Author: Ovid Tags: Pain, Patience
14. Time is the healer of all necessary evils. Author: Menander Tags: Healing, Time
15. Our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. Author: Oliver Goldsmith Tags: Resilience, Rising Again
16. It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop. Author: Attributed to Confucius Tags: Perseverance, Progress
17. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Author: Lao Tzu Tags: Beginnings, Small Steps
18. You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from building nests in your hair. Author: Chinese Proverb Tags: Sorrow, Choice
19. No matter how far you have gone on the wrong road, turn back. Author: Turkish Proverb Tags: Second Chances, Direction
20. Let go, or be dragged. Author: Zen Saying Tags: Letting Go, Short Quotes
## Indian Wisdom on Letting Go
21. We should not fret for what is past, nor should we be anxious about the future; men of discernment deal only with the present moment. Author: Chanakya Tags: Present Moment, Wisdom
22. You have a right to perform your duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions. Author: The Bhagavad Gita Tags: Detachment, Duty
23. Pleasure and pain come and go; they are impermanent. Endure them bravely, O Arjuna. Author: The Bhagavad Gita Tags: Endurance, Impermanence
24. Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule. Author: Buddha (Dhammapada) Tags: Forgiveness, Love
25. "He abused me, he beat me, he defeated me, he robbed me": in those who harbour such thoughts, hatred will never cease. Author: Buddha (Dhammapada) Tags: Resentment, Letting Go
26. Forgive wrongs always; forgetting them is better still. Author: Thiruvalluvar Tags: Forgiveness, Letting Go
27. When troubles come, laugh at them; there is nothing like that to overcome them. Author: Thiruvalluvar Tags: Resilience, Laughter
28. What you would do tomorrow, do today; what you would do today, do now. Author: Kabir Tags: Action, Moving Forward
29. If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life, your tears will prevent you from seeing the stars. Author: Rabindranath Tagore Tags: Hope, Perspective
30. Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add colour to my sunset sky. Author: Rabindranath Tagore Tags: Peace, Acceptance
31. If you shut the door to all errors, truth will be shut out. Author: Rabindranath Tagore Tags: Mistakes, Truth
32. Stand up, be bold, be strong. Take the whole responsibility on your own shoulders, and know that you are the creator of your own destiny. Author: Swami Vivekananda Tags: Strength, Destiny
33. The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. Author: Mahatma Gandhi Tags: Forgiveness, Strength
## Bible Verses About Moving On
34. Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing. Author: The Bible (Isaiah 43:18-19) Tags: New Beginnings, Faith
35. Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark. Author: The Bible (Philippians 3:13-14) Tags: Moving Forward, Faith
36. To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. Author: The Bible (Ecclesiastes 3:1) Tags: Seasons, Acceptance
37. A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away. Author: The Bible (Ecclesiastes 3:6) Tags: Letting Go, Seasons
38. He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. Author: The Bible (Psalm 147:3) Tags: Healing, Faith
39. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. Author: The Bible (Psalm 30:5) Tags: Hope, Healing
40. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Author: The Bible (Matthew 6:34) Tags: Worry, Faith
41. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. Author: The Bible (2 Corinthians 5:17) Tags: New Beginnings, Faith
42. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. Author: The Bible (Revelation 21:4) Tags: Healing, Faith
Frequently asked questions
Quick answers about Moving On quotes.
What is the best quote about moving on?
Robert Frost summed it up in three words: "it goes on." C.S. Lewis added hope for what's next: "There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind."
What did Chanakya say about the past?
Chanakya advised that we should not fret over the past or worry about the future, because wise people "deal only with the present moment."
What does the Bhagavad Gita say about letting go?
The Gita teaches that we have a right to our actions but not to their results, and that pleasure and pain come and go, so we should endure them bravely.
What is a good quote about letting go?
Try the Zen saying "Let go, or be dragged," or Thich Nhat Hanh's "Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness."
What is a good quote about forgiveness and moving on?
Lewis B. Smedes said, "To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you." Nelson Mandela said that if he hadn't left his bitterness behind, he'd "still be in prison."
What is a short moving on quote?
Try "This too shall pass," "Fall seven times, stand up eight," "What's past is prologue" or "Tomorrow is another day."