Why is past important?

The past gives meaning to the present. Often, it is only in the context of someone's past experience that we can understand why what they are saying or doing makes any kind of sense.

--Douglas Stone + Bruce Patton + Sheila Heen

Why is past important?

Our memories are always with us, shaping and being shaped by the information flowing through our senses, in a continuous feedback loop. Everything we see, hear, and smell is inflected by all the things we've seen, heard, and smelled in the past.

Memory is how we transmit virtues and values, and partake of a shared culture.

How we perceive the world and how we act in it are products of how and what we remember.

--Joshua Foer