“There is no past we can bring back by longing for it. There is only an eternal now that builds and creates out of the past something new and better.”

“Bring the past, but only if you can build from it.”

“We are products of the past and we live immersed in the past, which encompasses us. How can we move towards the new life, how create new activities without getting out of the past and without placing ourselves above it? And how can we place ourselves above the past if we are in it and it is in us? There is no other way out except through thought, which does not break off relations with the past but rises ideally above it and converts it into knowledge.”

“The challenge we now face is to build on the record of the past, to continue accepting new responsibilities and seeking new opportunities to serve.”

“The past can be escaped only by embracing something better.”

“Let the past abolish the past when -- and if -- it can substitute something better.”