Future

The Future makes her jewels of our tears.
~ Karle Wilson Baker, from Burning Bush (1922). Sunset Song

Man of the future, what shall be
The life of Earth that you shall see?
What strange new facts the years will show?
What wonders rare your eyes shall know?
~ William Cox (W.C.) Bennett, To a Boy. Stanza 1

It is our character that supports the promise of our future -- far more than particular government programs or policies.
~ William John Bennett, The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories (1993).

The choice is no longer between Utopia and the pleasant ordered world that our fathers knew. The choice is between Utopia and Hell.
~ William Henry (W.H.) Beveridge, Address in Hall of University College, Oxford (11 November 1939).

Children of the future Age
Reading this indignant page,
Know that in a former time
Love! sweet Love! was thought a crime.
~ William Blake, from Songs of Experience (1794).

The ancient tradition that the world will be consumed in fire at the end of six thousand years is true, as I have heard from Hell.
~ William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790-93).

The rich and poor, on land and sea,
Where will the mighty millions be
A hundred years to come?
~ William Goldsmith Brown, A Hundred Years to Come (1858).

How shall I know thee in the sphere which keeps
The disembodied spirits of the dead,
When all of thee that time could wither sleeps
And perishes among the dust we tread?
~ William Cullen Bryant, from The Fountain, and Other Poems (1842). The Future Life

The Planet drifts to random insect doom.
~ William S. Burroughs, The Naked Lunch (1959).

Care for the future all you can,
Then let it do its worst!
~ William McKendree ("Will") Carleton, from Farm Festivals (1881). The Festival Of Praise; Or, Thanksgiving Day

The land belongs to the future.
~ Willa Sibert Cather, O Pioneers! (1913). Part V. Alexandra. Chapter III

Mankind is not only depleting essential mineral stocks. We are also diminishing the plant and animal resources available to future human generations, and destroying biological buffers against the effects of global climate change. We are stealing from the human future.
~ William R. Catton, Jr., Negative Population Growth (August 1998). Malthus: More Relevant Than Ever

A plague more monstrous than anything we have experienced could spread with all the irrevocability of ink on tissue paper. Ancient scourges would quickly become modern nightmares.
~ William S. Cohen, in The Washington Post (26 July 1999). Preparing for a Grave New World

The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to the idealised past.
~ (William) Robertson Davies, from A Voice From the Attic (1960).

As with gladness men of old
Did the guiding star behold,
As with joy they hailed its light,
Leading onward, beaming bright.
~ William Chatterton Dix, from Hymns of Love and Joy (1861). As With Gladness Men Of Old

I look forward, rather than back; for the future is of more consequence than the past.
~ William Croswell (W.C.) Doane, from Addresses To The Graduating Classes Of St. Agnes School (1891). Address to Graduates Gathered at the First Re-union (1880)

The past and the present are the only means by which man foresees or shapes the future.
~ William Maxwell Evarts, Centennial Oration at Independence Hall. Philadelphia PA (4 July 1876).

Most men and women go through their lives using no more than a fraction -- usually a rather small fraction -- of the potentialities within them. The reservoir of unused human talent and energy is vast, and learning to tap that reservoir more effectively is one of the exciting tasks ahead for humankind.
~ John William Gardner, On Leadership (1990). Introduction

I'm very optimistic about our future. But, it is a future full of change and surprise.
~ Bill Gates

There will be "two societies" in the future: high-paid knowledge workers and low-paid service workers.
~ Bill Gates

We don't have the option of turning away from the future.
~ Bill Gates, The Road Ahead (1996).

As I've said many times, the future is already here. It's just not very evenly distributed.
~ William Gibson, in NPR Talk of the Nation (30 November 1999).

I've had a growing frustration, particularly when I would go out and do book tours and interviews. I got frustrated with people asking me, "How do you know what the future is going to be like?" And I'd always say, "I don't."
~ William Gibson, The Rocky Mountain News (25 February 2003). Time traveler

We look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace.
~ William Ewart Gladstone

You cannot fight against the future. Time is on our side.
~ William Ewart Gladstone, Speech on the Reform Bill (April 1866).

Infotechnology is going to mature in the next 10 to 20 years. The systems will be up, the earth will be wired, and we will be able to do everything we want with information. ... We will then enter an era of spirit. You can see it starting today as people embrace values, beliefs, and vision -- all of those things that are essential to navigate through the mass of information, to find meaning and purpose. The emergence of this era of spirit is going to become startlingly clear soon. ... In about 10 years, certainly no more than 20 years, we will talk about a spiritual age the way we now talk about the information age.
~ William E. Halal, World Future Society Future Times (Summer 2000). Forecasts of Emerging Technologies

Strategic planning for the future is the most hopeful indication of our increasing social intelligence.
~ William H. Hastie

What the future holds for us depends on what we hold for the future. Hard-working todays make high-winning tomorrows.
~ William E. Holler

If not to-day, then on some far future day, you will answer some question differently by reason of what you are thinking now.
~ William James, Talks to Teachers on Psychology: and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals (March 1899). III. The Child as a Behaving Organism

When we put things off until some future -- probably mythical -- Laterland, we drag the past into the future. The burden of yesterday's incompletions is a heavy load to carry. Don't carry it.
~ Peter McWilliams, DO IT! Let's Get Off Our Buts (1994). Part Five: Doing It

We are the echo of the future.
~ William Stanley (W.S.) Merwin, from The Lice (1967). The River of Bees

The online environments of the future will increasingly resemble traditional cities in their variety of distinct places, in the extent and complexity of "street networks" and "transportation systems" linking these places, in their capacity to engage our senses, and thier social and cultural richness.
~ William J. Mitchell, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1995). City of Bits: Space, Place, and the Infobahn

Come hither, lads, and harken, for a tale there is to tell,
Of the wonderful days a-coming, when all shall be better than well.
~ William Morris, from Poems by the Way (1891). The Day is Coming

We are only trustees for those that come after us.
~ William Morris, Address to the Annual General Meeting of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Building (July 1889).

And in some region of infinity, and from among its splendors, this earth will be looked back on like a lowly home, and this life of ours be remembered like a short apprenticeship to Duty.
~ William Mountford, Euthanasy: Or, Happy Talk Towards the End of Life (1848). Chapter XIII

For others do I wait ... for higher ones, stronger ones, more triumphant ones, merrier ones, for such as are built squarely in body and soul: laughing lions must come.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Finally, an issue all Americans can rally behind: Winning the future! Surely most of us would like to be victorious down the road. The alternative is losing the future, and that doesn't sound very good, does it? If the future is lost, then what will become of us?.
~ Bill O'Reilly, Winning the Future (syndicated column; 27 January 2011).

I don't know for sure, but I guess I'd like to be somebody some day.
~ William Saroyan, The Human Comedy (1943).

We can influence who we will be tomorrow, for tomorrow can only be built on today.
~ Anne Wilson Schaef, Native Wisdom for White Minds (1995).

For many men that stumble at the threshold are well foretold that danger lurks within.
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry VI

How many ages hence
Shall this our lofty scene be acted over
In states unborn and accents yet unknown!
~ William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar. Act III, scene i

If you can look into the seeds of time,
And say which grain will grow and which will not,
Speak them to me.
~ William Shakespeare, Macbeth

Jesters do oft prove prophets.
~ William Shakespeare, King Lear

Oh! that a man might know
The end of this day's business ere it come.
~ William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

I see my future at the rainbow's end
Happy hours ... timeless friends.
And if I ever chance to find my way
Rest assured ... I will stay.
~ Billy Squier, in Don't Say No (1981 album). Nobody Knows

In the next century it will be the early mechanical bird which gets the first plastic worm out of the artificial grass.
~ William E. "Bill" Vaughan

The groundhog is like most other prophets; it delivers its prediction and then disappears.
~ William E. "Bill" Vaughan

Personally, I do not believe that we shall have greater armaments in the future than we have had in the past. On the contrary, I believe there will be a gradual diminution in this respect.
~ William Watson, (1924).

I say what kind of future is this?! I thought things were supposed to improve! I thought the future was supposed to be better! The problem with the future is that it keeps turning into the present.
~ Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes (31 December 1989).

As I got older I became aware of the folly of this perpetual reaching after the future, and of drawing from tomorrow, and from tomorrow only, a reason for the joyfulness of today. I learned, when alas, it was almost too late, to live each moment as it passed over my head.
~ William Hale White (aka Mark Rutherford), The Autobiography of Mark Rutherford (1881). Chapter V. Miss Arbour

Build on resolve, and not upon regret,
The structure of thy future.
~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox, from Poems of Passion (1883). Miscellanious Poems. Resolve

We build our futures by the shape
Of our desires, and not by acts.
~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox, from Poems of Power (1901). The Creed to be

The future develops in accordance with fixed laws, according to calculable numbers. If these numbers are known, future events can be calculated with perfect certainty.
~ Richard Wilhelm, I Ching: Book of Changes (1923).

The future has a way of arriving unannounced.
~ George F. Will

Modernisation is quite a strong word to use with the monarchy because it's something that's been around for many hundreds of years. But I think it's important that people feel the monarchy can keep up with them and is relevant to their lives. ... It would be dangerous to look a long way ahead and predict changes in the monarchy.
~ Prince William, 21st birthday interview with the Press Association (PA), St James's Palace (21 June 2003).

We mean to be the people we meant to be,
to keep on going where we meant to go.
But how do we fashion the future? Who can say how
except in the minds of those who will call it Now?
The children. The children.
~ Miller Williams, Miller Williams' Inaugural Poem (20 January 1997). Of History and Hope

And while gazing on heaven,
I smile through my tears,
And trust in the future for happier years!
~ Robert Folkestone Williams, from Rhymes and Rhapsodies (1833). Songs. Happier Years

The eyes of the future are looking back at us and they are praying for us to see beyond our own time.
~ Terry Tempest Williams, from Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert (2001). Wild Mercy

If you will permit yourself to dream of what the future years will bring, though it is at best a childish occupation, try to picture what your life may be if you yourself were wiser and worthier than to-day.
~ Theodore Chickering Williams, Character-building: Sermons and Poems (1893). X. A Simple Duty

The future is called "perhaps," which is the only possible thing to call the future. And the only important thing is not to allow that to scare you.
~ Thomas Lanier ("Tennessee") Williams, Orpheus Descending (1957). Forward

If we truly cared about our children and future generations, instead of demagoging about them, we'd worry more about saving liberty than saving Social Security.
~ Walter E. Williams, Is it them or us? (1998).

Isn't it a shame that future generations can't be here to see all the wonderful things we're doing with their money?
~ Earl Wilson

The future is unknowable ... the future is like a big building in the fog -- you know it's there, and you can grope your way toward it, but you can't be sure about it until it's close enough to touch.
~ Robert Charles Wilson, A Bridge Of Years (1991).

If you spend all of your time racing ahead to the future, you're liable to discover you've left a great present behind.
~ Tom Wilson, Ziggy

What I'm saying is that a lot of behavior that you are talking about is a direct response of people not having a future, or feeling that they don't have a future.
~ William Julius Wilson, in The New York Times (4 December 1994).

Day follows day, all things have second birth;
The earthquake is not satisfied at once.
~ William Wordsworth, The Prelude (1805). Book X: Residence in France and French Revolution