Definitions HQ

Past (n.) I ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠think I recapture is never the real past but my past as I see it now, perhaps after altering it.

Past (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠not the end of an event's being: in time, being and passing are synonymous, so by becoming past an event does not cease to be.

Past (n.) stays ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠ours for good: once you have seen Van Gogh, all your later seeing is that of someone who knows Van Gogh, as a bourgeois turned workman stays a bourgeois-turned-workman.

Past (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠present as a horizon: we can reopen it in an act of recollection, or leave it at the fringe, where it gives what we see its atmosphere.

Past (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠not fate, but it has weight: an inferiority complex lived in for twenty years is no longer a series of events over there but the atmosphere of my present.

Past (n.) protests ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠against our reinterpretations: my early happiness cannot be put down to a sheltered home — the world itself was more beautiful then, and I can never be sure I understand those years better than they understood themselves.