Progress and Achievements of the Colored People / Containing the Story of the Wonderful Advancement of the Colored Americans—the Most Marvelous in the History of Nations—Their Past Accomplishments, Together With Their Present-day Opportunities and a Glimpse Into the Future for Further Developments—the Dawn of a Triumphant Era. A Handbook for Self-improvement Which Leads to Greater Success

by Kelly Miller; Joseph R. Gay

DON’T BE A DREAMER

Waste no Time Dreaming of the Past

You are living in the present preparing for the future. The past is dead and you should let the past bury the past.

The man who dreams of the past and forgets his future, is like a man who rises in the morning not of today but of yesterday. He is going backward when his face is put in front pointing always forward.

Life is too short to be wasted in vain regrets for what has transpired in the past. Even yesterday is ancient history and best forgotten.

We have work to do in the present to perfect or accomplish something in the future; it is our time of grace, given us to grasp at opportunities as they come before us.

While you are lamenting an opportunity that escaped you yesterday, a better one comes along today and passes us unnoticed.

There is too much of this sort of sorrow experienced by the people of the earth, but when it comes to a man with an occupation, a business man or a young man getting ready for business, it is positively foolish and detrimental.

We know that it has been the practice of people in all times to fret and worry about the things of the past, for there are numerous sayings cautioning them against it. One of them is very appropriate: “Never cry over spilled milk.” It is gone and can not be restored.

Many persons may have what is called a “skeleton” in his closet, but it does not do him nor his friends any good service to keep rattling its bones continually.

If you have been very wrong in the past, repent and begin over again.