The function of the artist is to disturb. His duty is to arousethesleeper, toshakethe complacent pillars ofthe world.He reminds the world of its dark ancestry, and shows the world its present, and points the way to its new birth.He isat oncetheproduct and thepreceptorof his time.

-Bethune, Norman
  Letter from Madrid, 5 May. Quoted in Ted  Allen and Sydney Gordon The Scalpel, The Sword (1952).

He who desires and acts not, breeds pestilence.

-Blake,William
  The Marriage of Heaven and Hell,'Proverbs of Hell'.

Meanwhile, we too admit that the present is an important time† We were wise indeed, could we discern truly the signs of our own time; and by knowledge of its wants and advantages, wiselyadjust our own position in it.

-Carlyle,Thomas
  Signs of the Times.

The unending dialogue between the present and the past.

-Carpentier, Alejo
Of biography. Quoted in  James G Hershberg James B Conant (1993).

'They gave it me,' Humpty Dumpty continued thoughtfully† 'for an un-birthday present.'

-Dodgson
Through the Looking-Glass, ch.6,'Humpty Dumpty'.

C'est l'actuel qui compte. Invoquer sa poste¤  rite¤  , c'est faire un discours aux asticots. It isthepresentthatcounts.To invoke one'sposterity isto make a speech to maggots.

-Destouches
  Voyage au bout de la nuit ( Journey to the End of Night, translated by John H P Marks,1960).

The past was nothing to her† The future was a mystery which she never attempted to penetrate. The present alone was significant.

-Chopin, Kate (Katherine) ne¤  e  O'Flaherty
  The Awakening, ch.15.

The present is the funeral of the past, And man the living sepulchre of life.

-Clare,John
  'The Present is the Funeral of the Past'.

It was a bitter birthday present from evolution.

-Dillard, Annie
  Of self-consciousness. Pilgrim at  Tinker Creek, ch.6.

Conservatism discards Prescription, shrinks from Principle, disavows Progress; having rejected all respect for antiquity, it offers no redress for the present, and makes no preparation for the future.

-Disraeli, Benjamin, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield
  Coningsby, bk.2, ch.5.

What if this present were the world's last night?

-Donne,John
c.1610^1615  Holy Sonnets, no.19.

Time present and time past Are both perhaps present in time future, And time future contained in time past.

-Eliot,T(homas) S(tearns)
  Four Quartets,'Burnt Norton', pt.1.

It wassaid of Metternichthat hewasso conservativethat had he been present at the Creation, he would have begged God to have retained Chaos.

-Evans, Bergen
  Note in his Dictionary of Quotations.

Our work is to present things that are as theyare.

-Frederick II
De Ate Venandi cum  Avibus.

History is past politics, and politics is present history.

-Freeman, Edward Augustus
  Methods of Historical Study.

When a Forsyte was engaged, married, or born, the Forsytes were present; when a Forsyte diedöbut no Forsyte had as yet died; they did not die; death being contrary to their principles, they took precautions against it, the instinctive precautions of highly vitalised persons who resent encroachments on their property.

-Galsworthy,John
  The Man of Property, pt.1, ch.1.

The alcohol made the present enough, it held her in its golden hand, where past and future were comprehended, where nothing mattered, nothing was lost, where everything could be known and forgiven, where she herself could be whole at last.

-Gee, Maggie
  Lost Children, ch.35.

   In1914, Europe had arrived at a point at which every country except Germany was afraid of the present, and Germany was afraid of the future.

-Grey of Fallodon, Edward Grey, 1st Viscount
  House of Lords, 24  Jul.

The present is burthened too much with the past.

-Hawthorne, Nathaniel
  Entry for 27 Mar at the British Museum, collected in The English Notebooks (1870).

The present is anage of talkers, and not of doers; and the reason is, that the world isgrowing old.We are so far advanced in the Arts and Sciences, that we live in retrospect, and dote on past achievement.

-Hazlitt,William
  Spirit of the Age,'Mr Coleridge'.