Quote of the Day: Arnold H. Glasow on Time & Perspective

If you’ve been waiting for a sign to live with a little more lightness, and a little more intention, let this thought be the permission you need. “Happy is the person who knows what to remember of the past, what to enjoy in the present, and what to plan for in the future.”

Glasow is pointing to a skill, not a mood: the ability to curate your relationship with time. The past is a library, not a courtroom. Keep the memories that teach, steady, and strengthen you, and stop rereading the chapters that only rehearse shame. A useful filter is simple: Does this memory help me act wiser today? If yes, keep it. If not, let it fade.

Then comes the present, where happiness is most available and most often missed. Enjoyment isn’t indulgence; it’s attention. When you fully enter the conversation, the walk, the meal, the work in front of you, you reduce anxiety’s favorite fuel: mental time travel. Presence turns ordinary moments into replenishment and makes room for gratitude, resilience when life is messy, and clarity when it’s busy.

Finally, planning for the future isn’t worry, it’s stewardship. Good plans translate values into calendars: skills you’ll practice, relationships you’ll invest in, habits you’ll protect. You don’t need to predict everything; you just need to choose your next right step and build a system that supports it, especially in success.

That balance feels especially trustworthy coming from Arnold H. Glasow, a businessman and celebrated satirist whose sharp, practical wit distilled real-world experience into lines people can actually live by.

Today, try a three-line exercise: write one past lesson to keep, one present moment to savor, and one future action to schedule, then do the scheduled action within 24 hours. May your memories be wise, your attention steady, and your plans quietly brave.