Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or

Hear, O children of time, the solemn words of Lyndon B. Johnson: “Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.” In this utterance lies the wisdom of ages, wrapped in the voice of a leader who bore the burdens of a nation. He spoke in an hour of trial, when wounds of division cut deep, and the shadow of war darkened the land. Yet from his lips came not despair but resolve, a reminder that the past is beyond our grasp, while the future yet bends beneath our choices.

The meaning is clear as the rising sun: the past cannot be retrieved. The moments that have fled are like water poured into sand—gone beyond recall. To cling to yesterday is to chain oneself to what no hand can alter. But the future—ah, the future is clay, soft beneath our touch, waiting to be molded by courage, wisdom, and sacrifice. In this distinction lies the power of hope, for while the past may be filled with regret or failure, tomorrow is a battlefield still unwritten, a crown still unclaimed.

This truth has echoed through the lives of many. Consider Abraham Lincoln, who in his early years faced repeated failures: in business, in elections, in personal sorrow. If he had dwelt only on the yesterdays of defeat, he would have been crushed by despair. But Lincoln fixed his eyes on tomorrow, believing that though he could not recover what was lost, he might yet build what was to come. In the end, it was not his past losses that defined him, but his victory in guiding a broken nation through its darkest hour.

So too must we understand: the past is a teacher, not a master. It can instruct, but it cannot command. Its lessons are precious, but its chains must be broken. To live always in memory is to walk backward through life, never seeing the light that dawns ahead. But to claim tomorrow is to stride forward with purpose, to believe that destiny is shaped not by what was but by what is yet to be.

This quote calls us to action, not to lamentation. It demands that we release bitterness, release regret, release even the sweetness of past glories, for none can be relived. Instead, we must bend our will toward what is coming. The victories of tomorrow are not gifted—they are earned. The failures of tomorrow are not fated—they are chosen by neglect. The power rests in the decisions of today, in the vision we dare to hold, in the courage we dare to act upon.

Let us then take the lesson to heart: honor the past, but do not worship it. Learn from yesterday, but do not dwell there. Keep your eyes fixed on tomorrow, where choice and effort dwell. Ask yourself: What seeds do I plant today that will bloom in the dawn to come? What fears must I cast aside so that victory may find me? For the future bows to those who labor for it, but slips away from those who merely dream without action.

Practical steps are clear. Each evening, release the weight of the day—its triumphs and its failures alike. Each morning, set your mind upon a clear goal, however small, that moves you closer to your vision. Forgive yourself for what cannot be changed, and pour your energy into what may yet be shaped. Surround yourself with those who lift their eyes to the horizon, not those who drown in memories. In this way, you will walk as a master of tomorrow, not a prisoner of yesterday.

Thus the words of Johnson endure as a flame in the night: “Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.” Let this teaching be your compass. The past is gone, the present is fleeting, but the future waits with open hands. Claim it with courage, shape it with wisdom, and let no man say you were defeated by what you could no longer change. The power of tomorrow belongs to you.