Though when you have fallen as far behind as I have, you become a character. The mists of time lend one a certain romance.

From the play Forty Years On by Alan Bennett

HEADMASTER: Would it be impossibly naïve and old-fashioned of me to ask what it is you are trying to accomplish in this impudent charade?

FRANKLIN: You could say that we are trying to shed the burden of the past.

HEADMASTER: Shed it? Why must we shed it? Why not shoulder it? Memories are not shackles, Franklin, they are garlands.

FRANKLIN: We’re too tied to the past. We want to be free to look to the future. The future comes before the past.

HEADMASTER: Nonsense. The future comes after the past. Otherwise it couldn’t be the future … It’s all very easy to be daring and outspoken, Franklin, but once you’re at the helm the impetus will pass. Authority is a leaden cope. You will be left behind, however daring and outspoken you are. You will be left behind, just as I have been left behind. Though when you have fallen as far behind as I have, you become a character. The mists of time lend one a certain romance.