It is a simple but sometimes forgotten truth that the greatest enemy to present joy and high hopes is the cultivation of retrospective bitterness.

Travel is glamorous only in retrospect.

Adele Adkins' retro-soul debut '19' was striking less for her songs than for that voice: a voluptuous slightly parched alto that swooped and fluttered like a Dusty Springfield student trying to upstage her teacher or at least update the rules.

All religions have periods in their history which are looked back to with retrospective fear and trembling as eras of persecution and each religion has its own book of martyrs.

In their heyday the Pet Shop Boys were the Interpol of the Eighties dressing up to sing really weird pop songs about lust and loneliness in the big city. They're low-pro now not retro-worshipped in the manner of Depeche Mode New Order or The Cure but you can hear the reason why - these guys are too sad.

Vinyl is the real deal. I've always felt like until you buy the vinyl record you don't really own the album. And it's not just me or a little pet thing or some kind of retro romantic thing from the past. It is still alive.

Man is a creative retrospection of nature upon itself.

One could not have isolated this retrovirus without knowledge of other retroviruses that's obvious. But I believe we have answered the criteria of isolation.

When you put something out there into the world there's all these words you don't want to hear that you hope people don't say. I don't like anything that starts with 're' - like retro reinvent recreate - I hate that. It's always like living in the past - copying emulating.

If any country was a mine-shaft canary for the reintroduction of cholera it was Haiti - and we knew it. And in retrospect more should have been done to prepare for cholera... which can spread like wildfire in Haiti... This was a big rebuke to all of us working in public health and health care in Haiti.

When we recall the past we usually find that it is the simplest things - not the great occasions - that in retrospect give off the greatest glow of happiness.

The mark of a good action is that it appears inevitable in retrospect.

It is the mark of a good action that it appears inevitable in retrospect.

I've been asked to do a retrospective since I was about 28 and I always thought that was a bit odd. It's great to look forward as an artist because in the future the possibilities are infinite you look back and it's all fixed so it's a scary thing.

In retrospect the Millennium marked only a moment in time. It was the events of September 11 that marked a turning point in history where we confront the dangers of the future and assess the choices facing humankind.

I don't know if this is the kind of retrospective analysis that people are fond of applying to their work or actions but it feels like I knew I was going to be famous and I knew that an element of that would be traumatic so that if I could make myself something big and otherworldly it would be a kind of defence.

The failure of the United Nations - My failure is maybe in retrospective that I was not enough aggressive with the members of the Security Council.

But after this natural burst of indignation no man of sense courage or prudence will waste his time or his strength in retrospective reproaches or repinings.

The problem is when you are writing something in retrospective it needs a lot of courage not to change or you will forget a certain reality and you will just take in consideration your view today.

All of a sudden Hulk Hogan has become retro. Hulk Hogan has become cool again. So to come out and to hear how loud the fans are. To hear how loyal the fans are it's truly overwhelming. I just can't believe I've been reborn in the WWE.

Acknowledging class was always difficult for 'New Democrats' - it was second-wave it was divisive - but 2008 made retro politics cool again.