what's past is prologue

A line from the Tempest by William Shakespeare.

1. That which has happened in the past creates context or acts as the catalyst for what happens in the future. It's wild to think about what led me here today. If I hadn't taken that course on Japanese literature, I never would have thought of teaching English in Tokyo after college, and then I never would have made the decision to live here permanently. I suppose what's past is prologue to our present, isn't it?

2. What happened in the past will be repeated in the future. What is past is prologue, it seems, as the governor today unveiled a series of executive actions that bear an unsettling resemblance to discriminatory legislation from the 1960s.