Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness.

The line urges a disciplined attention to the present. It contrasts three temporal stances: dwelling on the past (“look back in anger”), projecting anxiety onto the future (“forward in fear”), and instead cultivating clear perception of what is actually happening now (“around in awareness”). Read this way, it is a compact ethical and psychological counsel: resentment and dread distort judgment, while situational awareness—of one’s surroundings, relationships, and immediate responsibilities—enables wiser action. Although often circulated as a Thurber aphorism, its tone resembles mid‑20th‑century popular wisdom that blends stoic restraint with a proto–mindfulness emphasis on present attention.