What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

The saying contrasts external circumstances—our past (“behind us”) and future (“before us”)—with the inner resources that shape how we live: character, resilience, conscience, imagination, and will. Its force lies in the claim of proportion: even major events are “tiny matters” compared with the internal capacities that interpret those events and determine our responses. Read this way, the line belongs to a tradition of moral and self-help aphorisms that emphasize agency and inner life over fate or biography. It is often invoked to encourage confidence after setbacks and to stress that personal growth and integrity matter more than what has happened or what may happen.