The present contains within itself the past, and is pregnant with the future.
Cassier
The elements of time (past, present and future) are not counter-posed to one another as though they were hermetically sealed segments on an infinite line. Rather than the past and the future being opposed to the present from the outside, they are contained in the present. They are part of the present, however, only as excessive. Both the possibilities of the past and the future exceed what has been actualised in the present. What could have been is always greater than what has been, and events of the past can announce the possibility of a different future.
The past and the future are virtual in relation to the present. This means that their real possibilities are not determined in advance by the actuality of the present. This is why the real future, as opposed to the endless repetition of the present, is always a surprise.
