Posterity Quotes

• When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.

  Thomas Paine

  Pain, War, 4th Of July

  Thomas Paine (2015). “Common Sense: and The American Crisis I”, p.38, Penguin

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  If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom - go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!

  Samuel Adams

  Love, Peace, Freedom

  Samuel Adams' Speech delivered at the State House in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, August 1, 1776.

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• It should be the highest ambition of every American to extend his views beyond himself, and to bear in mind that his conduct will not only affect himself, his country, and his immediate posterity; but that its influence may be co-extensive with the world, and stamp political happiness or misery on ages yet unborn.

  George Washington

  Country, Ambition, Views

  George Washington (1855). “Maxims of Washington: Political, Social, Moral, and Religious”, p.63

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• I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Believe, Army, Names

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies: From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson”, p.277

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• I would give no thought of what the world might say of me, if I could only transmit to posterity the reputation of an honest man.

  Sam Houston

  Honesty, Character, Men

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• I think it better to do right, even if we suffer in so doing, than to incur the reproach of our consciences and posterity.

  Robert E. Lee

  Thinking, Suffering, Reproach

  Robert E. Lee (2016). “The Life and Letters of Robert E. Lee (Abridged)”, p.325, BIG BYTE BOOKS

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• A man does not plant a tree for himself; he plants it for posterity.

  Alexander Smith

  Men, Tree, Doe

  Alexander Smith (1863). “Dreamthorp: A Book of Essays Written in the Country”, p.258

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• Time will unveil all things to posterity.

  Euripides

  All Things

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• It is not likely that posterity will fall in love with us, but not impossible that it may respect or sympathize; so a man would rather leave behind him the portrait of his spirit than a portrait of his face.

  Robert Louis Stevenson

  Love, Respect, Fall

  Robert Louis Stevenson, Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson, Lloyd Osbourne (1910*). “"Virginibus puerisque" and other papers. Memories and portraits. Familiar studies of men and books”

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• The love of posterity is the consequence of the necessity of death. If a man were sure of living forever here, he would not care about his offspring.

  Nathaniel Hawthorne

  Destiny, Men, Forever

  1840 The American Notebooks (published 1868), ch.3.

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• Posterity, thinned by the crime of its ancestors, shall hear of those battles.

  Horace

  Battle, Crime, Ancestor

  "Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations" by Jehiel Keeler Hoyt, p. 618-19. Odes, Book I. 2. 23, 1922.

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• Posterity allows to every man his true value and proper honours.

  Tacitus

  Men, History, Giving

  "The Works of Cornelius Tacitus: With an Essay on His Life and Genius, Notes, Supplements".

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• Posterity weaves no garlands for imitators.

  Friedrich Schiller

  Imitation, Garlands, Imitator

  "Wallenstein" by Friedrich Schiller, translated by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, (Prologue), 1798.

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• Let the American youth never forget, that they possess a noble inheritance, bought by the toils, and sufferings, and blood of their ancestors; and capacity, if wisely improved, and faithfully guarded, of transmitting to their latest posterity all the substantial blessings of life, the peaceful enjoyment of liberty, property, religion, and independence.

  Joseph Story

  Blessing, Blood, America

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• What could you do better for your children and your children's children than to record the story of your life, your triumphs over adversity, your recovery after a fall, your progress when all seemed black, your rejoicing when you had finally achieved? Some of what you write may be humdrum dates and places, but there will also be rich passages that will be quoted by your posterity.

  Spencer W. Kimball

  Children, Fall, Writing

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• Posterity is the world to come; the world for whom we hold our ideals, from whom we have borrowed our planet, and to whom we bear sacred responsibility. We must do what America does best: offer more opportunity to all and demand responsibility from all.

  William J. Clinton

  Responsibility, Opportunity, America

  Clinton, William J. (1994). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton, 1993”, p.2, Best Books on

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• I charge [my sons] never to let the motives of private interest or ambition to influence them to betray, nor the terrors of poverty and disgrace, or the fear of danger or of death deter them from asserting the liberty of their country, and endeavoring to transmit to their posterity those sacred rights to which themselves were born

  George Mason

  Country, Ambition, Son

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• Posterity pays for the sins of their fathers.

  Quintus Curtius Rufus

  Father, Pay, Sin

  "Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations" by Jehiel Keeler Hoyt, p. 618-19, De Rebus Gestis Alexandri Magni, VII, 5, 1922.

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• The Youth of a Nation are the trustees of posterity.

  Benjamin Disraeli

  Time, Youth, Trustees

  'Sybil' (1845) bk. 6, ch. 13

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• What life half gives a man, posterity gives entirely.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Men, Giving, Half

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• Contemporaries appreciate the person rather than their merit, posterity will regard the merit rather than the person.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Memories, Appreciate, Literature

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• Posterity will say as usual: "In the past things were better, the present is worse than the past.

  Anton Chekhov

  Past, Usual

  Note-Book of Anton Chekhov, 1921.

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• Art is always in the eyes of the beholder. Only posterity has the right to point out our mistakes.

  Len Wein

  Art, Mistake, Eye

  Interview with Marv Wolfman, www.marvwolfman.com.

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• The judgment of posterity is truer, because it is free from envy and malevolence.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Envy, Judgment, Malevolence

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• Leibniz dedicated his life to efforts to educate people to understand that true happiness is found by locating their identity in benefitting mankind and their posterity.

  Robert Trout

  Happiness, Education, People

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