Posterity Quotes - Page 13

• That praises are without reason lavished on the dead, and that the honours due only to are paid to antiquity, is a complaint likely to be always continued by those who, being able to add nothing to truth, hope for eminence from the heresies of paradox; or those who, being forced by disappointment upon consolatory expedients, are willing to hope from posterity what the present age refuses, and flatter themselves that the regard which is yet denied by envy will be at last bestowed by time.

  Ben Jonson

  Truth, Disappointment, Envy

  4 Copy quote

• I hate posterity - it's so fond of having the last word.

  Hector Hugh Munro

  Hate, Lasts, Last Words

  Saki, Hector Hugh Munro (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of Saki (Illustrated)”, p.294, Delphi Classics

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Washington was a typical American. Napoleon was a typical Frenchman, but Lincoln was a humanitarian as broad as the world. He was bigger than his country - bigger than all the Presidents together. We are still too near to his greatness,' (Leo) Tolstoy (in 1908) concluded, 'but after a few centuries more our posterity will find him considerably bigger than we do. His genius is still too strong and powerful for the common understanding, just as the sun is too hot when its light beams directly on us.' (748)

  Doris Kearns Goodwin

  Country, Strong, Powerful

  13 Copy quote

• What a father says to his children is not heard by the world, but it will be heard by posterity.

  Jean Paul

  Funny, Fathers Day, Children

  12 Copy quote

• Let us contemplate our forefathers, and posterity, and resolve to maintain the rights bequeathed to us from the former, for the sake of the latter. The necessity of the times, more than ever, calls for our utmost circumspection, deliberation, fortitude and perseverance. Let us remember that "if we suffer tamely a lawless attack upon our liberty, we encourage it, and involve others in our doom," it is a very serious consideration that millions yet unborn may be the miserable sharers of the event.

  Samuel Adams

  Perseverance, Rights, Suffering

  Essay in The Boston Gazette under the pseudonym "Candidus", October 14, 1771.

  132 Copy quote

  Show source

• Honor, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us.

  Thomas Jefferson

  War, Justice, Humanity

  Thomas Jefferson, Jerry Holmes (2002). “Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts”, p.21, Rowman & Littlefield

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• I promise that if you will keep your journals and records, they will indeed be a source of great inspiration to your families, to your children, your grandchildren, and others, on through the generations. Each of us is important to those who are near and dear to us and as our posterity reads of our life's experiences, they, too, will come to know and love us. And in that glorious day when our families are together in the eternities, we will already be acquainted.

  Spencer W. Kimball

  Children, Memories, Inspiration

  26 Copy quote

• Verily, I say unto you, that the wisdom of man, in his fallen state, knoweth not the purposes and the privileges of my hold priesthood, but ye shall know when ye receive a fullness by reason of the anointing: For it is my will, that in time, ye should take unto you wives of the Lamanites and Nephites, that their posterity may become white, delightsome and just, for even now their females are more virtuous then the gentiles.

  Joseph Smith, Jr.

  Native American, Men, White

  10 Copy quote

• That bright blue ball rising over the moon's surface, containing everything we hold dear - the laughter of children, a quiet sunset, all the hopes and dreams of posterity - that's what's at stake. That's what we're fighting for. And if we remember that, I'm absolutely sure we'll succeed.

  Barack Obama

  Dream, Children, Laughter

  Remarks by the President on Climate Change, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov. June 25, 2013.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Those of us in positions of responsibility, we'll need to be less concerned with the judgment of special interests and well-connected donors, and more concerned with the judgment of posterity.

  Barack Obama

  Responsibility, Special, Needs

  Barack Obama's Remarks on Climate Change in Georgetown University, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov. June 25, 2013.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• I will not go down to posterity talking bad grammar.

  Benjamin Disraeli

  Talking, Luck, Grammar

  Said while correcting proofs of his last Parliamentary speech, 31 March 1881, in Robert Blake 'Disraeli' (1966) ch. 32

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• [T]he hour is fast approaching, on which the Honor and Success of this army, and the safety of our bleeding Country depend. Remember officers and Soldiers, that you are Freemen, fighting for the blessings of Liberty - that slavery will be your portion, and that of your posterity, if you do not acquit yourselves like men.

  George Washington

  Country, Army, Fighting

  George Washington (1855). “Maxims of Washington: Political, Social, Moral, and Religious”, p.149

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• ..avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time of peace to discharge the debts, which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burthen, which we ourselves ought to bear.

  George Washington

  War, Government Debt, Owing A Debt

  George Washington, William Jackson (1838). “Monuments of Washington's Patriotism: Containing a Fac Simile of His Publick Accounts Kept During the Revolutionary War; and Some of the Most Interesting Documents Connected with His Military Command and Civil Administration; Embracing, Among Others, the Farewell Address to the People of the United States”, p.16

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• The Constitution, when it says, "We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America," meant just what it said without reference to color or condition, ad infinitum.

  Joseph Smith, Jr.

  Freedom, Blessing, Order

  19 Copy quote

• Posterity is the patriotic name for grandchildren.

  Art Linkletter

  Grandma, Patriotic, Grandmother

  9 Copy quote

• I am now speaking of rights under the Constitution, and not of moral or religious rights. I do not discuss the morals of the people of Missouri, but let them settle that matter for themselves. I hold that the people of the slaveholding States are civilized men as well as ourselves, that they bear consciences as well as we, and that they are accountable to God and their posterity and not to us. It is for them to decide therefore the moral and religious right of the slavery question for themselves within their own limits.

  Stephen A. Douglas

  Religious, Men, Rights

  44 Copy quote

• Ancestors do not mean so much. The rebel who succeeds generally makes it easier for the posterity that follows him; so these descendants are usually contented and smug and soft. Rebels are made from life, not ancestors.

  Clarence Darrow

  Mean, Rebel, Succeed

  Clarence Darrow (2015). “The Story of My Life”, p.15, Lulu.com

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• There are some works which the authors must consign unpublished to posterity, however uncertain be the event, however hopeless be the trust. He that writes the history of his own times, if he adhere steadily to truth, will write that which his own times will not easily endure. He must be content to reposite his book till all private passions shall cease, and love and hatred give way to curiosity.

  Samuel Johnson

  Book, Passion, Writing

  Alexander Pope, William Lisle Bowles, Samuel Johnson, Alexander Chalmers, Gilbert Wakefield (1806). “The Works of Alexander Pope, Esq. in Verse and Prose: Containing the Principal Notes of Drs. Warburton and Warton: Illustrations, and Critical and Explanatory Remarks, by Johnson, Wakefield, A. Chalmers ... and Others; to which are Added, Now First Published, Some Original Letters, with Additional Observations, and Memoirs of the Life of the Author”, p.261

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• It has been handed down in mythical form from earliest times to posterity, that there are gods, and that the divine (Deity) compasses all nature. All beside this has been added, after the mythical style, for the purpose of persuading the multitude, and for the interests of the laws, and the advantage of the state.

  Aristotle

  Law, Style, Purpose

  7 Copy quote

• Our duty to ourselves, to posterity, and to mankind, call on us
  by every motive which is sacred or honorable, to watch over the safety of our beloved country
  during the troubles which agitate and convulse the residue of the world, and to sacrifice to
  that all personal and local considerations.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Country, Sacrifice, Safety

  Thomas Jefferson, Richard Holland Johnston, Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association of the United States “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson”

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Posterity! Why should people be less stupid tomorrow than they are today?

  Jules Renard

  Stupid, People, Today

  Jules Renard (2008). “The Journal of Jules Renard”, p.230, Tin House Books

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Capricious and unfaithful, the king wished to be called Louis the Just and Louis the Chaste. Posterity will find a difficulty in understanding this character, which history explains only by facts and never by reason.

  Alexandre Dumas

  Kings, Character, Understanding

  Alexandre Dumas (2016). “ALEXANDRE DUMAS Premium Collection – 27 Novels in One Volume: The Three Musketeers Series, The Marie Antoinette Novels, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Valois Trilogy and more (Illustrated): Historical Novels & Adventure Classics: Queen Margot, Taking the Bastille, The Man in the Iron Mask, The Sicilian Bandit, The Conspirators, The Hero of the People, The Queen’s Necklace…”, p.147, e-artnow

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will go on prospering and to prosper; but if we and our posterity neglect its instructions and authority, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity.

  Daniel Webster

  Bible, Country, Men

  93 Copy quote

• We lose everything because everything remains except us. And therefore any form of posterity may be an affront, and perhaps any memory, as well.

  Javier Marías

  Memories, May, Form

  11 Copy quote

• Though a hundred crooked paths may conduct to a temporary success, the one plain and straight path of public and private virtue can alone lead to a pure and lasting fame and the blessings of posterity.

  Edward Everett

  Integrity, Blessing, May

  Edward Everett (1850). “Orations and Speeches on Various Occasions”, p.41, Рипол Классик

  7 Copy quote

  Show source