Posterity Quotes

Why should I care about posterity? What's posterity ever done for me?
Groucho Marx

Care, Done, Why

Posterity: you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it.
John Quincy Adams

Good, Hope, Freedom

What life half gives a man, posterity gives entirely.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Life, Half, Entirely

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, May

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

Remember, Virtue, Planning

A spirit of innovation is generally the result of a selfish temper and confined views. People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.
Edmund Burke

Forward, Selfish, Spirit

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

Suffer, Reproach, Incur

I do not suppose I shall be remembered for anything. But I don't think about my work in those terms. It is just as vulgar to work for the sake of posterity as to work for the sake of money.
Orson Welles

Work, Money, Shall

I hope that posterity will judge me kindly, not only as to the things which I have explained, but also to those which I have intentionally omitted so as to leave to others the pleasure of discovery.
Rene Descartes

Hope, Judge, Others

The Youth of a Nation are the trustees of posterity.
Benjamin Disraeli

Nation, Youth, Trustees

People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.
Edmund Burke

Forward, Ancestors, Backward

We live in an age when to be young and to be indifferent can be no longer synonymous. We must prepare for the coming hour. The claims of the Future are represented by suffering millions; and the Youth of a Nation are the trustees of Posterity.
Benjamin Disraeli

Age, Future, Live

Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn.
Joseph Addison

Great, Down, Genius

The Constitution of the United States was made not merely for the generation that then existed, but for posterity- unlimited, undefined, endless, perpetual posterity.
Henry Clay

Made, United, Generation

Christopher Columbus, as everyone knows, is honored by posterity because he was the last to discover America.
James Joyce

America, Everyone, Last

We are always doing something for posterity, but I would fain see posterity do something for us.
Joseph Addison

The words that a father speaks to his children in the privacy of home are not heard by the world, but, as in whispering galleries, they are clearly heard at the end, and by posterity.
Jean Paul

Home, End, Father

Contemporaries appreciate the person rather than their merit, posterity will regard the merit rather than the person.
Charles Caleb Colton

Person, Rather, Appreciate

The drafts which true genius draws upon posterity, although they may not always be honored so soon as they are due, are sure to be paid with compound interest in the end.
Charles Caleb Colton

Posterity weaves no garlands for imitators.
Friedrich Schiller

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

Give, Thought, Honest

After being Turned Down by numerous Publishers, he had decided to write for Posterity.
George Ade

Down, After, Write

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

Best, America, Hold

I'm interested in designing for posterity.
Alexander McQueen

Interested, Designing

I thought I had to make an impact on history. I had to become the greatest choreographer of my time. That was my mission. Posterity deals with us however it sees fit. But I gave it 20 years of my best shot.
Twyla Tharp

Time, Best, History

The flattery of posterity is not worth much more than contemporary flattery, which is worth nothing.
Jorge Luis Borges

Nothing, Worth, Flattery

The writing of the wise are the only riches our posterity cannot squander.
Walter Savage Landor

Wise, Writing, Cannot

A man doesn't plant a tree for himself. He plants it for posterity.
Alexander Smith

Himself, Tree, Plants

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

Art, Mistakes, Eyes

The function of posterity is to look after itself.
Dylan Thomas

After, Function

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