Top 412 Posterity Quotes & Sayings

Posterity is the patriotic name for grandchildren.

What a singular destiny has been that of this remarkable man!-To be regarded in his own age as a classic, and in ours as a companion! To receive from his contemporaries that full homage which men of genius have in general received only from posterity; to be more intimately known to posterity than other men are known to their contemporaries!

Both the ancestry and posterity of Grief go further than the ancestry and posterity of Joy.

We are a kind of posterity in respect to them.

American society was economically ill-run in the 1980s. Our society has been on a consumption binge. If the American people had a town meeting and said, 'What do we care about posterity? Posterity hasn't done anything for us; we're going to whoop it up now,' that is a rational judgment. But nobody ever did that.

Few can be induced to labor exclusively for posterity - Posterity has done nothing for us

Posterity pays for the sins of their fathers.

Never forget posterity when devising a policy. Never think of posterity when making a speech.

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

I don't suppose there's really any critic except posterity.

Posterity will pay everyone their due.

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

The function of posterity is to look after itself.

God and posterity will show me more favour

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

You are writing for your contemporaries - not for Posterity. If you are lucky, your contemporaries will become Posterity.

I work for posterity, these things requiring ages for their accomplishment.

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

Posterity always degenerates till it becomes our ancestors.

Posterity will know as little of me as I know of posterity.

The Youth of a Nation are the trustees of posterity.

Forests are precious resources of the country and a wealth to be handed down to posterity.

I regard posterity as vulgar as success. I don't trust posterity. I don't think what's good is necessarily recognized in the long run. Too many good writers have disappeared.

What artists call posterity is the posterity of the work of art.

Posterity alone rightly judges kings. Posterity alone has the right to accord or withhold honors.

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

Posterity weaves no garlands for imitators.

Posterity shall know of me even less than I shall know of posterity.

In Europe we have cities wealthier and more populous than yours and we are not happy. You dream of your posterity; but your posterity will look back to yours as the golden age, and envy those who first burst into this silent, splendid Nature.

A mule has neither pride of ancestry nor hope of posterity.

Men of genius are not to be analysed by commonplace rules. The rest of us who have been or are leaders, more commonplace in our quality, will do well to remember two things. One is never to forget posterity when devising a policy. The other is never to think of posterity when making a speech.

Men's memoirs are about answers; women's memoirs are about questions. Most male authors want to look good in their memoirs and have a place in posterity, while most women know that posterity is what happens when you no longer care. Women want to connect with others here and now; they couldn't care less about legacy!

There's no posterity to write for. I'm writing now for mutated arthropods.

I'm interested in designing for posterity.

The good diarist writes either for himself alone or for a posterity so distant that it can safely hear every secret and justly weigh every motive. For such an audience there is need neither of affectation nor of restraint. Sincerity is what they ask, detail, and volume; skill with the pen comes in conveniently, but brilliance is not necessary; genius is a hindrance even; and should you know your business and do it manfully, posterity will let you off mixing with great men, reporting famous affairs, or having lain with the first ladies in the land.

We are too careless of posterity; not considering that as they are, so the next generation will be.

The perfect critic is one ... that sees with the eyes of posterity.

The only thing I do for posterity is plant trees.

We must not look at the past with the enormous condescension of posterity.

A foreign nation is a kind of contemporaneous posterity.

He thinks posterity is a pack-horse, always ready to be loaded.

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

We should not miss the present opportunity or we shall be blamed by posterity.

The thing with all the Founding Fathers, one of the most common words they used was 'posterity.' They were constantly referring to posterity.

Why should we put ourselves out of our way to do anything for posterity? For what has posterity ever done for us?

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

Posterity is always just.

We should transmit to posterity our abhorrence of slavery.

We cannot defer this responsibility to posterity. Time will not wait.

As though there were a tie And obligation to posterity. We get them, bear them, breed, and nurse: What has posterity done for us. That we, lest they their rights should lose, Should trust our necks to gripe of noose?

I will not go down to posterity talking bad grammar.

Time will unveil all things to posterity.

I don't give a tinker's damn for posterity.

Titles do not count with posterity.

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

Sir, very few people reach posterity. Who amongst us may arrive at that destination I presume not to vaticinate. Posterity is a most limited assembly. Those gentlemen who reach posterity are not much more numerous than the planets.

Few can be induced to labor exclusively for posterity; and none will do it enthusiastically. Posterity has done nothing for us; and theorize on it as we may, practically we shall do very little for it, unless we are made to think we are at the same time doing something for ourselves.

As to posterity, I may ask what has it ever done to oblige me?

I always think W.S. Merwin's poems will last of anyone writing today. If I had to bet on posterity I would bet Merwin. My poems could easily evaporate. So I don't know. If you find yourself as a writer thinking about posterity you should probably go out for a brisk walk or something.

Posterity for the philosopher is what the other world is for the religious man.