1. A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you, and were helped by you, will remember you when forget-me-nots are withered. Carve your name on hearts, and not on marble. ~C. H. (Charles Haddon) Spurgeon
2. Children are our legacy -- Our responsibility. They are our destiny and we are theirs. The extent to which we fail as parents, we fail as God's children. ~Dirk Benedict
3. Doctrines have proven expendable; yet the legacy of faith persists. ~Bernard Meland
4. Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. ~Harold Whitman
5. Every man is a quotation from all his ancestors. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
6. Everybody who is incapable of learning has taken to teaching. - Oscar Wilde "The Decay of Lying"
7. He who has done his best for his own time has lived for all times. ~Friedrich von Schiller
8. I Will Trust
God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission. I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next.
I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good. I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place while not intending it — if I but keep His commandments.
Therefore I will trust Him. Whatever, wherever I am. I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him; if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends, He may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me — still he knows what He is about. ~ John Henry Newman
9. If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. ~Isaac Newton
10. If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, then, you are an excellent leader. ~Dolly Parton
11. It is up to us to live up to the legacy that was left for us, and to leave a legacy that is worthy of our children and of future generations. ~Christine Gregoire
12. Know from whence you came. If you know whence you came, there are absolutely no limitations to where you can go. ~James Baldwin
13. Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch, which I have got a hold of for the moment, and want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it onto future generations. ~George Bernard Shaw
14. May you embrace all the rich legacies of your heritage. ~Irish Blessing
15. No legacy is so rich as honesty. ~William Shakespeare
16. Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty. ~Lao-Tzu (6th century B.C.), Legendary Chinese philosopher.
17. One generation plants the trees; another gets the shade. ~Chinese Proverb
18. Our deep respect for the land and its harvest is the legacy of generations of farmers who put food on our tables, preserved our landscape, and inspired us with a powerful work ethic. ~James H. Douglas
19. Our greatest responsibility is to be good ancestors. ~Dr. Jonas Edward Salk
20. Some are born with knowledge, some derive it from study, and some acquire it only after a painful realization of their ignorance. But the knowledge being possessed, it comes to the same thing. Some study with a natural ease, some from a desire for advantages, and some by strenuous effort. But the achievement being made, it comes to the same thing. - Kung Fu Tzu (Confucius)
21. The Legacy
When I die, give what is left of me to children.
If you need to cry, cry for your brothers walking beside you.
Put your arms around anyone and give them what you need to give to me.
I want to leave you with something, something better than words or sounds.
Look for me in the people I have known and loved.
And if you cannot live without me, then let me live on in your eyes, your mind and your acts of kindness.
You can love me most by letting hands touch hands and letting go of children that need to be free.
Love does not die, people do.
So when all that is left of me is love...
Give me away...
22. The meaning of life is to find your gift, the purpose of life is to give it away. ~Joy J. Golliver
23. The need to leave a legacy is our spiritual need to have a sense of meaning, purpose, personal congruence, and contribution. ~Stephen R. Covey
24. The only thing you take with you when you're gone is what you leave behind. ~John Allston
25. There are only two lasting bequests we can give our children... one is roots, the other wings. ~Stephen Covey
26. This is the beginning of a new day.
You have been given this day to use as you will.
You can waste it or use it for good.
What you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it.
When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever; in its place is something that you have left behind...let it be something good. ~Unknown
27. To know yet to think that one does not know is best;
28. We are a continuum. Just as we reach back to our ancestors for our fundamental values, so we, as guardians of that legacy, must reach ahead to our children and their children. And we do so with a sense of sacredness in that reaching. ~Paul Tsongas
29. We stand our best chance of leaving a legacy to those who want to learn, our children, by standing firm. In matters of style, hey, swing with the stream. But in matters of principle, you need to stand like a rock. ~Kevin Costner
30. We were meant to give our lives away. Spend more time living your legacy instead of worrying about leaving it. ~Lee J. Colan
31. What we do in life echoes in eternity. ~Gladiator (2000)
32. What we leave behind is not as important as how we have lived. ~Unknown
33. What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others. ~Pericles
34. Wisdom lies neither in fixity nor in change, but in the dialectic between the two. - Octavio Paz
35. Your descendants shall gather your fruits. ~Virgil