Home > Topic > The legacy
1 " When Don Quixote went out into the world, that world turned into a mystery before his eyes. That is the legacy of the first European novel to the entire subsequent history of the novel. The novel teaches us to comprehend the world as a question. There is wisdom and tolerance in that attitude. "
― Milan Kundera , The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
2 " The living dead had taken more from us than land and loved ones. They'd robbed us of our confidence as the planet's dominant life form. We were a shaken, broken species, driven to the edge of extinction and grateful only for tomorrow with perhaps a little less suffering than today. Was this the legacy we would leave our children, a level of anxiety and self-doubt not seen since our simian ancestors cowered in the tallest trees? What kind of world would they rebuild? Would they rebuild at all? Could they continue to progress, knowing that they would be powerless to reclaim their future? And what if that future saw another rise of the living dead? Would our descendants rise to meet them in battle, or simply crumple in meek surrender and accept what they believe to be their inevitable extinction? For this alone, we had to reclaim our planet. We had to prove to ourselves that we could do it, and leave that proof as this war's greatest monument. The long, hard road back to humanity, or the regressive ennui of Earth's once-proud primates. That was the choice, and it had to be made now. "
― Max Brooks , World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
3 " Our days are numbered. One of the primary goals in our lives should be to prepare for our last day. The legacy we leave is not just in our possessions, but in the quality of our lives. What preparations should we be making now? The greatest waste in all of our earth, which cannot be recycled or reclaimed, is our waste of the time that God has given us each day. "
4 " What will you do today so tomorrow becomes the legacy you wanted to leave? "
― Bill Jensen , Future Strong
5 " This, then, is the legacy of January 1973. The " me generation" found its voice, religion became a political force, poverty and civil rights became someone else's problem, and the national will for concerted action for the common good of all its citizens was scattered into " a thousand points of light." At some point, perhaps those scattered lights will re-form and reunite to give birth to a rededicated nation, one that includes a place for everyone, opportunity for all, and help for those who need it. After all, it only takes a moment in time and some simultaneity. As Lyndon Johnson so aptly observed in his greatest speech - the " We Shall Overcome" speech - there are times in America when " history and fate meet at a single time in a single space to shape a turning point in man's unending search for freedom." Let us hop such a time is nearing. "
6 " If you want to save the humankind, you should first take care of Nature.It's the legacy that we leave behind,That brings us hope, that's for sure! "
― Ana Claudia Antunes , The Fairies of the Four Seasons: The Dance of Time (The Enchanted Valley Book 1)
7 " His famous, soul-stirring " I have a dream" speech will still give you chills and break your heart today. Decades later, long after his life on earth tragically ended, the legacy of his burden lives on, improving lives for generations to come. All because one man allowed his burden to birth a dream. "
8 " We say we value the legacy we leave the next generation and then saddle that generation with mountains of debt. We say we believe in equal opportunity but then stand idle while millions of American children languish in poverty. We insist that we value family, but then structure our economy and organize our lives so as to ensure that our families get less and less of our time. "
― Barack Obama , The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream
9 " All the best and worse things in us are bound up in the legacy of our family. As children we ardently trust in the stability or, in some cases, the instability we were born into. No matter which...we embraced what was decent while simultaneously suppressing what was deficient yet both traits weaved roots of faithfulness and consternation into the very fabric of who we've become. This now plays significantly into how we nurture our own families and how we relate to others. Our love, our fears, our insecurities, and our loyalties all draw from how we were raised as well as our inherent desire to shift its paradigm to optimistically better the life of not just our children...but our children's children. That's the gift and or the curse of a legacy. Which will you leave behind? "
― Jason Versey , A Walk with Prudence
10 " Respect both what you need to know and what you don't need to know. Respect mystery, for mystery is still needed to run the universe." -- The Legacy Letters, by Carew Papritz" Things I didn't know. "
11 " I travel because it makes me realize how much I haven't seen, how much I'm not going to see, and how much I still need to see." - The Legacy Letters, by Carew Papritz "
12 " The process begins with the individual woman’s acceptance that American women, without exception, are socialized to be racist, classist and sexist, in varying degrees, and that labeling ourselves feminists does not change the fact that we must consciously work to rid ourselves of the legacy of negative socialization. "
― , Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism
13 " Sorry is the day, and full of lament, when the young have to guard themselves from being food for the old.I am moved to bewilderment, when I glance my eyes upon a society that kills its young, and then pretends to mourn their modus operandi.Worse still, are those who have no compassion for the legacy and lack of positive inheritance being left to us, the future.We have to save our parents and their friends. They raised us,but do not trust us. They are too tired to enact change. The source of progress, and the wealth of the future is, us. "
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14 " It doesn’t matter if you work at a fast food joint or if you are the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Your job title does not define your purpose. The size of your paycheck does not make you worthy. What makes you valuable is your contribution to the world and the legacy that you leave behind. Stop defining yourself by what you do, and start defining yourself by who you are! "
15 " Remember, Little Ones, everything is not important all the time. Only living is important all the time. Not things. Not money. Not more things and more endless money. Spend well the quality of your time. And yes, be greedy with your hours. If only to then give those hours away as the most precious gifts you have to offer to yourself, your family, and your friends. And yes, to my Little Ones.” –From The Legacy Letters–“The Everything and Nothing of Money. "
― Carew Papritz , The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift
16 " How we respond to moments of interruption determine who we become and how we spend our lives. But you can never fully live in your calling without going through struggle, fear, and failure. Our decisions in those moments determine the legacy we will live. "
― , Doing Good Is Simple: Making a Difference Right Where You Are
17 " We could all spend a lifetime unraveling the knots of our childhood, but at some point you realize the knots are no longer yours. They belong to your parents, and their parents before them. The legacy is long and complicated, the damage passed on through generations, until one day someone finally stops and says: This story does not belong to me. ~" This I Know "
18 " This is the legacy of a compassionate bunch. Our fate now rests on the whims of men. "
― Leot Felton , The After
19 " Maybe your college professor taught that the legacy of colonialism explains Third World poverty. That’s nonsense as well. Canada was a colony. So were Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong. In fact, the richest country in the world, the United States, was once a colony. By contrast, Ethiopia, Liberia, Tibet, Sikkim, Nepal and Bhutan were never colonies, but they are home to the world’s poorest people. "
― Walter Williams
20 " I lie awake in my bed, clinging to the brightness I have known, fighting back the tide of darkness, the memories of blood and branding and horror, and the legacy of cruelty that runs in my own veins, shaping my own secret vow and wielding it like a brand against the darkness, whispering it to myself, over and over. I will try to be good. "
― Jacqueline Carey , Kushiel's Scion (Imriel's Trilogy, #1)