Pope Benedict XVI Quotes

I'm really disturbed by the degree to which I don't hear people saying, "Are we leaving the world better than we found it?" I think we are a generation that perhaps could not answer in the affirmative, and it is the evasion of the larger responsibility of being only one generation in what one hopes will be an infinite series of fruitful generations. There is a selfishness in refusing to understand that we are passing through; others will come, and they deserve certain courtesies and certain considerations from us.

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

When a man says he is building a house for himself and his posterity, he does not mean to be understood as saying that he has any thought of binding them, nor is it to be inferred that he is so foolish as to imagine that he has any right or power to bind them, to live in it.

When I think about my legacy, I think about the world that we leave behind for our children.

I would like the Hunter Foundation to outlive everything.

I often quote an African proverb that says: "The world is not ours, the earth is not ours, It's a treasure we hold in trust for future generations." And I often hope we will be worthy of that trust.

It doesn't hurt to look 75 to 100 years out, That's a gift to future generations.

Too old to plant trees for my own gratification, I shall do it for my posterity.

In the fullness of time, when it is our turn to give, we must in turn plant gardens that we may never eat the fruit of, which will benefit the generations to come.

The man who thinks only of his own generation is born for few.

As a Green, my goal is to put a smile on the face of the coming generations.

This is the moral challenge of our generation. Not only are the eyes of the world upon us. More important, succeeding generations depend on us. We cannot rob our children of their future.

The most important question we must ask ourselves is, 'Are we being good ancestors?'

Winning is very tangible, it's very exciting, it's very pleasing, but it's momentary. If you can do things that last, that each generation can build upon, then that's when you're cooking.

We are the heirs of the ages; but the estate is entailed, as large estates frequently are, so that while we inherit the earth, the great round world which is God's footstool, we have only the use of it while we live and must pass it on to those come after us. We hold the property in trust and have no right to injure it or to lessen its value. To do so is dishonest, stealing from our heirs their inheritance.

If we don't start acknowledging our correct position as nothing more than a part of the planet as opposed to this perception that we're superior, then we won't have it much longer. We're facing a very turbulent, war-torn, drought-ridden existence for future generations unless we act now.

We are a kind of posterity in respect to them.

We are the sowers - our children are those who reap. We labor so that future generations will be better and nobler than we are.

I refuse to condemn your generation and future generations to a planet that's beyond fixing.

I've never had any real concern about posterity. I hope some people will be sorry when I'm not here, but I'm not playing for that.

All his successors gone before him have done 't; and all his ancestors that come after him may.

Greatness comes by beginning something that doesn't end with you.

I want to be one of those people, be they writers, poets, musicians, who leaves clues for the next generation. The really good people leave clues that help feed the human race. That's my aspiration.

It is our responsibility to leave the people of the future a free hand.