37 Legacy-Inspiring Quotes

In a world that moves at a relentless pace, the concept of leaving a legacy serves as a profound reminder of the enduring impact one can have. Whether it's through the stories we tell, the lives we touch, or the values we uphold, creating a legacy is about crafting a narrative that transcends time. This collection of 37 legacy-inspiring quotes is curated to ignite your passion and commitment to making a meaningful difference. Each quote serves as a beacon of wisdom and insight, offering guidance and inspiration as you contemplate the mark you wish to leave on the world. Dive into these powerful words and envision the legacy you are destined to create.

1. “Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're there. It doesn't matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime.” - Ray Bradbury

2. “There is no escape—we pay for the violence of our ancestors.” - Frank Herbert

3. “We don't inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.” - David Brower

4. “How little we understandof the gifts we have been givenor the shape of the pathwe took to reach our salvation.” - Harley King

5. “We must begin thinking like a river if we are to leave a legacy of beauty and life for future generations.” - David Brower

6. “We stopped you from going, didn't we? Me and Shiva. Our birth?"Don't be silly. Can you imagine me giving up this?" he said sweeping his hand to indicate family, Missing, the home he'd made out of a bungalow. "I've been blessed. My genius was to know long ago that money alone wouldn't make me happy. Or maybe that's my excuse for not leaving you a huge fortune! I certainly could have made more money if that had been my goal. But one thing I won't have is regrets. My VIP patients often regret so many things on their deathbeds. They regret the bitterness they'll leave in people's hearts. They realize the no money, no church service, no eulogy, no funeral procession no matter how elaborate, can remove the legacy of a mean spirit.Of course, you and I have seen countless deaths among the poor. Their only regret surely is being born poor, suffering from birth to death. You know, in the book of Job, Job says to God, 'You should've taken me straight from the womb to the tomb! Why the in-between part, why life, if it was just to suffer?' Something like that. For the poor, death is at least the end of suffering.” - Abraham Verghese

7. “The songs of our ancestors are also the songs of our children” - Philip Carr-Gomm

8. “Every country has a cultural legacy and religious practices for reasons that I don’t believe fall under the category of superstition, something that a religious scholar should understand.” - Santosh Kalwar

9. “A thing which I regret, and which I will try to remedy some time, is that I have never in my life planted a walnut. Nobody does plant them nowadays—when you see a walnut it is almost invariably an old tree. If you plant a walnut you are planting it for your grandchildren, and who cares a damn for his grandchildren?” - George Orwell

10. “The planting of a tree, especially one of the long-living hardwood trees, is a gift which you can make to posterity at almost no cost and with almost no trouble, and if the tree takes root it will far outlive the visible effect of any of your other actions, good or evil.” - George Orwell

11. “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.” - Bill Graham

12. “The choices we make about the lives we live determine the kinds of legacies we leave.” - Tavis Smiley

13. “What should our second generation have done, what should it do with the knowledge of the horrors of the extermination of the Jews? We should not believe we can comprehend the incomprehensible, we may not compare the incomparable, we may not inquire because to inquire is to make the horrors an object of discussion, even if the horrors themselves are not questioned, instead of accepting them as something in the face of which we can only fall silent in revulsion, shame and guilt. Should we only fall silent in revulsion, shame and guilt? To what purpose?” - Bernhard Schlink

14. “A writer doesn't dream of riches and fame, though those things are nice. A true writer longs to leave behind a piece of themselves, something that withstands the test of time and is passed down for generations.” - CK Webb

15. “Your story is the greatest legacy that you will leave to your friends.It's the longest-lasting legacy you will leave to your heirs.” - Steve Saint

16. “I had an inheritance from my father,It was the moon and the sun.And though I roam all over the world,The spending of it’s never done.” - Ernest Hemingway

17. “My art is that of the 35mm kind; my poetry is of the lead and ink kind; my happiness is of the product of both; and my legacy is of the story of my soul, that my life left behind” - Jeremy Aldana

18. “Leaving behind books is even more beautiful — there are far too many children.” - Marguerite Yourcenar

19. “Inside of all of us there is the need and the desire to be heard, to have our innermost thoughts, feelings and desires expressed for others to hear, to see and to understand. We all want to matter to someone, to leave a mark. Writers just take those thoughts, feelings and desires and express them in such a way that the reader not only reads them but feels them as well.” - V. Vee

20. “Legacy is not what's left tomorrow when you're gone. It's what you give, create, impact and contribute today while you're here that then happens to live on.” - Rasheed Ogunlaru

21. “When we let the expectations of others or own unreasonable self-expectations rule, we silence the power of our Legacies.” - Joy DeKok

22. “Create your legacy by fulfilling your potential...” - Gino Norris

23. “Maybe not. But maybe that's how the world changes, Isaiah. One father, one child, at a time.” - Barbara Samuel

24. “Never regard study as a duty but as an enviable opportunity to learn to know the liberating influence of beauty in the realm of the spirit for your own personal joy and to the profit of the community to which your later works belong."~Albert Einstein"Einstein is referring to ones 'legacy' and its intended future recipients as being willfully purposed to benefit them on their journey through this gift of life given to us by God” - R. Alan Woods

25. “My life is an open book; at least this photo album".~R. Alan Woods [2013]” - R. Alan Woods

26. “Someone once said that every man is trying to live up to his father's expectations or make up for their father's mistakes....” - Barack Obama

27. “Everyone is born and they die, but it's the memories they leave behind that define them and let them live on than others.” - Judi Fennell

28. “You are the posterity of your family. You are either continuing the progression or regression of your ancestors.” - Johnnie Dent Jr.

29. “As a writer of philosophy, it's good to ask oneself, 'Will I still believe this a week from now, or months, or even years?” - Criss Jami

30. “Only the passionate were immortal, it seemed. If you fought, screwed, screamed, laughed, or otherwise experienced life intensely, for better or worse, you left a record. Those who lived a quiet, well-behaved, well-tempered life? Gone without a trace.” - Magnus Flyte

31. “What you do with your resources in this life is your autobiography.” - Randy Alcorn

32. “Come out into the world about you, be it either wide or limited. Sympathize, not in thought only, but in action, with all about you. Make yourself known and felt for something that would be loved and missed, in twenty thousand little ways, if you were to die; then your life will be a happy one, believe me.” - Charles Dickens

33. “We're all just songs in the end. If we are lucky.” - George R.R. Martin

34. “Let us live not only to serve God ourselves; let us live to help our children and their children live for God.” - Dillon Burroughs

35. “The actions you take today not only impact you; they influence generations. Every matter matters for eternity.” - Dillon Burroughs

36. “Everyone leaves a legacy, whether they want to or not. The question is, “What kind of legacy will you leave?” - Dillon Burroughs

37. “A true love can cross through your legacy and heritage.” - M.F. Moonzajer