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“Environmental stewardship is an intergenerational responsibility. To exhaust natural resources without restraint is to mortgage the future. True statesmanship protects tomorrow while governing today.”

—  Shivanshu K. Srivastava

Last update Sept. 26, 2026. History

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“As we peer into society's future, we -- you and I, and our government -- must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for our own ease and convenience the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.”

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“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”

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Misattributed

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Truman Library address (2006)
Context: I believe we have a responsibility not only to our contemporaries but also to future generations — a responsibility to preserve resources that belong to them as well as to us, and without which none of us can survive. That means we must do much more, and urgently, to prevent or slow down climate change. Everyday that we do nothing, or too little, imposes higher costs on our children and our children’s children. Of course, it reminds me of an African proverb — the earth is not ours but something we hold in trust for future generations. I hope my generation will be worthy of that trust.

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“Free without scandal; wise without restraint;
Their virtue due to nature, not to fear.”

Aaron Hill (writer) (1685–1750) British writer

Selima, Act I, Sc. 1.
Zara (1735)
Context: You talk no more of that gay nation now,
Where men adore their wives, and woman's power
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Free without scandal; wise without restraint;
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