Let No Man Write My Epitaph. When

A Man In My Situation, My Lords, Has Not Only To Encounter The Difficulties Of Fortune. And The Force Of Power Over Minds Which It Has Corrupted Or Subjugated. But The Difficulties Of Established Prejudice: The Man Dies, But His Memory Lives.

Let No Man Write My Epitaph. When My Country Takes Her Place Among The Nations Of The Earth, Then, And Not Till Then, Let My Epitaph Be Written.

I Have Much To Say Why My Reputation Should Be Rescued From The Load Of False Accusation And Calumny Which Has Been Heaped Upon It.

I Have But One Request To Ask At My Departure From This World; It Is-the Charity Of Its Silence. Let No Man Write My Epitaph; For As No Man Who Knows My Motives Dare Now Vindicate Them, Let Not Prejudice Or Ignorance Asperse Them. Let Them And Me Rest In Obscurity And Peace, And My Name Remain Uninscribed, Until Other Times And Other Men Can Do Justice To My Character. When My Country Takes Her Place Among The Nations Of The Earth, Then, And Not Till Then, Let My Epitaph Be Written.

Calumniators Are Those Who Have Neither Good Hearts Nor Good Understandings. We Ought Not To Think Ill Of Any One Till We Have Palpable Proof; And Even Then We Should Not Expose Them To Others.