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About this quote

What does it mean?
The speaker condemns someone for hypocrisy in life and betrayal in death.
In plain terms
This person was fake while alive and a traitor when they died.
What can you take from it?
Hypocrisy and betrayal define a negative legacy.

Where it applies

  • posthumous evaluation
  • character assassination
  • political disputes

Putting it to work

  • evaluating character
  • naming traitors

Questions to consider

  • What defines a good legacy?
  • How do you judge hypocrisy?

Another view

Such judgments are often subjective and lack nuance about the person's life.

More from Oliver Cromwell

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  2. That slovenly fellow which you see before us, who hath no ornament in his speech; I say that sloven, if we should ever come to have a breech with the King (whi…

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  3. Saw the superb funeral of the Protector:...but it was the joyfullest funeral that I ever saw, for there were none that cried, but dogs, which the souldiers hoo…

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