Ancestor Quotes

• Yes, I am a Jew and when the ancestors of the right honorable gentleman were brutal savages in an unknown island, mine were priests in the temple of Solomon.

  Benjamin Disraeli

  Islands, Justice, Diversity

  Benjamin Disraeli's remarks during Disraeli-O'Connell debate in Parliament, www.victorianweb.org. 1835.

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• Our greatest responsibility is to be good ancestors.

  Jonas Salk

  Xenophobia, Responsibility, Be Good

  "Learning from the Future : Competitive Foresight Scenarios". Book by Liam Fahey and Robert M. Randall, p. 332, 1998.

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• And I saw for the first time how, despite the isolation of our own lives, we are always connected to our ancestors; our bodies hold the memories of those who came before us, whether it is the features we inherit or a disposition that is etched into our soul.

  Alyson Richman

  Memories, Soul, Body

  Alyson Richman (2011). “The Lost Wife”, p.237, Penguin

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• Walking. I am listening to a deeper way. Suddenly all my ancestors are behind me. Be still, they say. Watch and listen. You are the result of the love of thousands.

  Linda Hogan

  Love, Spiritual, Nature

  Linda Hogan (1996). “Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World”, p.159, Simon and Schuster

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• Let us make future generations remember us as proud ancestors just as, today, we remember our forefathers.

  Roh Moo-hyun

  Generations, Proud, Today

  "Roh Moo-Hyun's Inauguration Speech". February 25, 2003.

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• So as you go into battle, remember your ancestors and remember your descendants.

  Tacitus

  Memorial Day, Peace, War

  "Agricola". Book by Tacitus, transl. by G. J. Acheson, chapter 4, paragraph 22, final sentence, p. 72, 1938.

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• We need to haunt the house of history and listen anew to the ancestors' wisdom.

  Maya Angelou

  Learning, House, Words Of Wisdom

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• The hero draws inspiration from the virtue of his ancestors.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Inspiration, Hero, Virtue

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• Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise. I rise. I rise.

  Maya Angelou

  Inspirational, Dream, Hope

  Maya Angelou (2011). “Phenomenal Woman: Four Poems Celebrating Women”, p.9, Random House

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• Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children.

  Crazy Horse

  Children, Native American, Parent

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• Every man is an omnibus in which his ancestors ride.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

  Men, Ancestry, Every Man

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• If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Inspirational, Family, Dance

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• We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children

  Chief Seattle

  Motivational, Wisdom, Peace

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• OUR history begins before we are born. We represent the hereditary influences of our race, and our ancestors virtually live in us.

  James Nasmyth

  Race, Influence, Born

  James Nasmyth (2010). “James Nasmyth, Engineer: An Autobiography”, p.1, BoD – Books on Demand

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• It is indeed a desirable thing to be well-descended, but the glory belongs to our ancestors.

  Plutarch

  Family, Ancestry, Glory

  Plutarch (1871). “Plutarch's Morals”, p.12

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• We must wake up to the insane reality of our time. We are all irresponsible, unless we demand from the responsible decision makers that modern armaments must no longer be made available to people whose former battle axes and swords our ancestors condemned.

  Thor Heyerdahl

  Reality, Axes, People

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• Our cautious ancestors, when yawning, blocked the way to the entrance of evil spirits by putting their hands before their mouths. We find a reason for the gesture in the delicacy of manner which forbids an indecent exposure.

  George H. Mead

  Yawning, Hands, Evil

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• He that boasts of his ancestors confesses that he has no virtue of his own. No person ever lived for our honor; nor ought that to be reputed ours, which was long before we had a being; for what advantage can it be to a blind man to know that his parents had good eyes? Does he see one whit the better?

  Pierre Charron

  Eye, Men, Long

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• Snobs talk as if they had begotten their own ancestors.

  Herbert Agar

  Snob, Ifs

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• A man finds room in the few square inches of the face for the traits of all his ancestors; for the expression of all his history, and his wants.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Men, Squares, Expression

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Barbara L. Packer, Joseph Slater, Douglas Emory Wilson (2003). “The Conduct of Life”, p.96, Harvard University Press

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• We don't know when our name came into being or how some distant ancestor acquired it. We don't understand our name at all, we don't know its history and yet we bear it with exalted fidelity, we merge with it, we like it, we are ridiculously proud of it as if we had thought it up ourselves in a moment of brilliant inspiration.

  Milan Kundera

  Funny, Humorous, Inspiration

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• Though you be sprung in direct line from Hercules, if you show a lowborn meanness, that long succession of ancestors whom you disgrace are so many witnesses against you; and this grand display of their tarnished glory but serves to make your ignominy more evident.

  Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

  Long, Lines, Ancestry

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• Not only does democracy make every man forget his ancestors, but also clouds their view of their descendants and isolates them from their contemporaries. Each man is for ever thrown back on himself alone, and there is danger that he may be shut up in the solitude of his own heart.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Heart, Men, Clouds

  "Democracy in America". Book by Alexis de Tocqueville, Volume II. Book Two, Chapter II, 1840.

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• The Righteous Salaf were as fearful of their good deeds being squandered, or not being accepted, as the present generation is certain that their neglect would be forgiven.

  Hasan of Basra

  Forgiveness, Wisdom, Islamic

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• Latinos have fought in all of America’s wars, beginning with the Revolutionary War. Many Latinos are fighting and dying for our country today in Iraq, just as several of their ancestors fought for freedom in Mexico over a century ago.

  Joe Baca

  Country, War, Fighting

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