Ancestor Quotes - Page 31

• In the old days when people invented a new function they had something useful in mind. Now, they invent them deliberately just to invalidate our ancestors' reasoning, and that is all they are ever going to get out of them.

  Henri Poincare

  People, Mind, Function

  5 Copy quote

• While I do not believe the earth loaned to us by our ancestors should be plagued by chemical horrors and thereby corrupted for future generations, neither do I believe I should have to face anything that has more eyes than I have during dinner. It was my rule when I was dating and, heck, it's still my rule now.

  Gina Barreca

  Believe, Eye, Should Have

  4 Copy quote

• Life in the twentieth century undeniably has ... such richness, joy and adventure as were unknown to our ancestors except in their dreams.

  Arthur Compton

  Dream, Adventure, Joy

  7 Copy quote

• Our ancestors, when about to build a town or an army post, sacrificed some of the cattle that were wont to feed on the site proposed and examined their livers. If the livers of the first victims were dark-coloured or abnormal, they sacrificed others, to see whether the fault was due to disease or their food. They never began to build defensive works in a place until after they had made many such trials and satisfied themselves that good water and food had made the liver sound and firm, healthfulness being their chief object.

  Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

  Dark, Army, Water

  "De architectura". Book by Vitruvius. Book I, Chapter IV, Section 9,

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Set before us the conduct of our own British ancestors, who defended for us the inherent rights of mankind against foreign and domestic tyrants and usurpers, against arbitrary kings and cruel priests; in short against the gates of earth and hell.

  John Adams

  Kings, Rights, Tyrants

  John Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1851). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.462

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I am very proud of Zendaya for standing up for herself, her generation and her ancestors. Her response was classy. Locs are a lifestyle for some and for others an artistic fashion statement..In either case, the images express power, natural beauty, and a boldness that always stands out. It is when you truly spend time with a person that you know who they really are on the inside, and not by what you see on the outside.

  Ledisi

  Fashion, Generations, Locs

  7 Copy quote

• I am not carrying on a war of extermination against the Romans. I am contending for honor and empire. My ancestors yielded to Roman valour. I am endeavouring that others, in their turn, will be obliged to yield to my good fortune, and my valour.

  Hannibal

  War, Yield, Honor

  155 Copy quote

• Why not assume that our humanity, including the self-control needed for livable societies, is built into us? Does anyone truly believe that our ancestors lacked social norms before they had religion? Did they never assist others in need, or complain about an unfair deal? Humans must have worried about the functioning of their communities well before the current religions arose, which is only a few thousand years ago.

  Frans de Waal

  Believe, Self, Years

  "Morals Without God?". opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com. October 17, 2010.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I know it sounds hard to believe, but habits laid down by our ancestors persist even after the conditions that created those habits have gone away.

  Malcolm Gladwell

  Believe, Gone Away, Sound

  "Secrets of their success". Interview with Jennifer Reingold, archive.fortune.com. November 19, 2008.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• The entire hominid collection known today would barely cover a billiard table, ... the collection is so tantalizingly incomplete, and the specimens themselves often so fragmented and inconclusive, that more can be said about what is missing than about what is present. ...but ever since Darwin's work inspired the notion that fossils linking modern man and extinct ancestor would provide the most convincing proof of human evolution, preconceptions have led evidence by the nose in the study of fossil man.

  John Reader

  Men, Convincing Evidence, Missing

  6 Copy quote

• Some of my ancestors fought in the American Revolution. A few more wore red coats, a few wore blue coats, and the rest wore no coats at all. We never did figure out who won that war.

  Edward Abbey

  War, Blue, Coats

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.17, RosettaBooks

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• If you feel that you must suffer, then plan your suffering carefully -- as you choose your dreams, as you conceive your ancestors.

  Edward Abbey

  Dream, Suffering, Plans

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.26, RosettaBooks

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• So might we ourselves look down into some rock-pool where lowly creatures repeat with naive zest dramas learned by their ancestors æons ago.

  Olaf Stapledon

  Drama, Rocks, Zest

  Olaf Stapledon (1931). “Last and First Men, & Star Maker: Two Science-fiction Novels”, p.364, Courier Corporation

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Our ancestors who changed the world did so through new ideas which came to them as they acted.

  Raymond Charles Barker

  Ideas, World, Action

  19 Copy quote

• Nature has endowed the earth with glorious wonders and vast resources that we may use for our own ends. Regardless of our tastes or our way of living, there are none that present more variations to tax our imagination than the soil, and certainly none so important to our ancestors, to ourselves, and to our children.

  Charles Kellogg

  Children, Imagination, Important

  9 Copy quote

• If your ancestors cut down all the trees, it’s not your fault, but you still don’t live in a forest.

  Pam Oliver

  Cutting, Tree, Forests

  47 Copy quote

• Life, as a part, is interwoven with the life of the whole, not only present, but past and future, for while men come and go the folk lives on, continuous, eternal, providing its members perform their duty to it. Thus, in identifying himself with his folk man prolongs himself through the multiplicity of his ancestors and his descendants, and thereby attains immortality.

  Colin Jordan

  Past, Men, Immortality

  12 Copy quote

• I remember as a child of eight being told by a young friend that I had killed Christ. That was news to me. It's a common experience for the Jewish young. Should later generations of Germans be burdened with the guilt arising from the profound inhumanity of their ancestors? Revenge may be sweet, but guilt is non-transferable. Still, hatreds survive with the persistence of cockroaches.

  Sid Fleischman

  Sweet, Children, Revenge

  11 Copy quote

• Remember your ancestors, dream of your descendants and work hard while you're living.

  Karen Lord

  Dream, Hard Work, Remember

  Karen Lord (2013). “The Best of All Possible Worlds: A Novel”, p.227, Del Rey

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Nature and the spirit of our ancestors are giving you loud warnings. Today you see increasing floods, more damaging hurricanes, hail storms, climate changes and earthquakes as our prophecies said would come. Why do animals act like they know about the earth's problems and most humans act like they know nothing? If we humans do not wake up to the warnings, the great purification will come to destroy this world just as the previous worlds were destroyed.

  Thomas Banyacya

  Animal, Earthquakes, Giving

  51 Copy quote

• As I contemplate the kind of future I want for children-my own and other people's-I believe we must look inward to God for guidance and strength and backward to draw on the values and legacies of our families, ancestors, and communities.

  Marian Wright Edelman

  Children, Believe, People

  4 Copy quote

• Make covenants and receive ordinances for yourself. Then steadily and consistently work to provide ordinances in the temple for your own ancestors.

  Richard G. Scott

  Covenant, Temples, Ordinances

  4 Copy quote

• Books permit us to voyage through time, to tap the wisdom of our ancestors.

  Carl Sagan

  Book, Cosmos, Voyages

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.307, Ballantine Books

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Do not be too sure, young fellows,
  That you are better than your ancestors.

  William Kean Seymour

  Young, Fellows

  4 Copy quote

• Even though fathers, grandparents, siblings, memories of ancestors are important agents of socialization, our society focuses on the attributes and characteristics of mothers and teachers and gives them the ultimate responsibility for the child's life chances.

  Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot

  Education, Mother, Teacher

  Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot (1978). “Worlds apart: relationships between families and schools”, Basic Books (AZ)

  10 Copy quote

  Show source