Ancestry Quotes

• There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.

  Helen Keller

  Life, Kings, Diversity

  Helen Keller (2012). “The Story of My Life”, p.5, Courier Corporation

  21 Copy quote

  Show source

• Each has his own tree of ancestors, but at the top of all sits Probably Arboreal.

  Robert Louis Stevenson

  Memories, Tree, Ancestor

  Robert Louis Stevenson (2016). “Memories and Portraits: Stevenson's Vol. 21”, p.36, VM eBooks

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• None of us can boast about the morality of our ancestors. The record does not show that Adam and Eve were ever married.

  E. W. Howe

  Funny, Doe, Records

  5 Copy quote

• They talk about their Pilgrim blood, their birthright high and holy! a mountain-stream that ends in mud thinks is melancholy.

  James Russell Lowell

  Thinking, Blood, Mountain

  James Russell Lowell (1896). “The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell”

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• In church your grandsire cut his throat; to do the job too long he tarried: he should have had my hearty vote to cut his throat before he married.

  Jonathan Swift

  Jobs, Cutting, Should Have

  'Verses on the Upright Judge'

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Birth and ancestry, and that which we have not ourselves achieved, we can scarcely call our own.

  Ovid

  Birth

  4 Copy quote

• It is disgraceful when the passers-by exclaim, "O ancient house! alas, how unlike is thy present master to thy former one.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  House, Ancient, Masters

  "De Officiis". Treatise by Marcus Tullius Cicero, CXXXIX, as quoted in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 23-25, 44 B.C..

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The brave are born from the brave and good. In steers and in horses is to be found the excellence of their sire; nor do savage eagles produce a peaceful dove.

  Horace

  Horse, Eagles, Brave

  4 Copy quote

• Breed is stronger than pasture.

  George Eliot

  Past, Stronger, Pastures

  4 Copy quote

• Some men by ancestry are only the shadow of a mighty name.

  Lucan

  Men, Names, Shadow

  4 Copy quote

• He who boasts of his descent, praises the deed of another.

  Seneca the Younger

  Family, Deeds, Praise

  "The Madness of Hercules". Book by Seneca the Younger, circa 54 AD.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• We are linked by blood, and blood is memory without language.

  Joyce Carol Oates

  Memories, Blood, Language

  23 Copy quote

• We are all creatures of our ancestry! There is no right and wrong, objectively.

  Piers Anthony

  Creatures

  Piers Anthony (2014). “Phthor”, p.49, Open Road Media

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I don't have to look up my family tree, because I know that I'm the sap.

  Fred Allen

  Funny, Family, Witty

  Fred Allen (2008). “Much Ado About Me”, p.200, Wildside Press LLC

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• When you start about family, about lineage and ancestry, you are talking about every person on earth.

  Alex Haley

  Family, Talking, Alex

  "Race: Haley's Rx: Talk, Write, Reunite" in TIME magazine, February 14, 1977.

  43 Copy quote

  Show source

• And, you know, the fact is, if you believe in evolution, we all have a common ancestor, and we all have a common ancestry with the plant in the lobby. This is what evolution tells us. And, it's true. It's kind of unbelievable.

  Jeff Hawkins

  Believe, Facts, Common

  4 Copy quote

• The man who has nothing to boast of but his illustrious ancestry
  is like the potato. The best part is underground.

  Thomas Overbury

  Food, Men, Potatoes

  5 Copy quote

• A nation is a society united by a delusion about its ancestry and by common hatred of its neighbours.

  William Ralph Inge

  Hatred, Patriotism, Politics

  Sagittarius and George.

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• Good breeding is the result of good sense, some good nature, and a little self-denial for the sake of others.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Self, Denial, Littles

  Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.170, Oxford University Press

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is worthwhile for anyone to have behind him a few generations of honest, hard-working ancestry.

  John Phillips

  Hard Work, Generations, Honest

  5 Copy quote

• In different hours, a man represents each of several of his ancestors, as if there were seven or eight of us rolled up in each man's skin, - seven or eight ancestors at least, and they constitute the variety of notes for that new piece of music which his life is.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Life, Men, Eight

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Barbara L. Packer, Joseph Slater, Douglas Emory Wilson (2003). “The Conduct of Life”, p.5, Harvard University Press

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The precise form of an individual's activity is determined, of course, by the equipment with which he came into the world. In other words, it is determined by his heredity.

  Henry Louis Gates

  Life, Success, World

  7 Copy quote

• Those who boast of their descent, brag on what they owe to others.

  Seneca the Younger

  Descent, Brag, Boast

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.

  Edmund Burke

  Inspirational, Family, Memories

  Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

  55 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Plutarch

  Family, Glory, Ancestor

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

  4 Copy quote

  Show source