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

  23 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

  6 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..

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Distinctions between citizens solely because of their ancestry are by their very nature odious to a free people whose institutions are founded upon the doctrine of equality.

  Harlan F. Stone

  Equality, People, Doctrine

  Hirabayashi v. United States, 320 U.S. 81, (100), 1943.

  8 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

  7 Copy quote

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

  Ovid

  Birth

  6 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.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• The power of perpetuating our property in our families is one of the most valuable and interesting circumstances belonging to it, and that which tends the most to the perpetuation of society itself.

  Edmund Burke

  Wisdom, Interesting, Politics

  Edmund Burke (2014). “Revolutionary Writings: Reflections on the Revolution in France and the First Letter on a Regicide Peace”, p.52, Cambridge University Press

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• I wasn't trying to work out my own ancestry. I was trying to get people to feel slavery. I was trying to get across the kind of emotional and psychological stones that slavery threw at people.

  Octavia Butler

  Emotional, People, Work Out

  6 Copy quote

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

  Lucan

  Men, Names, Shadow

  7 Copy quote

• Breed is stronger than pasture.

  George Eliot

  Past, Stronger, Pastures

  6 Copy quote

• 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

  15 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.

  45 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

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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.

  20 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  7 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

  6 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

  6 Copy quote

• Every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Men, Heirlooms, Forests

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.221, Penguin

  16 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

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• I don't know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Motivational, Fathers Day, Future

  Abraham Lincoln (1982). “Abraham Lincoln, wisdom & wit”, Peter Pauper Pr

  88 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)

  58 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is with antiquity as with ancestry, nations are proud of the one, and individuals of the other; but if they are nothing in themselves, that which is their pride ought to be their humiliation.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Pride, Proud, Individual

  Charles Caleb Colton (1823). “Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan”

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• When real nobleness accompanies that imaginary one of birth, the imaginary seems to mix with real, and becomes real too.

  Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke

  Real, Birth, Imaginary

  6 Copy quote

• Pedigree and ancestry and what we ourselves have not achieved, I scarcely recognize as our own.

  Ovid

  Pedigree

  6 Copy quote