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

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• 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”

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• I have no urns, no dusty monuments;
  No broken images of ancestors,
  Wanting an ear, or nose; no forged tales
  Of long descents, to boast false honors from.

  Ben Jonson

  Long, Broken, Honor

  Ben Jonson, Felix Emmanuel Schelling (1966). “The Complete Plays: The alchemist. Catline, his conspiracy. Bartholomew Fair. The devil is an ass. The staple of news. The new inn; or, The light heart. The magnetic lady; or, Humours reconciled. A tale of a tub. The sad shepard; or, A tale of Robin Hood. The case is altered. Glossary”

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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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• 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'

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• 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

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• Of what use are pedigrees, or to be thought of noble blood, or the display of family portraits, O Ponticus?

  Juvenal

  Blood, Portraits, Noble

  "Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations" by Jehiel Keeler Hoyt, p. 23-25, Satires, VIII, line 1, 1922.

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

  Ovid

  Birth

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• 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..

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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.

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• 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”

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

  Lucan

  Men, Names, Shadow

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• Some decent regulated pre-eminence, some preference (not exclusive appropriation) given to birth, is neither unnatural, nor unjust, nor impolite.

  Edmund Burke

  Unjust, Birth, Preference

  "Reflections on the Revolution in France". Political pamphlet by Edmund Burke, November 1790.

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• 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 most to the perpetuation of society itself. It makes our weakness subservient to our virtue; it grafts benevolence even upon avarice. The possession of family wealth and of the distinction which attends hereditary possessions (as most concerned in it,) are the natural securities for this transmission.

  Edmund Burke

  Interesting, Weakness, Wealth

  Edmund Burke (1912). “Reflections on the French Revolution”, p.51, CUP Archive

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• Few sons attain the praise Of their great sires and most their sires disgrace.

  Homer

  Son, Childhood, Praise

  Homer (1872). “The Iliad ...”, p.326

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• 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)

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• 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

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• 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

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