Remember, remember always that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) American Head of State, Lawyer
Few people disparage a distinguished ancestry except those who have none of their own.
—Joel Hawes (1789–1867) American Clergyman
It is fortunate to come of distinguished ancestry.—It is not less so to be such that people do not care to inquire whether you are of high descent or not.
—Jean de La Bruyere (1645–96) French Satiric Moralist, Author
High birth is an accident, not a virtue.
—Metastasio (1698–1782) Italian Poet, Librettist
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 (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
My ancestors didn’t come over on the Mayflower, but they were there to meet the boat.
—Will Rogers (1879–1935) American Actor, Rancher, Humorist
No one is better born than another, unless they are born with better abilities and a more amiable disposition.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
I am no herald to inquire of men’s pedigrees; it sufficeth me if I know their virtues.
—Philip Sidney (1554–86) English Soldier Poet, Courtier
From our ancestors come our names from our virtues our honor.
—Common Proverb
I don’t have to look up my family tree, because I know that I’m the sap.
—Fred Allen (1894–1956) American Comedian, Radio Personality
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 (1853–1937) American Novelist, Editor
The origin of all mankind was the same: it is only a clear and a good conscience that makes a man noble, for that is derived from heaven itself.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
They talk about their Pilgrim blood, their birthright high and holy! a mountain-stream that ends in mud thinks is melancholy.
—James Russell Lowell (1819–91) American Poet, Critic
Clever father, clever daughter; clever mother, clever son.
—Russian Proverb
Good breeding, a union of kindness and independence.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
A grandfather is no longer a social institution.—Men do not live in the past.—They merely look back.—Forward is the universal cry.
—Walter Scott (1771–1832) Scottish Novelist, Poet, Playwright, Lawyer
We inherit nothing truly, but what our actions make us worthy of.
—George Chapman (c.1560–1634) English Poet, Playwright
The inheritance of a distinguished and noble name is a proud inheritance to him who lives worthily of it.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
It is a noble faculty of our nature which enables us to connect our thoughts, sympathies, and happiness, with what is distant in place or time; and looking before and after, to hold communion at once with our ancestors and our posterity. There is a moral and philosophical respect for our ancestors, which elevates the character and improves the heart. Next to the sense of religious duty and moral feeling, I hardly know what should bear with stronger obligation on a liberal and enlightened mind, than a consciousness of an alliance with excellence which is departed; and a consciousness, too, that in its acts and conduct, and even in its sentiments and thoughts, it may be actively operating on the happiness of those that come after it.
—Daniel Webster (1782–1852) American Statesman, Lawyer
Nobility of birth does not always insure a corresponding nobility of mind; if it did, it would always act as a stimulus to noble actions; but it sometimes acts as a clog rather than a spur.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
Unworthy offspring brag the most about their worthy descendants.
—Danish Proverb
We owe it to our ancestors to preserve entire those rights they have delivered to our care. We owe it to our posterity not to suffer their dearest inheritance to be destroyed.
—Junius Unidentified English Writer
Those who boast of their descent, brag on what they owe to others.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
The pride of blood has a most important and beneficial influence.—It is much to feel that the high and honorable belong to a name that is pledged to the present by the recollections of the past.
—Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–38) English Poet, Novelist
It is the highest of earthly honors to be descended from the great and good.—They alone cry out against a noble ancestry who have none of their own.
—Ben Jonson (1572–1637) English Dramatist, Poet, Actor
Mules are always boasting that their ancestors were horses.
—German Proverb
Some decent, regulated preeminence, some preference given to birth, is neither unnatural nor unjust nor impolitic.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
What can we see in the longest kingly line in Europe, save that it runs back to a successful soldier?
—Walter Scott (1771–1832) Scottish Novelist, Poet, Playwright, Lawyer
When real nobleness accompanies the imaginary one of birth, the imaginary mixes with the real and becomes real too.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick (1746–1816) British Nobleman, Politician
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