It would be more honorable to our distinguished ancestors to praise them in words less, but in deeds to imitate them more.
—Horace Mann (1796–1859) American Educator, Politician, Educationalist
If your descent is from heroic sires, show in your life a remnant of their fires.
—Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux (1636–1711) French Poet, Satirist, Literary Critic
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
Is anyone simply by birth to be applauded or punished?
—The Hitopadesha Indian Collection of Fables
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
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
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
He who boasts of his descent, praises the deed of another.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
Mules are always boasting that their ancestors were horses.
—German Proverb
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
Breed is stronger than pasture.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
The man of the true quality is not he who labels himself with genealogical tables, and lives on the reputation of his fathers, but he in whose conversation and behavior there are references and characteristics positively unaccountable except on the hypothesis that his descent is pure and illustrious.
—Theodore Parker (1810–60) American Unitarian Minister, Abolitionist
Birth is nothing where virtue is not.
—Moliere (1622–73) French Playwright
Good breeding, a union of kindness and independence.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Every man is an omnibus in which his ancestors ride.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
Some men by ancestry are only the shadow of a mighty name.
—Lucian (c.120–c.200 CE) Greek Satirist, Rhetorician, Writer
We inherit nothing truly, but what our actions make us worthy of.
—George Chapman (c.1560–1634) English Poet, Playwright
Honorable descent is, in all nations, greatly esteemed. It is to be expected that the children of men of worth will be like their progenitors; for nobility is the virtue of a family.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
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
He that can only boast of a distinguished lineage, boasts of that which does not belong to himself; but he that lives worthily of it is always held in the highest honor.
—Junius Unidentified English Writer
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
All history shows the power of blood over circumstances, as agriculture shows the power of the seeds over the soil.
—Edwin Percy Whipple (1819–86) American Literary Critic
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
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
Some decent, regulated preeminence, some preference given to birth, is neither unnatural nor unjust nor impolitic.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
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
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
The sharp thorn often produces delicate roses.
—Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) (c.43 BCE–c.18 CE) Roman Poet
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
Clever father, clever daughter; clever mother, clever son.
—Russian Proverb
Leave a Reply