Ancestor Quotes

• Yes, I am a Jew and when the ancestors of the right honorable gentleman were brutal savages in an unknown island, mine were priests in the temple of Solomon.

  Benjamin Disraeli

  Islands, Justice, Diversity

  Benjamin Disraeli's remarks during Disraeli-O'Connell debate in Parliament, www.victorianweb.org. 1835.

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• W are all carrying the imprints of our most ancient ancestors. Not simply in the genetic code, but in the imprints of attention that are passed on.

  Frederick Lenz

  Buddhism, Science, Attention

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• Be a good ancestor. Stand for something bigger than yourself. Add value to the Earth during your sojourn.

  Marian Wright Edelman

  Add, Earth, Bigger

  Marian Wright Edelman (2013). “Lanterns: A Memoir of Mentors”, p.7, Beacon Press

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• We are the ancestors of the future and what we do now will have an impact.

  Luisah Teish

  Impact

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• Walking. I am listening to a deeper way. Suddenly all my ancestors are behind me. Be still, they say. Watch and listen. You are the result of the love of thousands.

  Linda Hogan

  Love, Spiritual, Nature

  Linda Hogan (1996). “Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World”, p.159, Simon and Schuster

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• Our greatest responsibility is to be good ancestors.

  Jonas Salk

  Xenophobia, Responsibility, Be Good

  "Learning from the Future : Competitive Foresight Scenarios". Book by Liam Fahey and Robert M. Randall, p. 332, 1998.

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• If your descent is from heroic sires, Show in your life a remnant of their fires.

  Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

  Life, Fire, Ancestry

  "Satires (Satire 5)". Book by Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux, 1716.

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• And I saw for the first time how, despite the isolation of our own lives, we are always connected to our ancestors; our bodies hold the memories of those who came before us, whether it is the features we inherit or a disposition that is etched into our soul.

  Alyson Richman

  Memories, Soul, Body

  Alyson Richman (2011). “The Lost Wife”, p.237, Penguin

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• Crafts make us feel rooted, give us a sense of belonging and connect us with our history. Our ancestors used to create these crafts out of necessity, and now we do them for fun, to make money and to express ourselves.

  Phyllis George

  Inspirational, Motivational, Fun

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• The past lives within the present, and our ancestors breathe through our children.

  Elif Safak

  Children, Past, Breathe

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• Do well and you will have no need for ancestors.

  Voltaire

  Positive Thinking, Goal, Needs

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• We are a continuum. Just as we reach back to our ancestors for our fundamental values, so we, as guardians of that legacy, must reach ahead to our children and their children. And we do so with a sense of sacredness in that reaching.

  Paul Tsongas

  Children, Fundamentals, Legacy

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• Every book is a quotation; and every house is a quotation out of all forests, and mines, and stone quarries; and every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Book, Men, House

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

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• It is fortunate that each generation does not comprehend its own ignorance. We are thus enabled to call our ancestors barbarous.

  Charles Dudley Warner

  Ignorance, Glowing, Doe

  Charles Dudley Warner (1873). “Backlog Studies”, p.28

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• We pay for the mistakes of our ancestors, and it seems only fair that they should leave us the money to pay with.

  Don Marquis

  Money, Mistake, Inheritance

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

  Robert Louis Stevenson

  Memories, Tree, Ancestry

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

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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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• 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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• 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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• Jesus is an example. We have other examples, including many of our ancestors as role models who understood the inner meaning of our orientation.

  Reverend Malcolm Boyd

  Jesus, Role Models, Example

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• I see the player piano as the grandfather of the computer, the ancestor of the entire nightmare we live in, the birth of the binary world where there is no option other than yes or no and where there is no refuge.

  William Gaddis

  Player, Piano Music, Piano Playing

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• The people made worse off by slavery were those who were enslaved. Their descendants would have been worse off today if born in Africa instead of America. Put differently, the terrible fate of their ancestors benefitted them.

  Thomas Sowell

  Fate, America, People

  Interview with John Hawkins, rightwingnews.com. February 8, 2012.

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• Maybe my caveman ancestors invented the wheel or something. I'm not sure.

  Brendan Fraser

  Wheels, Not Sure

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

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• The first American ancestor of our name was a younger son of these old Devonshire people, and came to the Virginia colony in the reign of Charles the First.

  John Sergeant Wise

  Son, Virginia, Names

  John Sergeant Wise, Paul Dennis Sporer (2005). “End of an Era: The Last Days of Traditional Southern Culture as Seen Through the Eyes of a Young Confederate Soldier”, p.16, Anza Publishing

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• Most of our ancestors were not perfect ladies and gentlemen. The majority of them weren't even mammals.

  Robert Anton Wilson

  Perfect, Gentleman, Majority

  "Cosmic Trigger I: The Final Secret of the Illuminati". Book by Robert Anton Wilson, p. 84, 1977.

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