Ancestor Quotes - Page 28

• Today’s events are tomorrow’s history, yet events seen by the naked eye lack the depth and breadth of human struggles, triumphs and suffering. Writing history is writing the soul of the past… so that the present generation may learn from past mistakes, be inspired by their ancestor’s sacrifices, and take responsibility for the future.

  Epifanio de los Santos

  Mistake, Struggle, Eye

  "Silent storms: inspiring lives of 101 great Filipinos". Book by Fernando A. Bernardo, p. 37 - 38, 2000.

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.

  Joshua

  Egypt, Rivers, Faithfulness

  15 Copy quote

• If the blessings of our political and social condition have not been too highly estimated, we cannot well overrate the responsibility and duty which they impose upon us. We hold these institutions of government, religion, and learning, to be transmitted, as well as enjoyed. We are in the line of conveyance, through which whatever has been obtained by the spirit and efforts of our ancestors is to be communicated to our children.

  Daniel Webster

  Children, Responsibility, Blessing

  Daniel Webster (1853). “The Life, Eulogy, and Great Orations of Daniel Webster”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The civilized people of today look back with horror at their medieval ancestors who wantonly destroyed great works of art or sat slothfully by while they destroyed. We have passed this stage.... Here in the U.S. we turn our rivers and streams into sewers and dumping grounds, we pollute the air, we destroy our forests and exterminate fishes, birds and mammals - not to speak of vulgarizing charming landscapes with hideous advertisements. But at best it looks as if our people were awakening.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Art, Air, Rivers

  5 Copy quote

• Out of the thirty thousand types of edible plants thought to exist on Earth, just eleven—corn, rice, wheat, potatoes, cassava, sorghum, millet, beans, barley, rye, and oats—account for 93 percent of all that humans eat, and every one of them was first cultivated by our Neolithic ancestors.

  Bill Bryson

  Oats, Wheat, Potatoes

  FaceBook post by Bill Bryson from Jul 05, 2016

  34 Copy quote

  Show source

• Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there. My folks were Indian. Both my mother and father had Cherokee blood in them. I was born and raised in Indian Territory. 'Course we're not the Americans whose ancestors came over on the Mayflower, but we met them at the boat when they landed.

  Will Rogers

  Mother, Running, Father

  4 Copy quote

• I understand how difficult it can be for an African-American in today’s society. In fact, I can relate to black people very well indeed. My ancestors once owned slaves, and it is in my lineage to work closely with the black community. However, just because they were freed over a century ago doesn’t mean they can now be freeloaders. They need to be told to work hard, and the incentives just aren’t there for them anymore. When I’m president I plan to work closely with the black community to bring a sense of pride and work ethic back into view for them.

  Mitt Romney

  Hard Work, Mean, Pride

  "Mitt Romney: I Can Relate To Black People, My Ancestors Once Owned Slaves" by S.Wood, www.freewoodpost.com.

  40 Copy quote

  Show source

• We must not forget that these men and women who file through the narrow gates at Ellis Island, hopeful, confused, with bundles of misconceptions as heavy as the great sacks upon their backs these simple, rough-handed people are the ancestors of our descendants, the fathers and mothers of our children.

  Walter Weyl

  Mother, Children, Confused

  9 Copy quote

• We are creatures. We have a link with a native habitat just like every other species. Throughout most of human history, physical activity was unavoidable, calories were scarce and hard to get. In the modern era, calories are unavoidable, physical activity is scare and hard to get. The traits that allowed our ancestors to survive, and let's face it, the survival of our ancestors is the reason that we're here because the people who don't survive and make very crummy ancestors, are our traits. But they're very much at odds with the modern environment.

  David Katz

  People, Survival, Scare

  Source: bigthink.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is ourselves alone that make our days lucky or unlucky. Away, then, with a vain prejudice, the invention of the priesthood, which has been transmitted by our ancestors to an ignorant people.

  Voltaire

  People, Ignorant, Luck

  14 Copy quote

• Our ape-like and arboreal ancestors entered upon the first of many short cuts. To crack a marrow-bone with a rock was the act which fathered the tool, and between the cracking of a marrow-bone and the riding down town in an automobile lies only a difference of degree.

  Jack London

  Lying, Cutting, Rocks

  Jack London (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Jack London (Illustrated)”, p.464, Delphi Classics

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• If you discuss the beliefs of Christianity with the village diviner, the medicine man, he will say the white man must be extremely stupid. The white man must be profoundly troubled - probably torn by a huge guilt connected to how he treated the ancestors - to think that villagers would buy the idea that someone died on the cross for us. They would say these beliefs are evidence that the white people killed someone of great importance, probably a diviner and a healer. If you kill a healer, you must make amends by appeasing the healer's spirit.

  Malidoma Patrice Some

  Stupid, Men, Thinking

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Our religion is the traditions of our ancestors - the dreams of our old men, given them in solemn hours of the night by the Great Spirit; and the visions of our sachems, and is written in the hearts of our people.

  Chief Seattle

  Dream, Native American, Heart

  12 Copy quote

• Life is surely given us for higher purposes than to gather what our ancestors have wisely thrown away, and to learn what is of no value but because it has been forgotten.

  Samuel Johnson

  Purpose, Life Is, Forgotten

  Samuel Johnson (1977). “Selected Poetry and Prose”, p.201, Univ of California Press

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• As I am from Hawaiʻi, the ocean is part of my culture and who I am. My ancestors were great ocean explorers.

  Nainoa Thompson

  Ocean, Who I Am, Culture

  18 Copy quote

• I think I'm fascinated with history and - just in general. And I'm always interested in how did - how did this come to be? Why is this the way it is? And even singing classical voice, I quickly became more and more interested with early music, baroque voice. And that became an obsession to me - just figuring out how - who are the ancestors of whatever it is.

  Cecile McLorin Salvant

  Thinking, Voice, Singing

  "Jazz Singer Cécile McLorin Salvant Doesn't Want To Sound 'Clean And Pretty'". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, www.npr.org. November 4, 2015.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• We have all this Paleolithic art that suggests that our ancestors really venerated animals and that they depended on wild animals to survive - as opposed to domesticated animals that we depend on. Would it radically change things if we had more rhinos in our midst? I kind of suspect it would.

  Elizabeth Kolbert

  Art, Animal, Kind

  "Pulitzer Winner Elizabeth Kolbert on Mass Extinctions - and Our Own Eventual One". Interview With Benjy Hansen-Bundy, www.motherjones.com. February 4, 2014.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• It's time to respect the treaties our ancestors signed and care for our land, water, and cultures so that they remain healthy for our future generations.

  Winona LaDuke

  Land, Water, Healthy

  6 Copy quote

• Then, of course, through the umbilical link we all tumble backwards down the spiralling DNA staircase to one common ancestor in Africa, and before that some bunch of curious monkeys. Down and down we go unto the sea, unto the dust, the single cellular dust. What impulse drove one cell to become two? What yearning pulled the fish on to the land? What caused apes to walk upright? Some invisible magnetic pull. Is there a difference between attraction and intention? Where is evolution taking us?

  Russell Brand

  Dna, Cells, Dust

  Russell Brand (2014). “Revolution”, p.66, Ballantine Books

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• I realize the importance of retelling those stories is so that, one, we don't forget what our ancestors had to do so we can be where we are, and two, to just educate the newer generation. I'm being educated by all these films ['Race' and 'Selma'] and the things I've had the opportunity to be a part of, and kids even younger than me are being educated, too. It's important to make sure those stories never die.

  Stephan James

  Kids, Opportunity, Two

  "Stephan James on His Breakout Role as Jesse Owens in Race". Interview with Ronda Racha Penrice, www.theroot.com. February 16, 2016.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• As far as benefits to reading historical novels, there are several! For one thing, you learn about life in another era. Secondly, these novels help us to develop a deeper understanding of the legacy of women who came before us and the strides made by our ancestors.

  Mary Pope Osborne

  Reading, Historical Novels, Understanding

  Source: www.yabookshelf.com

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• I don't think that anything of any consequence is known a priori: all our knowledge is built up by modifying the lore passed on to us by our ancestors in light of our experiences, and the best a philosopher can do is to learn as much about what has been discovered in various empirical fields, and use it to try to craft an improved synthesis.

  Philip Kitcher

  Thinking, Light, Trying

  Source: www.3ammagazine.com

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• There are definitely recurring themes in humanity's relationship with our environment. The biggest is probably adaptation, because humans are incredibly good at adapting to new environments in relatively short periods of time. The ancestors of Homo sapiens started leaving Africa over one million years ago, moving from warm, tropical climates into the freezing wilderness of Europe and the desert ecosystems of the Middle East.

  Annalee Newitz

  Moving, Years, Europe

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Our ancestors are looking for us even if we're not looking for them. And by our ancestors I mean our bloodlines and the ancestors of the place where we live and our spiritual kin who go beyond our biological families. We could be walking around carrying an entire ancestral history of the wrong kind for us.

  Robert Moss

  Spiritual, Mean, Kind

  "If You Want To Be A Shaman, Start At The Breakfast Table. An Interview with Dreamer Robert Moss". Interview with Krysta Gibson, nhne-pulse.org.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• We need to consider ancestral cleansing. If we're willing to clear our energy fields of the ancestral energies we don't want, then we are ready to do something really interesting and beautiful which is to claim a connection with the wisdom of the kinds of ancestors we do want to be in contact with. But we can't do this until we've cleaned out the lower stuff that is hindering us.

  Robert Moss

  Beautiful, Interesting, Energy

  11 Copy quote