Ancestry Proverbs
Sayings about Ancestry
A man who prides himself on his ancestry is like the potato plant, the best part of which is underground. ~ Spanish Proverbs
From our ancestors come our names from our virtues our honor. ~ Traditional Proverb
They brag most of their ancestors who are unworthy of them. ~ Danish Proverbs
The glory of ancestors should not prevent a man from winning glory for himself. ~ Serbian Proverb
Birth, ancestry, and that which you yourself have not achieved can hardly be called your own. ~ Greek Proverbs
Mules are always boasting that their ancestors were horses. ~ German Proverbs
We have not inherited this land from our ancestors; rather we have borrowed it from our children. ~ Kenyan Proverbs
We do not inherit the land from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. ~ American Proverbs
To forget one's ancestors is to be a brook without a source, a tree without a root. ~ Chinese Proverbs
Quotations about Ancestry
Genealogy: An account of one’s descent from an ancestor who did not particularly care to trace his own. ~ Ambrose Bierce
Our greatest responsibility is to be good ancestors. ~ Jonas Salk
Man is physically as well as metaphysically a thing of shreds and patches, borrowed unequally from good and bad ancestors, and a misfit from the start. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
It is better to be the builder of our own name than to be indebted by descent for the proudest gifts known to the books of heraldry. ~ Hosea Ballou
One always retains the traces of one's origin. ~ Joseph Ernest Renan
Whoever serves his country well has no need of ancestors. ~ Voltaire
Each has his own tree of ancestors, but at the top of all sits Probably Arboreal. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson
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 Adams Keller
Title and ancestry render a good man more illustrious, but an ill one more contemptible. Vice is infamous, though in a prince, and virtue honorable, though in a peasant. ~ Joseph Addison
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
People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors. ~ Edmund Burke
He that boasts of his ancestors, the founders and raisers of a family, doth confess that he hath less virtue. ~ Jeremy Taylor
If it is fortunate to be of noble ancestry, it is not less so to be such as that people do not care to be informed whether you are noble or ignoble. ~ Jean de la Bruyere
What is birth to a man if it shall be a stain to his dead ancestors to have left such an offspring? ~ Sir Philip Sidney
My ancestors wandered lost in the wilderness for forty years because even in biblical times, men would not stop to ask for directions. ~ Elayne Boosler
Birth and ancestry, and that which we have not ourselves achieved, we can scarcely call our own. ~ Ovid
Every man is his own ancestor, and every man his own heir. He devises his own future, and he inherits his own past. ~ H.F. Hedge
The glory of ancestors sheds a light around posterity; it allows neither good nor bad qualities to remain in obscurity. ~ Sallust
Faith, I know nothing about it; I am my own ancestor. ~ Andoche Junot
A man’s ancestry is a positive property to him. ~ Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Our ancestors are very good kind of folks, but they are the last people I should choose to have a visiting acquaintance with. ~ Richard B. Sheridan
It has long seemed to me that it would be more honorable to our ancestors to praise them in words less, but in deeds to imitate them more. ~ Horace Mann
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
Some men by ancestry are only the shadow of a mighty name. ~ Lucanus
I don’t know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be. ~ Abraham Lincoln
It is indeed a desirable thing to be well descended, but the glory belongs to our ancestors. ~ Plutarch
Everyone has something ancestral, even if it is nothing more than a disease. ~ Edgar Watson Howe
People who take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote descendants. ~ Thomas Babington Macaulay
Related Quotes & Sayings: Age | Beginnings | Blood | Family | Nobility | Parents
Ancestry's Concise Genealogical Dictionary: A quick reference book with definitions for troublesome or unfamiliar words encountered in the genealogy research process. ~ Book preview