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Whoever serves his country well has no need of ancestors.
Whoever serves his country well has no need of ancestors.
The man who has not anything to boast of but his illustrious
ancestors is like a potato,--the only good read more
The man who has not anything to boast of but his illustrious
ancestors is like a potato,--the only good belonging to him is
under ground.
It is disgraceful when the passers-by exclaim, "O ancient house!
alas, how unlike is thy present master to thy read more
It is disgraceful when the passers-by exclaim, "O ancient house!
alas, how unlike is thy present master to thy former one."
[Lat., Odiosum est enim, cum a praetereuntibus dicatur:--O domus
antiqua, heu, quam dispari dominare domino.]
I came up-stairs into the world; for I was born in a cellar.
I came up-stairs into the world; for I was born in a cellar.
We are all creatures of our ancestry! There is no right and wrong, objectively.
We are all creatures of our ancestry! There is no right and wrong, objectively.
No, my friends, I go (always other things being equal) for the
man that inherits family traditions and the read more
No, my friends, I go (always other things being equal) for the
man that inherits family traditions and the cumulative humanities
of at least four or five generations.
Few sons attain the praise
Of their great sires and most their sires disgrace.
Few sons attain the praise
Of their great sires and most their sires disgrace.
A nation is a society united by a delusion about it's ancestry and by a common hatred of it's neighbours.
A nation is a society united by a delusion about it's ancestry and by a common hatred of it's neighbours.
Say, when the ground our father Adam till'd,
And mother Eve the humble distaff held,
Who then read more
Say, when the ground our father Adam till'd,
And mother Eve the humble distaff held,
Who then his pedigree presumed to trace,
Or challenged the prerogative of place?
[Lat., Primus Adam duro cum vertet arva ligone,
Pensaque de vili deceret Eva colo:
Ecquis in hoc poterat vir nobilis orbe videri?
Et modo quisquam alios ante locandue erir?
