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One who is proud of ancestry is like a turnip; there is nothing good of him but that which is read more
One who is proud of ancestry is like a turnip; there is nothing good of him but that which is underground
 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.] 
Whoever serves his country well has no need of ancestors.
Whoever serves his country well has no need of ancestors.
 "My nobility," said he, "begins in me, but yours ends in you."
   - Iphicrates,  
 "My nobility," said he, "begins in me, but yours ends in you."
   - Iphicrates, 
 I am a gentleman, though spoiled i' the breeding. The Buzzards 
are all gentlemen. We came with the Conqueror.  
 I am a gentleman, though spoiled i' the breeding. The Buzzards 
are all gentlemen. We came with the Conqueror. 
 Great families of yesterday we show,
 And lords whose parents were the Lord knows who.  
 Great families of yesterday we show,
 And lords whose parents were the Lord knows who. 
He who boasts of his ancestry praises the merits of another.
He who boasts of his ancestry praises the merits of another.
 Some decent regulated pre-eminence, some preference (not 
exclusive appropriation) given to birth, is neither unnatural, 
nor unjust, nor read more 
 Some decent regulated pre-eminence, some preference (not 
exclusive appropriation) given to birth, is neither unnatural, 
nor unjust, nor impolite. 
 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?