Birth and ancestry, and that which we have not ourselves
achieved, we can scarcely call our own.
[Lat., read more

Birth and ancestry, and that which we have not ourselves
achieved, we can scarcely call our own.
[Lat., Nam genus et proavos et quae non fecimus ipsi
Vix ea nostra voco.]

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.

He who boasts of his ancestry praises the merits of another.

He who boasts of his ancestry praises the merits of another.

If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.

If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.

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.

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.

People will not look forward to posterity, who never look
backward to their ancestors.

People will not look forward to posterity, who never look
backward to their ancestors.

Sence I've ben here, I've hired a chap to look about for me,
To git me a transplantable an' read more

Sence I've ben here, I've hired a chap to look about for me,
To git me a transplantable an' thrifty fem'ly-tree.

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.