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.

Sire, I am my own Rudolph of Hapsburg.

Sire, I am my own Rudolph of Hapsburg.

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

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

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.

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.

Of what use are pedigrees, or to be thought of noble blood, or
the display of family portraits, O read more

Of what use are pedigrees, or to be thought of noble blood, or
the display of family portraits, O Ponticus?
[Lat., Stemmata quid faciunt, quid prodest, Pontice, longo,
Sanguine censeri pictosque ostendere vultus.]

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.]

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.]