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.

What can ennoble sots, or slaves, or cowards?
Alas! not all the blood, of all the Howards.

What can ennoble sots, or slaves, or cowards?
Alas! not all the blood, of all the Howards.

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

There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had read more

There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.

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.

He who boasts of his ancestry praises the merits of another

He who boasts of his ancestry praises the merits of another

A degenerate nobleman, or one that is proud of his birth, is like
a turnip. There is nothing good read more

A degenerate nobleman, or one that is proud of his birth, is like
a turnip. There is nothing good of him but that which is
underground.

Sire, I am my own Rudolph of Hapsburg.

Sire, I am my own Rudolph of Hapsburg.

Born in the garret, in the kitchen bred.

Born in the garret, in the kitchen bred.