Man is the child of customs, not the child of his ancestors.

A lot of indigenous cultures are deeply involved in working with ancestor spirits, elemental spirits, and demons. Many of these cultures feel that, if…

— Daniel Pinchbeck

Food binds us to our roots as strongly as any song or poem. Many of us have learned more about our ancestors in the…

— Anna Thomas

Whereas our ancestors (not of choice) were the first successful cultivators of the wilds of America, we their descendants feel ourselves entitled to participate…

— Richard Allen

Going where no man has gone before is more difficult than it sounds. Our cousins and ancestors were no less curious than we are,…

— N.D. Wilson

I use the phrase 'sibling society' to suggest a culture fundamentally without fathers, mothers, grandfathers, grandmothers, or ancestors. The thinking is horizontal.

— Robert Bly

“A very long time ago, some 2.5 million years B.C., the mother of human species as we know it, our ultimate ancestor, appeared in…

— Norman F. Cantor

High birth is an accident, not a virtue.

— Pietro Metastasio

Southerners, whose ancestors a hundred years ago knew the horrors of a homeland devastated by war, are particularly determined that war shall never come…

— Jimmy Carter

Two hundred years ago, before the advent of capitalism, a man's social status was fixed from the beginning to the end of his life;…

— Ludwig von Mises

And I saw for the first time how, despite the isolation of our own lives, we are always connected to our ancestors; our bodies…

— Alyson Richman

There is an ancient Indian saying: "We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children." If we use…

— Patricia Schroeder

It is how it has always been. We will accept the legacy of our ancestors,' Asha says, smiling, and in her smile I do…

— Libba Bray

My ancestors came over from Germany about the time of the Civil War and one of them lost a leg and went back to…

— Kurt Vonnegut

Now they [the Powers] have started the aggression, and the extinction of our nation is imminent. If we just fold our arms and yield…

— Empress Dowager Cixi

A solitary American monk named Thomas Berry writes that in our relationship to nature, we have been autistic for centuries. Wrapped tightly in our…

— Janine Benyus