Ancestor Quote by Bernard DeVoto

“It is imperative to maintain portions of the wilderness untouched so that a tree will rot where it falls, a waterfall will pour its curve without generating electricity, a trumpeter swan may float on uncontaminated water - and moderns may at least see what their ancestors knew in their nerves and…” quote by Bernard DeVoto — Download Open image

“It is imperative to maintain portions of the wilderness untouched so that a tree will rot where it falls, a waterfall will pour its curve without generating electricity, a trumpeter swan may float on uncontaminated water - and moderns may at least see what their ancestors knew in their nerves and blood.”

Bernard DeVoto

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More by Bernard DeVoto

Art is man determined to die sane.

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Let us candidly admit that there are shameful blemishes on the American past, of which the worst by far is rum. Nevertheless, we have…

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The dawn of knowledge is usually the false dawn.

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Sure the people are stupid: the human race is stupid. Sure Congress is an inefficient instrument of government. But the people are not stupid…

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A novelist has mad a fictional representation of life. I doing so, he has revealed to us more significance, it may be, than he…

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New England is a finished place. Its destiny is that of Florence or Venice, not Milan while the American empire careens onward toward its…

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The achieved West had given the United States something that no people had ever had before, an internal, domestic empire.

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The best reason for putting anything down on paper is that one may then change it.

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Art is the terms of an armistice signed with fate.

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The water of life was given to us to make us see for a while that we are more nearly men and women, more…

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You can no more keep a martini in the refrigerator than you can keep a kiss there. The proper union of gin and vermouth…

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One may lack words to express the impact of beauty but no one who has felt it remains untouched. It is renewal, enlargement, intensification.…

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Explore all 25 Bernard DeVoto quotes

More Ancestor quotes

A lot of indigenous cultures are deeply involved in working with ancestor spirits, elemental spirits, and demons. Many of these cultures feel that, if you don't deal properly with ancestor spirits, then they come back and infest the living in the form of things like depression, addictive patterns, and neuroses. We in the modern West completely deny the existence of…

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

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

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

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

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High birth is an accident, not a virtue.

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

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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;…

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

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

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It is how it has always been. We will accept the legacy of our ancestors,' Asha says, smiling, and in her smile I do not see warmth or wisdom; I see fear. You're afraid of losing your hold on them,' I say coolly. I? I have no power.' Don't you? If you keep them from the magic, they will never…

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