Ancestor Quote by Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

“For, thought Ahab, while even the highest earthly felicities ever have a certain unsignifying pettiness lurking in them, but, at bottom, all heartwoes, a…

— Herman Melville

Birth is a shadow. Courage, self-sustained, outlords succession's phlegm, and needs no ancestors.

— Aaron Hill

What shall I say! And how shall I describe this Birth to you? For this wonder fills me with astonishment. The Ancient of Days…

— Saint John Chrysostom

“For, thought Ahab, while even the highest earthly felicities ever have a certain unsignifying pettiness lurking in them, but, at bottom, all heartwoes, a…

— Herman Melville

It is the highest of earthly honors to be descended from the great and good. They alone cry out against a noble ancestry who…

— Ben Jonson

The glory of ancestors sheds a light around posterity; it allows neither good nor bad qualities to remain in obscurity. [Lat., Majorum gloria posteris…

— Sallust

“As the generations pass they grow worse. A time will come when they have grown so wicked that they will worship power; might will…

— Greek myth on the Iron Age

“Your god, sir, is the World. In my eyes, you, too, if not an infidel, are an idolater. I conceive that you ignorantly worship:…

— Charlotte Brontë

It is indeed a desirable thing to be well-descended, but the glory belongs to our ancestors.

— Plutarch

“This is the excellent foppery of the world, that when we are sick in fortune (often the surfeits of our own behavior) we make…

— William Shakespeare

Few sons attain the praise Of their great sires and most their sires disgrace.

— Homer

“It is certainly desirable to be well descended, but the glory belongs to our ancestors.”

— Plutarch