Ancestor Quote by Samuel Johnson

“Life is surely given us for higher purposes than to gather what our ancestors have wisely thrown away, and to learn what is of no value but because it has been forgotten.”

Samuel Johnson

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More by Samuel Johnson

The size of a man's understanding might always be justly measured by his mirth.

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Pound St. Paul's Church into atoms, and consider any single atom; it is to be sure, good for nothing; but put all these atoms…

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You can never be wise unless you love reading.

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If our aim is to praise, we should forget to criticize; if our aim is to criticize, we should remember to praise

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All theory is against free will; all experience is for it.

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Had I learned to fiddle, I should have done nothing else.

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It is as foolish to make experiments upon the constancy of a friend, as upon the chastity of a wife.

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Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it…

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The basis of all excellence is truth: he that professes love ought to feel its power.

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Words are daughters of earth but ideas are sons of heaven.

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“The composition of Shakespeare is a forest, in which oaks extend in the air, interspersed sometimes with weeds and brambles, and sometimes giving shelting…

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“The cherubim were never intended as an object of worship, because they were only the appendices to another thing. But a thing is then…

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

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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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