Quotes About Ancestors

Our rural ancestors, with little blest, Patient of labor when the end was rest, Indulged the day that housed their annual grain, With feasts, and off'rings, and a thankful strain.

The reluctance of so many of today's Germans to court pity for their ancestors' suffering, to invoke the allied bombings and postwar expulsions, is a kind of tacit acknowledgment of how many knew of the Nazi atrocities at the time.

Thus not only does democracy make every man forget his ancestors, but it hides his descendants and separates his contemporaries from him; it throws him back forever upon himself alone and threatens in the end to confine him entirely within the solitude of his own heart.

My most cherished possessions are my grandma's letters and my vintage Martha Washington cookbook.

To us, the ashes of our ancestors are sacred and their resting place is hallowed ground.

I believe it is important for comedians to know who came before them.

I feel really connected to antiquity for some reason.

To be a black person is to come from a long bloodline of survivors and storytellers, with a resilience that people can't even comprehend.

I haven't checked, but I highly suspect that chickens evolved from an egg-laying ancestor, which would mean that there were, in fact, eggs before there were chickens. Genius.

I knew I had that Cajun heritage, that Acadian heritage; I just feel it. And my gut says Irish on the other side. Irish and French, that's what I feel. When you're young, it doesn't matter so much, but as you get older, I would suspect part of the ageing process is to wonder about your ancestors - who were they? What were their lives like?

Cherokee stories have been passed down through many generations. Storytelling is an art form. Storytellers are actors, singers, dancers, and mimes who tell stories about the Cherokee people and animals. Animals are important in Cherokee stories. Many stories tell of people who could speak with the animals. Some stories tell how the Cherokee could once communicate with animals. According to this belief, the Cherokee lost this ability because their ancestors were greedy and talked too much.

For the first half of geological time our ancestors were bacteria. Most creatures still are bacteria, and each one of our trillions of cells is a colony of bacteria.

This is a common form of exchange when Mississippians meet for the first time. They want to know about each other's ancestors, and which families they married into. If kinship ties can be established, so much the better. If there was a feud in the past, it could get awkward.

The fact is, their obsessions interlock. Each has half of a secret message. What else can he do but try to fit the halves together? And if they spin out, wake from the dream with nothing, what has he sacrificed but solitary waiting? Nick sits in his ancestors' empty bedroom after midnight, reading by the lantern's low glow.

We owe uniqueness to our dead at the very least

It seemed strange, the Muslim Maghrib prayer aboard a Viking ship full of atheists and pagans. Then again, Samirah's ancestors had been dealing with Vikings since the Middle Ages. I doubted this was the first time prayers to Allah had been said aboard a longship. The world, the worlds , were a lot more interesting because of constant intermixing.

If we do not remember those who have gone before us, we are destined to repeat the same mistakes. We walk blind through

all my ancestors were from the South and some even fought and died for the losing side. Perhaps that's why I was long resigned to my failure to publish.

What use is a god with boundless mercy, sir? You mock me as a pagan, yet the gods of my ancestors pronounce clearly their ways and punish severely when we break their laws. Your Christian god of mercy gives men licence to pursue their greed, their lust for land and blood, knowing a few prayers and a little penance will bring forgiveness and blessing.

The story of his great-grandfather . . . was his own story, too.

o piensan que ese territorio es sagrado porque es donde los espíritus de sus ancestros se reúnen bajo la luna llena.

For an author to show that only traditional male power and place matter is to discount and belittle the hard and complex lives of our peers and our ancestresses.

I say to myself, if the text was good enough for my father and grandfather, it must be good enough for me. I admit, that is a rather personal way of approaching the text - or a prayer.

What task could be more agreeable than to tell of the benefits conferred on us by our ancestors, so that you may get to know the achievements of those from whom you have received both the basis of your beliefs, and the inspiration to conduct your life properly?