Quotes About Ancestors

Life is short, and you don't have time to figure everything out on your own. The wisdom of the past was hard-earned, and your dead ancestors may have something useful to tell you).

You simply don't understand how every neural circuit through which you peer at the world has been shaped (and painfully) by the ethical aims of millions of years of human ancestors and all of the life that was lived for the billions of years before that.

The human race has been dealing with loss and death forever. We are the descendants of those who could manage it.

You can use your own standards of judgment. You can rely on yourself for guidance. You don't have to adhere to some external, arbitrary code of behaviour (although you should not overlook the guidelines of your culture. Life is short, and you don't have time to figure everything out on your own. The wisdom of the past was hard-earned, and your dead ancestors may have something useful to tell you).

You don't understand how what you want—and, therefore, what you see—is conditioned by the immense, abysmal, profound past. You simply don't understand how every neural circuit through which you peer at the world has been shaped (and painfully) by the ethical aims of millions of years of human ancestors and all of the life that was lived for the billions of years before that.

Our ancestors worked out very sophisticated answers to such questions, but we still don't understand them very well. This is because they are in large part still implicit—manifest primarily in ritual and myth and, as of yet, incompletely articulated.

Our ancestors acted out a drama, a fiction: they personified the force that governs fate as a spirit that can be bargained with, traded with, as if it were another human being. And the amazing thing is that it worked.

But because their ancestors were men of righteousness, shall we consent to the abuses of their degenerate descendants? Because they did us a great good, would we be guilty if we prevented them from doing us evil?

In every instance I noted that a people's prosperity or misery lay in direct proportion to its freedom or its inhibitions and, along the same lines, of the sacrifice or selfishness of its ancestors.

In fact, I believe that Americans in general are losing touch with the past, with our history and cultural inheritance. We live in an age of instant gratification. We no longer know our forebears. This is one reason we feel so fractured today. Dvo?ák was bent on excavating roots. This exercise has never seemed more timely.

Er war so einfach und untadelig wie seine Konduitenliste, und nur der Zorn, der ihn manchmal ergriff, hätte einen Kenner der Menschen ahnen lassen, daß auch in der Seele des Hauptmanns Trotta die nächtlichen Abgründe dämmerten, in denen die Stürme schlafen und die unbekannten Stimmen namenloser Ahnen.

Our grandfathers didn't leave us much strength, not enough strength to live with, but just about enough to die a meaningless death. Ach!

StarClan is calling you, Fireheart," she murmured. "Do not be afraid.

And yet the only reason he had found the courage to lead the forest Clans into battle against BloodClan was because he had believed his warrior ancestors when they told him there had always been four Clans in the forest. The fifth Clan was StarClan, forever protecting the four below. Had StarClan lied? Bluestar

I, Firestar, leader of ThunderClan, call upon my warrior ancestors to look down on these three apprentices.

The clouds are stained with blood!" rasped Barkface, his eyes wide and glazed. "It is a sign from our ancestors. There is trouble ahead. This day shall bring an unnecessary death.

Firestar saw a small, light brown tabby she-cat shouldering her way through the warriors until she reached the gray-and-white cat. "Let me speak to StarClan," she begged. "They might know of a place for us." The cat rounded on her. "No, Fawnstep!" he spat. "Our warrior ancestors have failed us. As far as we're concerned, StarClan no longer exist." He

We are the closest Clan to StarClan, spiritually and physically, and we always know our warrior ancestors are watching over us. That is what makes us strong. No matter what trials we must endure, WindClan will last forever.

Couldn't StarClan do anything to help you?" he asked. "StarClan!" The SkyClan cat spat out the word, lashing his tail. "StarClan betrayed us. They allowed the other Clans to chase us out like rogues. When we left the forest, I vowed that I would never look to the stars again." "A Clan without warrior ancestors?" Firestar was bewildered.

Mousewhisker: I just hope hunting in the wind doesn't make us as stunted as WindClan warriors. Leafpool: WindClan warriors are only smaller because their ancestors are smaller, not because of the wind. Mousewhisker: So what made their ancestors smaller? Leafpool: *shrugs* Only StarClan knows. Mousewhisker: It was probably the wind.

Foxheart. "StarClan

blaze of lightning marked the moment that Firestar joined his warrior ancestors—ancestors not by blood, but by heritage, honor, and tradition.

A blaze of lightning marked the moment that Firestar joined his warrior ancestors—ancestors not by blood, but by heritage, honor, and tradition.

Well . . . the Tribe of Endless Hunting watches over me now." "Some ancestors sent you to us. I don't care whose, I'm just thankful.