Quotes About Ancestry

I was born in the small city of Hobart in Tasmania, Australia, in 1948. My parents were family physicians. My grandfather and great grandfather on my mother's side were geologists.

I basically am the only musician in my family. My aunt plays a little piano, but that's about it. My dad's mother painted and was actually good at it. I do not come from a long line of musicians, though.

My grandmother was a flight attendant; my mother had a pilot's license, and my grandfather was a pilot. That's how my grandmother and grandfather met.

My grandfather, K.R. Balan, a pioneer in the film industry, wanted me to try my hand at acting.

For me, understanding your heritage and wanting to leave a legacy was always important to me.

And so much of my life has been about returning home and longing for home, wanting my children to know about my roots. And I thought I can't be the only one to feel this way so I thought it would be an interesting topic to explore.

My dad's Macedonian, mum Greek... so for as long as I can remember, my uncles have talked about our warrior blood.

This is going to sound weird, but when I was a kid my old man used to tell us that he was a Sioux Indian warrior in his former life. Native American culture was always big in my house - I don't know why.

I am a Shawnee. My forefathers were warriors. Their son is a warrior. From them, I take my only existence.

When I was little, my dad told me about Anandpur Sahib and the court of Guru Gobind Singh. That we came from a tradition of poets, warriors and artists who created when it was illegal to create... we're groomed to be reckless in the defense of what we feel is right.

I mean my mother migrated from Georgia -Rome, Georgia, to Washington, D.C., where she then met my father, who was a Tuskegee Airman who was from Southern Virginia. They migrated to Washington and I wouldn't even exist if it were not for that migration. And I brought her back to Georgia, both my parents, actually.

Bedis, Sodhis, Trehans and Bhallas coming down from Guru Nanak, Guru Ram Das, Guru Angad and Guru Amar Das

There's a lot of heredity in that family.

The first farmer was the first man, and all historic nobility rests on possession and use of land.

Every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.

Many of the historical proverbs have a doubtful paternity.

Trouble is, George Washington is not my ancestor, private or public. He owned my ancestors, abused them as chattel and willed them to his wife, Martha, upon his death. I and mine need to know about George and Martha but, assuredly, we do not need to revere them. Indeed, psychically we cannot afford to revere them.

They [i.e., the Greek historians relied upon by the writer] say also that the Egyptians are colonists sent out by the Ethiopians [i.e., not the modern Ethiopians, but, the black peoples from inner Africa south of Egypt], Osiris having been the leader of the colony.

We, like others, need to define ourselves, to place our lives in a long-term linear intergenerational context. We, like others, need to celebrate ourselves by seeing ourselves celebrated. We, like others, need to stare at objects that can help us discover reflections of ourselves in an idealized past. That's really what it's all about, isn't it? Remembering. The human's innate need to remember one's self before one's own time.

My father was Bolivian, which makes me half-Bolivian. It's where I got some of my exotic features and certainly my skin tone.

The soul is drawn into a lineage that anchors it in a specific current within the Material Plane. There are many lessons to be gained and many challenges to temper the soul. There is also a flowing river of consciousness from the past that empowers us with knowledge and wisdom.

As the anthropologist Marshall Sahlins puts the matter: "We are the only people who assume that we have ascended from apes. Everybody else takes it for granted that they are descended from gods." —

My full name is Ross Fleming Butler; it's very British-Irish.

Remember where you came from.