Quotes About Ancestry

There is no need to tell you that the 'Prince of Salina' is the Prince Lampedusa, my great-grandfather Giulio Fabrizio.

And let me tell you, you boys of America, that there is no higher inspiration to any man to be a good man, a good citizen, and a good son, brother, or father, than the knowledge that you come from honest blood.

The same way one tells a recipe, one tells a family history. Each one of us has our past locked inside.

I have never seen a picture of my mother. My mother's family never owned a photograph of her, which tells you everything you need to know about where I'm from and what the world was like for the people who gave me life.

Darwin wasn't just provocative in saying that we descend from the apes - he didn't go far enough. We are apes in every way, from our long arms and tailless bodies to our habits and temperament.

They also explain many common points in the archaeological finds of these civilizations as due to man's genetic commonality. Thus

It always gave me a peculiar feeling to catch a glimpse of my parents' lives before I was born.

Spending her eighties in constant thrall to findmypast.com, familyhistory.net.au, yesterdaygeneaology.com and ancestor.com, Aunty Eily had tracked down the 1850s address of Conor Cleary's father Daniel and mother Maureen to 28 New Way, Templemore. The street still existed and the Avis car's GPS took Ryan there.

Neanderthals are human," said Mary. "We're congeners; we all belong to the genus Homo. Homo habilis, Homo erectus, Homo antecessor—if you believe that's a legitimate species—Homo heidelbergensis, Homo neanderthalensis, Homo sapiens. We're all humans." "I concede the point," said Krieger, with a nod. "What should we call ourselves to distinguish us from them?" "Homo sapiens sapiens," said Mary.

The heart never forgets, never gives up, the territory marked off for those who came before.

Stories were heirlooms in these parts.

Being naturalized to place means to live as if this is the land that feeds you, as if these are the streams from which you drink, that build your body and fill your spirit. To become naturalized is to know that your ancestors lie in this ground. Here you will give your gifts and meet your responsibilities. To become naturalized is to live as if your children's future matters, to take care of the land as if our lives and the lives of all our relatives depend on it. Because they do.

It was said that Dworkin himself had penned the Book in his saner days, and that long passages had come direct from the Unicorn. I don't know. I wasn't there. It is also said that we are descended of Dworkin and the Unicorn, which gives rise to some unusual mental images.

My mother and my mother's mother were born in a place where time does not run as in Amber. I am the first of my mother's line to bear all the marks of humanity.

The red bird, the Jewel bearer, born of my blood from my father's hand, had returned to defend me.

My family is American, Ulysses later declared proudly, and has been for generations, in all its branches, direct and collateral.

Life can come only from other life.

It is well to learn the ethnic backgrounds of your parents, to love and cherish the ancient folklore. But never, never forget, you are an American first. And millions of Americans before you have fought for your freedom. The Nation holds all the terms of our endearment. Support, defend and honor those whose duty it is to keep it safe.

An obscure cousin with no known antecedents. A blank space on the family tree.

Know from where you come. Before you know who you are and where you are going, you must know from where you come.

Oh, Ruth. I wish we had our own words to describe ourselves, to connect us." Ruth stood up and opened the broiler. "I don't need another label," she sighed. "I just am what I am. I call myself Ruth. My mother is Ruth Anne; my grandmother was Anne. That's who I am. That's where I come from." I shrugged. "I don't want another label either. I just wish we had words so pretty we'd go out of our way to say them out loud.

The uniformity of the earth's life, more astonishing than its diversity, is accountable by the high probability that we derived, originally, from some single cell, fertilized in a bolt of lightning as the earth cooled. It is from the progeny of this parent cell that we take our looks; we still share genes around, and the resemblance of the enzymes of grasses to those of whales is a family resemblance.

Her name was Cassiana Clara.

Africa is our center of gravity, our cultural and spiritual mother and father, our beating heart, no matter where we live on the face of this earth.