Ancestor Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old ancestor quotes, ancestor sayings, and ancestor proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

Our ancestors who changed the world did so through new ideas which came to them as they acted. Raymond Charles Barker
We are bound to our ancestors and to those who made us, whether we want to be or not. What matters is what we make of what we are. Kate Elliott
Our ancestors have invented, we can at least innovate. Amit Kalantri
We rarely know who our ancestors were. Who can even remember the names of their great-grandparents? They have vanished into the dim and distant past. Dmitri Volkogonov
Most of our ancestors were not perfect ladies and gentlemen. The majority of them weren't even mammals. Robert Anton Wilson
Our ancestors are an ever widening circle of hope. Toni Morrison
The ancestors are very much invested in the children, because the children are the ones who are going to continue the world that the ancestors made. Robert Bly
The point is that for our ancestors, the universe was a picture; for modern physics it is a story. C.S. Lewis
There is nothing glorious about what our ancestors call history. It is simply a succession of mistakes, intolerances and violations. Claude Vorilhon
Our ancestors, possessed a right, which nature has given to all men, of departing from the country in which chance, not choice has placed them. Thomas Jefferson
Ancestor worship, or filial piety so characteristic of Asian cultures, for example, does not really resonate with Americans who favor children, not grandparents. Alan Dundes
When we know about our ancestors, when we sense them as living and as supporting us, then we feel connected to the genetic life-stream, and we draw strength and nourishment from this. Philip Carr-Gomm
We were not the victims of ancestor worship. We had the benefits of a fresh start. Matthew D. Miller
None of us can boast about the morality of our ancestors. The record does not show that Adam and Eve were ever married. Edgar Watson Howe
Our ancestors lived out of doors. They were as familiar with the night sky as most of us are with our favorite television programs. Carl Sagan
The ancestor of every action is a thought. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Our ancestors have travelled the iron age; the golden is before us. Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre
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
W are all carrying the imprints of our most ancient ancestors. Not simply in the genetic code, but in the imprints of attention that are passed on. Frederick Lenz
Though we have rightly applauded our ancestors for their spiritual achievements, those of us who prevail today will have done no small thing. Neal A. Maxwell
Seeds carry life from generation to generation without end. Through the seeds speak the voices of the ancestors. Each time we plant a seed, we become ancestors for the generations to come. Kenny Ausubel
The search for knowledge is in our genes. It was put there by our distant ancestors who spread across the world, and it's never going to be quenched. E. O. Wilson
Our ancestors worshipped the Sun, and they were not that foolish. It makes sense to revere the Sun and the stars, for we are their children. Carl Sagan
We are connected, like it or not, to the ancestors of our biological families, and their templates. Robert Moss
Distinguished ancestors shed a powerful light on their descendants, and forbid the concealment either of their merits or of their demerits. Sallust
Indeed, if our ancestors of millions of years ago hadn't learned how to care for one another and hunt in packs, they'd all have ended up being eaten by leopards. Robert Shea
We are the ancestors of our grandchildren's children. We look after them, just as our ancestors look after us. We aren't here for ourselves. We are here for each other and for the children of our grandchildren. Roy Sesana
Our ancestors are totally essential to our every waking moment, although most of us don't even have the faintest idea about their lives, their trials, their hardships or challenges. Annie Lennox
We are the ancestors of the future and what we do now will have an impact. Luisah Teish
Men can know more than their ancestors did if they start with a knowledge of what their ancestors had already learned.That is why a society can be progressive only if it conserves its traditions. Walter Lippmann
Our ancestors built temples for their gods. We build department stores. David Mitchell
Be a good ancestor. Stand for something bigger than yourself. Add value to the Earth during your sojourn. Marian Wright Edelman
It is indeed a desirable thing to be well-descended, but the glory belongs to our ancestors. Plutarch
The ancestor of every destructive action, every destructive decision, is a negative thought. Eknath Easwaran
Christianity doesn't demand that we worship our ancestors. If we don't remember our ancestors, then, in all likelihood, we cannot also recall the distant past. F. Sionil Jose
A man's ancestry is a positive property to him. Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton
People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors. Edmund Burke
I'd rather have an inch of a dog than miles of pedigree. Dana Burnet
There are many kinds of conceit, but the chief one is to let people know what a very ancient and gifted family one descends from. Benvenuto Cellini
To forget one's ancestors is to be a brook without a source, a tree without a root. Chinese Proverb
Man is descended from a hairy-tailed quadruped, probably arboreal in his habits. Charles Darwin
Every man is his own ancestor, and every man his own heir. He devises his own future and he inherits his own past. H.F. Hedge
Whoever serves his country well has no need of ancestors. Voltaire
Our ancestors are very good kinds of folks, but they are the last people I should choose to have visiting acquaintance with. Richard B. Sheridan
We pay for the mistakes of our ancestors, and it seems only fair that they should leave us the money to pay with. Don Marquis
I am very grateful for the indiscriminate behavior of my ancestors. I was conceived in St. Petersburg, but born in London— a Swiss cottage, of course. Peter Ustinov
Ancestor worship must be an appealing idea to those who are about to become ancestors. Steven Pinker
They who depend on the merits of ancestors, search in the roots of the tree for the fruits which the branches ought to produce. Isaac Barrow
We are human because, at a very early stage in the history of the species, our ancestors discovered a way of preserving and disseminating the results of experience. Aldous Huxley
The proper time to influence the character of a child is about a hundred years before he is born. William Ralph Inge
If you would civilize a man, begin with his grandmother. Victor Hugo
Genealogy: An account of one's descent from an ancestor who did not particularly care to trace his own. Ambrose Bierce
Genealogy: A perverse preoccupation of those who seek to demonstrate that their forebears were better people than they are. Sydney J. Harris
Some people are your relatives but others are your ancestors, and you choose the ones you want to have as ancestors. You create yourself out of those values. Ralph Ellison
Hereditary honors are a noble and splendid treasure to descendants. Plato
Some men by ancestry are only the shadow of a mighty name. Lucan
Because they had no root, they withered away. Matthew 13:6
Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one. Jane Howard
Look for the good, not for the evil, in the conduct of members of a family. One of life's greatest mysteries is how the boy who wasn't good enough to marry your daughter can be the father of the smartest grandchild in the world. Jewish Proverb
As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live. John Paul II
Every man is an omnibus in which his ancestors ride. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
He who boasts of his descent praises the deeds of another. Seneca
Let us make future generations remember us as proud ancestors just as, today, we remember our forefathers. Roh Moo-hyun
Our history begins before we are born. We represent the hereditary influences of our race, and our ancestors virtually live in us. James Nasmyth
To understand and reconnect with our stories, the stories of our ancestors is to build our identities. Frank Delaney
Whatever you are is because of what your ancestors have done. Li Lu
We're all ghosts. We all carry, inside us, people who came before us. Liam Callanan
No self is of itself alone. It has a long chain of intellectual ancestors. The "I" is chained to ancestry by many factors… This is not a mere allegory, but an eternal memory. Erwin Schrödinger
You carry all of us in your heart. We shall live in every breath you take. Every incantation you speak. Tomi Adeyemi
It is in the roots, not the branches, that a tree’s greatest strength lies. Matshona Dhliwayo
If you know where you are from, it is harder for people to stop you from where you are going. Matshona Dhliwayo
Ancestors from all times have shared their essence with you. Accept the light and let go of the rest. Amy Leigh Mercree