Ancestry

1. A degenerate nobleman, or one that is proud of his birth, is like a turnip. There is nothing good of him but that which is underground.
                                                                      -Butler, Characters

2. My father was a creole, his father a Negro, and his father a monkey; my family, it seems, begins where yours let off.
                                                                -Dumas, on being asked
                                                                "Who was your father?"

3. There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.
                                                                 -Helen Keller, Story of 
                                                                  My Life

4. Noble ancestry makes a poor dish at table.
                                                                          -Italian Proverb

5. People who take no pride in noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote descendants.
                                                                              -Macaulay

6. Who so ever serves his country well has no need of ancestors.
                                                                                 -Voltaire