229 Quotes About Ancestors

We return to the lives of those who have gone before us, a perplexing mobius strip, until we come home, eventually, to ourselves.

Just as our ancient ancestors drew animals on cave walls and carved animals from wood and bone, we decorate our homes with animal prints and motifs, give our children stuffed animals to clutch, cartoon animals to watch, animal stories to read.

Our ancestors always thought of the worst thing that could happen, and that's why we're alive.

HANDKERCHIEF, n. A small square of silk or linen, used in various ignoble offices about the face and especially serviceable at funerals to conceal the lack of tears. The handkerchief is of recent invention; our ancestors knew nothing of it and intrusted its duties to the sleeve. Shakespeare's introducing it into the play of "Othello" is an anachronism: Desdemona dried her nose with her skirt, as Dr. Mary Walker and other reformers have done with their coattails in our own day --an evidence that revolutions sometimes go backward.

This is our history - from the Transcontinental Railroad to the Hoover Dam, to the dredging of our ports and building of our most historic bridges - our American ancestors prioritized growth and investment in our nation's infrastructure.

Is this a horrible future? Or actually a return to what we've always had in the past? Think of old villages. Everybody knew everything about everybody else. Strangers were intimidating and worrisome. This will be like the village our ancestors grew up in, only with 7 billion people.

Our ancestors went to the woods to find fuel; they set snares there for birds and gathered nuts and fungi.

This is too important to fail, because it is holding a nation's--holding a people's--culture in my hands, ... My litmus test will be, Would my ancestors be happy?

I realize many of my ancestors fought so I could have the opportunities I have today, and I appreciate them for the sacrifices they made for us.