Exploring the wisdom and insights of our ancestors can be a profound journey into the essence of human existence. From ancient civilizations to more recent generations, the voices of our forebears echo through time, offering guidance, reflection, and timeless truths. Ancestors, whether celebrated figures in history or cherished family members, hold a wealth of knowledge and experience that can enrich our lives and shape our understanding of the world.
In this collection of ancestors quotes, we delve into the profound wisdom passed down through generations. These quotes encapsulate the essence of familial bonds, cultural heritage, and the enduring legacy of those who came before us. Whether seeking inspiration, comfort, or simply a deeper connection to our roots, these words offer a poignant reminder of the enduring impact our ancestors have on our lives. Explore these quotes below and discover the timeless wisdom that continues to resonate across generations.
I just feel that ‘The Color Purple,’ which was my 10th book, was a true gift from my ancestors. Alice Walker
To us, the ashes of our ancestors are sacred and their resting place is hallowed ground. Chief Seattle
Our cautious ancestors, when yawning, blocked the way to the entrance of evil spirits by putting their hands before their mouths. We find a reason for the gesture in the delicacy of manner which forbids an indecent exposure. George Herbert Mead
When we censor our history by disguising our scars, we belittle this process and the struggles our ancestors fought so hard to overcome. America doesn’t cower behind political correctness. It defiantly and courageously moves forward, with its history as a reminder of where we have been. Markwayne Mullin
I have two Filipino nannies who have British passport and not me. I don’t need British passport. When you were running around in an animal skin, my ancestors were building the pyramids. Mohamed Al-Fayed
Let us make future generations remember us as proud ancestors just as, today, we remember our forefathers. Roh Moo-hyun
I brought a Border Collie back home to Vancouver from Wales – where some of my ancestors are from – and needed to challenge him in other ways than just being my pet. So I investigated sheep herding and took a few lessons, and decided I was probably learning more than my dog! Jane Siberry
A spirit of innovation is generally the result of a selfish temper and confined views. People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors. Edmund Burke
Chinese culture in general is not very religious. Confucianism is more a code of ethics than a religion, and ancestor worship is a way for parents to control you even after they’re dead. David Henry Hwang
I am 3.8 percent Neanderthal. One of my ancestors mated with a Neanderthal, and I am not embarrassed by that. George M. Church
I see the player piano as the grandfather of the computer, the ancestor of the entire nightmare we live in, the birth of the binary world where there is no option other than yes or no and where there is no refuge. William Gaddis
The people made worse off by slavery were those who were enslaved. Their descendants would have been worse off today if born in Africa instead of America. Put differently, the terrible fate of their ancestors benefitted them. Thomas Sowell
Mushrooms are miniature pharmaceutical factories, and of the thousands of mushroom species in nature, our ancestors and modern scientists have identified several dozen that have a unique combination of talents that improve our health. Paul Stamets
Being the U.S. champion is a big deal for me. Knowing that my ancestors built this country, it’s kind of like, the Irish were treated badly in this country for a long time, with a lot of tacky Irish stereotypes, so to me, it’s kind of like a bragging right. Sheamus
We all stand on the shoulders of our ancestors. We’re in a relay race, relying on the financial and human capital of our parents and grandparents. Blacks were shackled for the early part of that relay race, and although many of the fetters have come off, whites have developed a huge lead. Nicholas Kristof
Writing is conscience, scruple, and the farming of our ancestors. Edward Dahlberg
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
Millions of us, myself included, go back generations in this country, with ancestors who put in the painstaking work to become citizens. So we don’t like the notion that anyone might get a free pass to American citizenship. Barack Obama
People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors. Edmund Burke
We are a continuum. Just as we reach back to our ancestors for our fundamental values, so we, as guardians of that legacy, must reach ahead to our children and their children. And we do so with a sense of sacredness in that reaching. Paul Tsongas
We should not look down on our first ancestors. Alice Walker
I’ve learned that for Indian people, the opportunity for us to succeed is very slim. So acting was a great tool for that. And in the process of learning about my culture, I’ve learned how to connect myself again to my ancestors. Adam Beach
I’ve been thinking about disowning some of my genes lately. I have a few healthy, happy, long-living optimists in my family tree – most of them fans of Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy, a major champion of positive thinking. But I’ve got plenty of ancestors who played out more tortured hands. Ariel Gore
I have a deep tribal sense. I grew up in a synagogue that my ancestors built. I sat in the third row. My family was decent. They were good people; they were handshake people. So I never had a sense of rebellion. Leonard Cohen
I think, in many people’s minds, the Confederate battle flag is not only a memorial to our ancestors, which is perfectly OK, but also a symbol of white superiority and an inclination for people to believe that even slavery would’ve been OK. Jimmy Carter
Somebody would think I was trying to get favored treatment because my ancestors had the name Moon. And that’s a joke. Buzz Aldrin
When my ancestors came from Africa, they were shackled by our neck, our wrists, and our ankles in steel chains. I’ve turned those steel chains into gold to symbolize the fact that I’m still a slave, only my price tag is higher. Mr. T
Being a son of the South puts you in a different position when it comes to the Confederate flag. It means something entirely different to the people who have ancestors who fought in the Civil War on the south side of the Mason-Dixon line. Steve King
But if people want to swim in the Thames, if they want to take their lives into their own hands, then they should be able to do so with all the freedom and exhilaration of our woad-painted ancestors. Boris Johnson
Big cities are chaotic. And chaos for humans – who have experience from their ancestors – is the last step before conflict. So, in the park, every kind of visual contradiction has been eliminated. John Hench
I traveled to Ireland to research ‘Sandcastles,’ to visit the coastline where my ancestors looked toward America, the tiny town they once loved so much, and the docks from which they sailed toward their dreams of building a better life for their family. The answers I found on that journey are woven through the novel. Luanne Rice
Many mathematicians derive part of their self-esteem by feeling themselves the proud heirs of a long tradition of rational thinking; I am afraid they idealize their cultural ancestors. Edsger Dijkstra
To understand and reconnect with our stories, the stories of the ancestors, is to build our identities. Frank Delaney
When the ancestors of the cheetah first began pursuing the ancestors of the gazelle, neither of them could run as fast as they can today. Richard Dawkins
I’m just confused as to where we lost that in America because it is everyone’s God-given right to think the way they think and that’s fine. That’s why our ancestors came here to America, to believe what they want, pray how they want and follow a religion with whoever they want. Angie Harmon
We forget that the soul has its own ancestors. James Hillman
To be able to make up stories has been a great gift to me from my ancestors and from the storytellers who were so numerous at Laguna Pueblo when I was growing up. I learned to read as soon as I could because I wanted stories without having to depend on adults to tell or read stories to me. Leslie Marmon Silko
Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around. Gilbert K. Chesterton
I was born by myself but carry the spirit and blood of my father, mother and my ancestors. So I am really never alone. My identity is through that line. Ziggy Marley
White Americans, stop apologizing; we live in the greatest country in the history of mankind, and it’s there because of our ancestors – those who came to this country and did their very best. And every generation has gotten better at what we’re good at. Burgess Owens
It is indeed a desirable thing to be well-descended, but the glory belongs to our ancestors. Plutarch
Among my European ancestors were piano builders, goldsmiths, and vintners but, to the best of my knowledge, no professionals of any kind. Herbert A. Simon
It is because I recognize the brutality with which my own multi-branched ancestors have been treated that I can identify the despicable, lawless, cruel, and sadistic behavior that has characterized Israel’s attempts to erase a people, the Palestinians, from their own land. Alice Walker
My ancestors are Rajputs from Jaipur, a lineage of the royal family. Kangana Ranaut
All kids of all races need to understand, not just about black history but their own history. It’s something that will help you in the future, just in terms of moving on in life, understanding the things your ancestors had to go through. Andre Gray
I love myself, I love my skin, and I love my history. I’m grateful for who I am, grateful for the people who made me, my ancestors, and I wouldn’t change a thing. Wunmi Mosaku
I love Christmas. At this very special time of year, when the sun appears only fleetingly to those of us living in the northern hemisphere, I feel a deep connection with ancient ancestors. Alice Roberts
We must strive to become good ancestors. Ralph Nader
It was through cooking food and sharing it with each other that our ancestors learned how to become social animals. Ruth Reichl
Every book is a quotation; and every house is a quotation out of all forests, and mines, and stone quarries; and every man is a quotation from all his ancestors. Ralph Waldo Emerson
I’ve been really inspired by my roots – my ancestors and Irish history. Kate Nash
In the very traits of his temperament, which have a considerable effect on his life of soul, a person bears within him qualities and impulses that have an obvious connection with those of his physical ancestors. Rudolf Steiner
Most of the ancestors that I can trace were born here in the United States of America. And then it goes back to slavery. And I’m sure my ancestors go all the way back to Africa, but I feel more of an affinity for America than I do for Africa. I’m a black man in America. Herman Cain
In the modern era, Jewish sovereignty over the land of our ancestors is a relatively short phenomenon. From the time of the successful Maccabean revolt to the Roman annexation in 63 BC constitutes about 100 years of Jewish rule. Combined with Israel’s independence in 1948, this is about 160 years of effective sovereignty. Edgar Bronfman, Sr.
Most of our ancestors were not perfect ladies and gentlemen. The majority of them weren’t even mammals. Robert Anton Wilson
OUR history begins before we are born. We represent the hereditary influences of our race, and our ancestors virtually live in us. James Nasmyth
Generational change within a genre is hard to parse while it’s happening. Only in retrospect can the passing of the baton from ancestors to progeny be clearly discerned. Paul Di Filippo
There is no escape – we pay for the violence of our ancestors. Frank Herbert
I have a profound interest in embroidery, as I have female ancestors on both sides who embroidered their way through great trials. Emil Ferris
Until about 30,000 years ago, there were at least five other species of humans on the planet. Homo Sapiens, our ancestors, lived mainly in East Africa, and you had the Neanderthal in Europe, Homo Erectus in part of Asia, and so forth. Yuval Noah Harari
I come from a family that has been here for almost 200 years. My ancestors started a very dangerous gunpowder business in 1802, and my great- grandfather and his father were both killed in gunpowder explosions. Pete du Pont
I’m one hundred percent Irish, and I’m very proud that I’m Irish American, though I don’t know exactly where my ancestors came from. I just know County Cork. Michael Connelly
Picasso is what is going to happen and what is happening; he is posterity and archaic time, the distant ancestor and our next-door neighbor. Speed permits him to be two places at once, to belong to all the centuries without letting go of the here and now. Octavio Paz
In many ways, each of us is the sum total of what our ancestors were. The virtues they had may be our virtues, their strengths our strengths, and, in a way, their challenges could be our challenges. James E. Faust
What I call my ‘self’ now is hardly a person at all. It’s mainly a meeting place for various natural forces, desires, and fears, etcetera, some of which come from my ancestors, and some from my education, some perhaps from devils. The self you were really intended to be is something that lives not from nature but from God. C. S. Lewis
Our African ancestors were the first to engage in breathing. By that logic, I think by breathing today, we are engaging in cultural appropriation of the first Homo sapiens. And so the only way I will ask you to stop being racist is to suffocate – to stop breathing. Gad Saad
Gentility is what is left over from rich ancestors after the money is gone. John Ciardi
When our systematic knowledge of human expressive behavior is more advanced, it will be possible to study the literary and historical documents of the past and to determine the expressed and implied views of personality that determined the behavior of our ancestors. Timothy Leary
Our religion is the traditions of our ancestors – the dreams of our old men, given them in solemn hours of the night by the Great Spirit; and the visions of our sachems, and is written in the hearts of our people. Chief Seattle
Honor among thieves is the ancestor of all honor. John McCarthy
There is beauty in our roots. Sometimes we think our roots are shameful, and people tell you that you’re no good or your ancestors are no good or that you come from a neighborhood of no hope and terrible crime. But it’s about the beauty of those places, and I carry that with me. Luis Alberto Urrea
Abraham is the shared ancestor of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. He stands at the heart of these three faiths. And yet you know almost nothing about him. Bruce Feiler
If you remember your ancestors, they can cross over and be with you again. Anthony Gonzalez
I don’t think there was a thunderclap or a divine spark that suddenly made one species smart. You can see, in our ancestors, there was a gradual expansion of the brain; there was an expansion of the complexity of tools. Steven Pinker
Just as your own existence is unlikely and far from inevitable, the evolution of modern humans as a species depended on a whole string of chance events – some happening in the environments our ancestors inhabited, and some inside their own bodies, including random mutations in their DNA. Alice Roberts
In every country and region, there are practices and ways of living and culture that have been handed down from ancestors. Naturally, I feel that these should be respected. Shinzo Abe
If you share a common ancestor with somebody, you’re related to them. It doesn’t mean that you’re going to invite them to the family reunion, but it means that you share DNA. I think it’s fascinating. Henry Louis Gates
Who serves his country well has no need of ancestors. Voltaire
The desire to fly is an idea handed down to us by our ancestors who… looked enviously on the birds soaring freely through space… on the infinite highway of the air. Wilbur Wright
Let them look to the past, but let them also look to the future; let them look to the land of their ancestors, but let them look also to the land of their children. Wilfrid Laurier
If we want to set and enforce a limit on immigration, we have to be willing to say no to would-be immigrants who look a lot like our own ancestors, not because there’s anything wrong with them, but simply because admitting them would exceed our legal limit. Jan C. Ting
Humanity is still advancing; and it will probably continue to advance for hundreds of thousands of years more, always on condition that we know how to keep the same line of advance as our ancestors towards ever greater consciousness and complexity. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
We must wake up to the insane reality of our time. We are all irresponsible, unless we demand from the responsible decision makers that modern armaments must no longer be made available to people whose former battle axes and swords our ancestors condemned. Thor Heyerdahl
In a sense, all Americans are battle-born. Our ancestors came here for something better. Brandon Flowers
If you share a common ancestor with somebody, you’re related to them. It doesn’t mean that you’re going to invite them to the family reunion, but it means that you share DNA. Henry Louis Gates
The pomp, power, and military bombast of ‘La Marseillaise’ draws me into the history of France and my own. The surname I was born with was French: D’Orsay; perhaps an ancestor was amongst those troops that marched to this evocative anthem for the first time as they entered Paris 200 years ago! Engelbert Humperdinck
For the first half of geological time our ancestors were bacteria. Most creatures still are bacteria, and each one of our trillions of cells is a colony of bacteria. Richard Dawkins
Offspring, the due performance on religious rites, faithful service, highest conjugal happiness and heavenly bliss for the ancestors and oneself, depend on one’s wife alone. Guru Nanak
There were times, especially when I was traveling for ‘Eat, Pray, Love,’ when, I swear to God, I would feel this weight of my female ancestors, all those Swedish farmwives from beyond the grave who were like, ‘Go! Go to Naples! Eat more pizza! Go to India, ride an elephant! Do it! Swim in the Indian Ocean. Read those books. Learn a language.’ Elizabeth Gilbert
I, too, am convinced that our ancestors came from Africa. Richard Leakey
Maybe my caveman ancestors invented the wheel or something. I’m not sure. Brendan Fraser
You and I probably wouldn’t be here if our ancestors hadn’t been greedy savages. Mark Pagel
I’ve always thought you have to live life looking forwards, not backwards. I’ve had no interest at all in who my ancestors are. Jeremy Paxman
Crafts make us feel rooted, give us a sense of belonging and connect us with our history. Our ancestors used to create these crafts out of necessity, and now we do them for fun, to make money and to express ourselves. Phyllis George
The first American ancestor of our name was a younger son of these old Devonshire people, and came to the Virginia colony in the reign of Charles the First. John Sergeant Wise
I can see why many Southerners, black ones in particular, don’t like the implication that Southernness and the Confederate heritage are one and the same, because they’re not. On the other hand, there are people who want to extirpate that completely and want folks to spit on the graves of their ancestors. John Shelton Reed
We split from our common ancestor with the octopus half a billion years ago. And yet, you can make friends with an octopus. Sy Montgomery
Whatever you are is because of what your ancestors have done. Li Lu
I would find myself being inspired by things that I’ve heard as a kid: Nigerian music or African music, some French music or some Jamaican music. When it’s time for music to be made, it’s almost like my ancestors just come into me and then it’s them. Burna Boy
November is Native American Heritage month, and a good time to honor the legacy of our ancestors, but every day we should stop to think about our country’s beginning and that the United States would not exist if not for a great deal of sacrifice, blood, and tears by Indian Tribes across the country. Deb Haaland
