“We live always under the weight of the old and odious customs … of our barbarous ancestors.”

Source: Womenfolks: Growing Up Down South (1983), p. 1 (opening lines)

11 How. St. Tr. 1204.
Trial of Sir Edward Hales (1686)

Source: Acceptance Speech for The Right Livelihood Award http://www.rightlivelihood.org/fpk_sesana_speech.html

Source: James Nasmyth engineer, 1883, p. 1
Context: Our history begins before we are born. We represent the hereditary influences of our race, and our ancestors virtually live in us. The sentiment of ancestry seems to be inherent in human nature, especially in the more civilised races. At all events, we cannot help having a due regard for the history of our forefathers. Our curiosity is stimulated by their immediate or indirect influence upon ourselves. It may be a generous enthusiasm, or, as some might say, a harmless vanity, to take pride in the honour of their name. The gifts of nature, however, are more valuable than those of fortune; and no line of ancestry, however honourable, can absolve us from the duty of diligent application and perseverance, or from the practice of the virtues of self-control and self-help.

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005), p. 113

As quoted in "The Works of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford" in The Monthly Review, or, Literary Journal, Vol. 27 (1798) edited by Ralph Griffiths, p. 187

Source: The tongues of men. 1937, p. 25 (1968; 24)