The glory of ancestors sheds a light around posterity; it allows neither
their good nor bad qualities to remain in obscurity.--_Sallust._
Nobility of birth does not always insure a corresponding nobility of
mind; if it did, it would always act as a stimulus to noble actions; but
it sometimes acts as a clog rather than a spur.--_Colton._
Honorable descent is in all nations greatly esteemed; besides, it is to
be expected that the children of men of worth will be like their
fathers, for nobility is the virtue of a family.--_Aristotle._
A long series of ancestors shows the native lustre with advantage; but
if he any way degenerate from his line, the least spot is visible on
ermine.--_Dryden._
The happiest lot for a man, as far as birth is concerned, is that it
should be such as to give him but little occasion to think much about
it.--_Whately._
~Ancients.~--In tragedy and satire I maintain, against some critics, that
this age and the last have excelled the ancients; and I would instance
in Shakespeare of the former, in Dorset of the latter.--_Dryden._
Though the knowledge they have left us be worth our study, yet they
exhausted not all its treasures; they left a great deal for the industry
and sagacity of after-ages.--_Locke._
~Angels.~--In old days there were angels who came and took men by the hand
and led them away from the city of destruction. We see no white-winged
angels now. But yet men are led away from threatening destruction: a
hand is put in theirs, which leads them forth gently towards a calm and
bright land, so that they look no more backward; and the hand may be a
little child's.--_George Eliot._
Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth unseen, both when we wake
and when we sleep.--_Milton._
~Anger.~--If a man meets with injustice, it is not required that he shall
not be roused to meet it; but if he is angry after he has had time to
think upon it, that is sinful. The flame is not wrong, but the coals
are.--_Beecher._