The power of perpetuating our property in our families is one of
the most valuable and interesting circumstances belonging to it,
and that which tends most to the perpetuation of society itself.
It makes our weakness subservient to our virtue; it grafts
benevolence even upon avarice. The possession of family wealth
and of the distinction which attends hereditary possessions (as
most concerned in it,) are the natural securities for this
transmission.
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Sire, I am my own Rudolph of Hapsburg.
Sire, I am my own Rudolph of Hapsburg.
No, my friends, I go (always other things being equal) for the
man that inherits family traditions and the read more
No, my friends, I go (always other things being equal) for the
man that inherits family traditions and the cumulative humanities
of at least four or five generations.
It is disgraceful when the passers-by exclaim, "O ancient house!
alas, how unlike is thy present master to thy read more
It is disgraceful when the passers-by exclaim, "O ancient house!
alas, how unlike is thy present master to thy former one."
[Lat., Odiosum est enim, cum a praetereuntibus dicatur:--O domus
antiqua, heu, quam dispari dominare domino.]
He who boasts of his ancestry praises the merits of another
He who boasts of his ancestry praises the merits of another
I came up-stairs into the world; for I was born in a cellar.
I came up-stairs into the world; for I was born in a cellar.
"My nobility," said he, "begins in me, but yours ends in you."
- Iphicrates,
"My nobility," said he, "begins in me, but yours ends in you."
- Iphicrates,
The man who has not anything to boast of but his illustrious
ancestors is like a potato,--the only good read more
The man who has not anything to boast of but his illustrious
ancestors is like a potato,--the only good belonging to him is
under ground.
Born is a Cellar, . . . and living in a Garret.
Born is a Cellar, . . . and living in a Garret.
Great families of yesterday we show,
And lords whose parents were the Lord knows who.
Great families of yesterday we show,
And lords whose parents were the Lord knows who.
