Good breeding, a union of kindness and independence. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nothing is so soothing to our self esteem as to find our bad traits in our forebears. It seems to absolve us. – Van Wyck Brooks

They talk about their Pilgrim blood, their birthright high and holy! a mountain-stream that ends in mud thinks is melancholy. – James Russell Lowell

The person who has nothing to brag about but their ancestors is like a potato; the best part of them is underground. – Sir Thomas Overbore