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

We are linked by blood, and blood is memory without language. – Joyce Carol Oates

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

Stillness and steadiness of features are signal marks of good breeding. Vulgar persons cant sit still, or at least must always work their limbs and features. – Oliver Wendell Holmes