Henry Louis Gates Jr. Quotes

OUR history begins before we are born. We represent the hereditary influences of our race, and our ancestors virtually live in us.

My heritage has been my grounding, and it has brought me peace.

You don't stumble upon your heritage. It's there, just waiting to be explored and shared.

In many ways, each of us is the sum total of what our ancestors were. The virtues they had may be our virtues, their strengths our strengths, and, in a way, their challenges could be our challenges.

I love my people's history. I feel a huge responsibility to tell the stories of my past and my ancestors' past.

History has always fascinated me. Coming from a family that has it's own regal history, I always like places that have a rich past.

the breed is more than the pasture. As you know, the cuckoo lays her eggs in any bird's nest; it may be hatched among blackbirds or robins or thrushes, but it is always a cuckoo. ... a man cannot deliver himself from his ancestors.

Being Southerners, it was a source of shame to some members of the family that we had no recorded ancestors on either side of the Battle of Hastings.

Pedigree and ancestry and what we ourselves have not achieved, I scarcely recognize as our own.

Southerners are so devoted to genealogy that we see a family tree under every bush.

Birth and ancestry, and that which we have not ourselves achieved, we can scarcely call our own.

I've always been fascinated by family ancestry.

I come from a family that has been here for almost 200 years. My ancestors started a very dangerous gunpowder business in 1802, and my great- grandfather and his father were both killed in gunpowder explosions.

A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.

One of the things that's important about family is the narrative history they create for themselves.

In fact, the history of North America has been perhaps more profoundly influenced by man's inheritance from his past homes than by the physical features of his present home.

I get anxious. That lovely Jewish guilt that comes with ancestry.

The origin of each of us stems from codes of genetic inheritance.

Let us make future generations remember us as proud ancestors just as, today, we remember our forefathers.

I've known where my heritage is from all along.

My ancestors are all crazy. My great-great-granddad, he was the last man to live in a cave in Nottingham.

To understand and reconnect with our stories, the stories of the ancestors, is to build our identities.

I believe that people are what happened to their grandparents.

I am proud of my heritage and my family.

We live in a society that celebrates familial connection above any other kind of relationship. We are shown photos of our great-grandparents and encouraged to marvel over facial similarities. We are told to take pride in our bloodlines, celebrate our ancestry.