Noble Descent Quotes

Noble descent and worth, unless united with wealth, are esteemed no more than seaweed.

Thus we have given to man a pedigree of prodigious length, but not, it may be said, of noble quality.

High birth is a thing which I never knew any one to disparage except those who had it not; and I never knew any one to make a boast of it who had anything else to be proud of.

It is the highest of earthly honors to be descended from the great and good. They alone cry out against a noble ancestry who have none of their own.

My mother Diana was a true-blue aristocrat, descended from William the Conqueror and listed in 'Burke's Peerage.' My father David, from a poor Scottish family, was a doctor.

Though you be sprung in direct line from Hercules, if you show a lowborn meanness, that long succession of ancestors whom you disgrace are so many witnesses against you; and this grand display of their tarnished glory but serves to make your ignominy more evident.

We were descended from royalty.

My mother was related to four of Jamaica's oldest families, and to say merely that she was out of the top drawer would not convey the quality of her breeding.

The Sultan of Kilwa [in Tanzania] was called 'the generous' on account of the multitude of his gifts and acts of generosity. He used to engage frequently in expeditions to the land of the Zinj people raiding them and taking booty--slaves and other wealth... He is a man of great humility; he sits with poor brethren, eats with them, and greatly respects men of religion and noble descent