Quote#Children
We are so far identical with our ancestors and our contemporaries…
Quote bySamuel Butler · 1835–1902
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Part IV: Memory and Design, Personal Identity.
English (original)
We are so far identical with our ancestors and our contemporaries that it is very rarely we can see anything that they do not see. It is not unjust that the sins of the fathers should be visited upon the children, for the children committed the sins when in the persons of their fathers.
— Samuel Butler
More from Samuel Butler
A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg.
We can see nothing face to face; our utmost seeing is but a fumbling of blind finger-ends in an overcrowded pocket.
Stowed away in a Montreal lumber room The Discobolus standeth and turneth his face to the wall; Dusty, cobweb-covered, maimed and set at naught, Beauty crieth in an attic and no man regardeth: O God! O Montreal!
Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.
The Discobolus is put here because he is vulgar — He has neither vest nor pants with which to cover his limbs.
The man who lets himself be bored is even more contemptible than the bore.