History will be kind to me for I have written it. Winston Churchill.

Do try The House by fresh new author, Susannah Mansfield, it's funny, sad and very different, you'll love the characters and the stories.

All our ancestors were murdered, murderers, complicit to murder, or combating murder.

Over the course of the millennia, all these multitudes of ancestors, generation upon generation, have come down to this moment in time—to give birth to you. There has never been, nor will ever be, another like you. You have been given a tremendous responsibility. You carry the hopes and dreams of all those who have gone before. Hopes and dreams for a better world. What will you do with your time on this Earth? How will you contribute to the ongoing story of humankind?

History is the essence of innumerable biographies.

The story of his great-grandfather . . . Was his own story, too.

In united families, they might sleep with half filled stomach but no one sleeps with empty stomach.

I had never thought much of genealogy. A lot of wasted time collecting the names of the dead. Then stringing those names, like skulls upon a wire, into an entirely private and thus irrelevant narrative, lacking any historical significance. The narcissistic pastime of nostalgic bores.

Meditation works in many layers. It works in our genes, in our DNA.

Your ancestors are rooting for you.