–better spend your time poking your finger in the water, pulling it out, and then looking for the hole.  Men who spend much time in tracing their ancestry are cranks.

–it may be tinged with a monkey’s.

because he has studied it all his life–he may know nothing about it–may have been on the wrong road from the beginning.  There is no fraud like an old one.

that is not reasonable.

because it is hoary with age–frequently its age is the best evidence that it is false.

–it does not pay; besides, you may be their superior.

as though you were guilty of some grave offense.

and then have the fact published to all the world–it is the personification of meanness.

that you may have a chance to steal a hundred.

and lie out of the other–it would be better to commit suicide.