Do well and you will have no need for ancestors.

The saying expresses an Enlightenment-era skepticism toward inherited status: personal merit and present conduct matter more than pedigree. “Ancestors” stands for aristocratic lineage, family reputation, and the social capital of birth. Voltaire’s broader polemics often target the pretensions of nobility and the idea that virtue or authority is transmitted through bloodlines. Read this way, the line urges self-made dignity: if you act well—ethically, intelligently, usefully—you won’t need to lean on inherited names to justify your worth. It also implies a moral egalitarianism: excellence is available to anyone, while ancestry is an accident.