"A man is great by deeds, not by birth." (Hinduism, Mahabharata 13.107)
True, false, good, bad, useful, not so useful, etc.? Discuss.
My thoughts:
Seems self-evident to me, but I found it interesting enough to merit a little research into how India got from that claim to the hereditary caste system that remains entrenched there today.
While the Mahabharata and Upanishads do refer to inherent qualities (gunas) and recommend aligning one's occupation and life with such qualities, they definitely emphasis behavior and accomplishment, not any strictly inherited social status.
It took a couple of thousand years for those individual "gunas" to evolve into occupational "varnas," and another thousand years or so for those "varnas" to get codified in e.g. the Manusmriti as legal duties.
In other words, as tends to happen with religion, politics ruined Hinduism in the area of social relations.
But back to the aphorism: Yes, obviously, it's what you do, not who your ancestors were, that matters.
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