It’s clear that most American children suffer too much mother and too little father.
—Gloria Steinem (b.1934) American Feminist, Journalist, Social Activist, Political Activist
The voice of parents is the voice of gods, for to their children they are heaven’s lieutenants.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Where parents do too much for their children, the children will not do much for themselves.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
I believe that we parents must encourage our children to become educated, so they can get into a good college that we cannot afford.
—Dave Barry (b.1947) American Humorist, Columnist
Your children need your presence more than presents.
—Jesse Jackson (b.1941) American Baptist Civil Rights Activist, Minister
The parents exist to teach the child, but also they must learn what the child has to teach them; and the child has a very great deal to teach them.
—Arnold Bennett (1867–1931) British Novelist, Playwright, Critic
In order to influence a child, one must be careful not to be that child’s parent or grandparent.
—Don Marquis (1878–1937) American Humorist, Journalist, Author
Parents often talk about the younger generation as if they didn’t have anything to do with it.
—Haim Ginott
To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune… to lose both seems like carelessness.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
To understand your parents’ love you must raise children yourself.
—Chinese Proverb
To maintain a joyful family requires much from both the parents and the children. Each member of the family has to become, in a special way, the servant of the others.
—Pope John Paul II (1920–2005) Polish Catholic Religious Leader
Girls marry to please parents, widows to please themselves.
—Chinese Proverb
Let me go to hell, that’s all I ask, and go on cursing them there, and them look down and hear me, that might take some of the shine off their bliss.
—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989) Irish Novelist, Playwright
You must not expect old heads upon young shoulders.
—English Proverb
Let your children go if you want to keep them.
—Malcolm S. Forbes (1919–1990) American Publisher, Businessperson
We never know the love of our parents for us till we have become parents.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.
—Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American Poet
Parents who are always giving their children nothing but the best usually wind up with nothing but the worst
—Indian Proverb
The pressures of being a parent are equal to any pressure on earth. To be a conscious parent, and really look to that little being’s mental and physical health is a responsibility which most of us, including me, avoid most of the time, because it’s too hard…To put it loosely, the reason why kids are crazy is because nobody can face the responsibility of bringing them up…
—John Lennon (1940–80) British Singer, Songwriter, Musician, Activist
You have to love your children unselfishly. That is hard. But it is the only way.
—Barbara Bush (1925–2018) American First Lady
The sacred books of the ancient Persians say: If you would be holy instruct your children, because all the good acts they perform will be imputed to you.
—Montesquieu (1689–1755) French Political Philosopher, Jurist
The house with an old grandparent harbors a jewel.
—Chinese Proverb
The father and mother of an unnoticed family, who in their seclusion awaken the mind of one child to the idea and love of goodness, who awaken in him a strength of will to repel temptation, and who send him out prepared to profit by the conflicts of life, surpass in influence a Napoleon breaking the world to his sway.
—William Ellery Channing (1780–1842) American Unitarian Theologian, Poet
To nourish and raise children against odds is in any time, any place, more valuable than to fix bolts in cars or design nuclear weapons.
—Marilyn French (1929–2009) American Feminist Author
Parents have become so convinced that educators know what is best for their children that they forget that they themselves are really the experts.
—Marian Wright Edelman (b.1939) American Civil Regrets Advocate, Humanitarian, Lawyer
Live so that when your children think of fairness and integrity, they think of you.
—H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (b.1940) American Self-Help Author
When you have children yourself, you begin to understand what you owe your parents.
—Japanese Proverb
Parents were invented to make children happy by giving them something to ignore.
—Ogden Nash (1902–71) American Writer of Sophisticated Light Verse
Is the parent better than the child into whom he has cast his ripened being? Whence, then, this worship of the past?
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The parent is low, who having children, truly feels bored.
—Jean Paul (1763–1825) German Novelist, Humorist