To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune… to lose both seems like carelessness.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
I wish you would moderate that fondness you have for your children. I do not mean you should abate any part of your care, or not do your duty to them in its utmost extent, but I would have you early prepare yourself for disappointments, which are heavy in proportion to their being surprising.
—Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689–1762) English Aristocrat, Poet, Novelist, Writer
Oh, high is the price of parenthood, and daughters may cost you double. You dare not forget, as you thought you could, that youth is a plague and a trouble.
—Phyllis McGinley (1905–78) American Children’s Books Writer, Poet, Writer of Children’s Books
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
There is no friendship, no love, like that of a mother for her child.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
Parents learn a lot from their children about coping with life.
—Muriel Spark (1918–2006) Scottish Novelist, Short-story Writer, Poet
When you teach your son, you teach your son’s son.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
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
The unjustifiable severity of a parent is loaded with this aggravation, that those whom he injures are always in his sight.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
A child, like your stomach, doesn’t need all you can afford to give it.
—Frank A. Clark
Children need guidance and sympathy far more than instruction.
—Anne Sullivan Macy (1866–1936) American Educator
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 don’t think my parents liked me. They put a live teddy bear in my crib.
—Woody Allen (b.1935) American Film Actor, Director
He that does not bring up his son to some honest calling and employment, brings him up to be a thief.
—Yiddish Proverb
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
Next to God, thy parents.
—William Penn (1644–1718) American Entrepreneur, Political leader, Philosopher
Honor thy parents, those that gave thee birth, and watched in tenderness thine earliest days, and trained thee up in youth, and loved in all. Honor, obey, and love them; it shall fill their souls with holy joy, and shall bring down God’s richest blessing on thee; and in days to come, thy children, if they’re given, shall honor thee, and fill thy life with peace.
—Tryon Edwards American Theologian
Most children threaten at times to run away from home. This is the only thing that keeps some parents going.
—Phyllis Diller (b.1917) American Actor, Comedian
The first half of our lives is ruined by our parents and the second half by our children.
—Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) American Civil Liberties Lawyer
You must not expect old heads upon young shoulders.
—English Proverb
Parents are not quite interested injustice, they are interested in quiet.
—Bill Cosby (b.1937) American Actor, Comedian, Activist, Producer, Author
The voice of parents is the voice of gods, for to their children they are heaven’s lieutenants.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
If you want children to keep their feet on the ground, put some responsibility on their shoulders.
—Pauline Phillips (Abigail van Buren) (b.1918) American Columnist
The best training any parent can give a child is to train the child to train himself.
—A. P. Gouthey
Some are kissing mothers and some are scolding mothers, but it is love just the same—and most mothers kiss and scold together.
—Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American Novelist, Human Rights Activist
Your children need your presence more than presents.
—Jesse Jackson (b.1941) American Baptist Civil Rights Activist, Minister
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
How selfhood begins with a walking away, and love is proved in the letting go.
—Cecil Day-Lewis (1904–72) British Poet, Critic
No fathers or mothers think their own children ugly; and this self-deceit is yet stronger with respect to the offspring of the mind.
—Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish Novelist
The trouble with parents is that by the time they are experienced, they are unemployed.
—Indian Proverb
It’s frightening to think that you mark your children merely by being yourself. It seems unfair. You can’t assume the responsibility for everything you do—or don’t do.
—Simone de Beauvoir (1908–86) French Philosopher, Writer, Feminist
I wish either my father or my mother, or indeed both of them, as they were in duty both equally bound to it, had minded what they were about when they begot me.
—Laurence Sterne (1713–68) Irish Anglican Novelist, Clergyman
Most of us become parents long before we have stopped being children.
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author
The word no carries a lot more meaning when spoken by a parent who also knows how to say yes.
—Joyce Maynard (b.1953) American Novelist
From where can your authority and license as a parent come from, when you who are old, do worse things?
—Juvenal (c.60–c.136 CE) Roman Poet
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
I wish all the mothers, fathers and children out there realize how much I need them and how much I value their support.
—Diana, Princess of Wales (1961–97) English Royal, Humanitarian, Peace Activist
Overachievement is aimed at people who want to maximize their potential. And to do that, I insist you throw caution to the wind, ignore the pleas of parents, coaches, spouses, and bosses to be “realistic”. Realistic people do not accomplish extraordinary things because the odds against success stymie them. The best performers ignore the odds. I will show you that instead of limiting themselves to what’s probable, the best will pursue the heart-pounding, exciting, really big, difference-making dreams—so long as catching them might be possible.
—John Eliot (b.1971) American Psychologist, Academic
To show a child what once delighted you, to find the child’s delight added to your own—this is happiness.
—J. B. Priestley (1894–1984) English Novelist, Playwright, Critic
You don’t have to deserve your mother’s love. You have to deserve your father’s. He’s more particular. The father is always a Republican towards his son, and his mother’s always a Democrat.
—Robert Frost (1874–1963) American Poet
There is no such penalty for error and folly as to see one’s children suffer for it.—There is no such reward for a well-spent life as to see one’s children well started in life, owing to their parents’ good health, good principles, fixed character, good breeding, and in general the whole outfit, that enables them to fight the battle of life with success.
—William Graham Sumner (1840–1910) American Polymath, Academic, Historian, Sociologist, Anthropologist
When thou art contemplating some base deed, let the presence of thy infant son act as a check on thy headlong course to sin.
—Juvenal (c.60–c.136 CE) Roman Poet
A suspicious parent makes an artful child.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton (1796–1865) Canadian Author, Humorist, Businessperson, Judge
Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
Children wish fathers looked but with their eyes; fathers that children with their judgment looked; and either may be wrong.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
The illiberality of parents, in allowance toward their children, is a harmful error, and makes them base; acquaints them with shirts; makes them sort with mean company; and makes them surfeit more when they come to plenty; and therefore the proof is best when men keep their authority toward their children, but not their purse.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
Maternity is a matter of fact; paternity is a matter of opinion.
—U.S. Proverb
The parent is low, who having children, truly feels bored.
—Jean Paul (1763–1825) German Novelist, Humorist
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