A child, like your stomach, doesn’t need all you can afford to give it.
—Frank A. Clark
Parents were invented to make children happy by giving them something to ignore.
—Ogden Nash (1902–71) American Writer of Sophisticated Light Verse
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 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
As long as you have the blessing of your parents it does not matter even if you live in the mountains.
—Greek Proverb
Parenthood is not an object of appetite or even desire. It is an object of will. There is no appetite for parenthood; there is only a purpose or intention of parenthood.
—R. G. Collingwood (1889–1943) English Philosopher, Historian, Archaeologist
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
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
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
You have to love your children unselfishly. That is hard. But it is the only way.
—Barbara Bush (1925–2018) American First Lady
Girls marry to please parents, widows to please themselves.
—Chinese Proverb
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
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
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
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
Parents wonder why the streams are bitter, when they themselves have poisoned the fountain.
—John Locke (1632–1704) English Philosopher, Physician
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
Parents who are afraid to put their foot down usually have children who step on their toes
—Chinese Proverb
Let your children go if you want to keep them.
—Malcolm S. Forbes (1919–1990) American Publisher, Businessperson
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
Listening to parents’ advice is sort of like watching commercials. You know what’s coming, you’ve heard it all before, it’s a big bore, but you listen anyway
—Unknown
We never know the love of our parents for us till we have become parents.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
Parents are sometimes a bit of a disappointment to their children. They don’t fulfill the promise of their early years.
—Anthony Powell (1905–2000) English Novelist, Memoirist
Many parents are finding out that a pat on the back helps develop character – if given often enough, early enough, and low enough
—Indian Proverb
When you have children yourself, you begin to understand what you owe your parents.
—Japanese Proverb
Children are buttonholes that hold their parents together.
—Arabic Proverb
A suspicious parent makes an artful child.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton (1796–1865) Canadian Author, Humorist, Businessperson, Judge
Parents are the bones on which children cut their teeth.
—Peter Ustinov (1921–2004) British Actor, Playwright, Director
Most of us become parents long before we have stopped being children.
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author
Parents learn a lot from their children about coping with life.
—Muriel Spark (1918–2006) Scottish Novelist, Short-story Writer, Poet