Parents are the bones on which children cut their teeth.
—Peter Ustinov (1921–2004) British Actor, Playwright, Director
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
Parents who are afraid to put their foot down usually have children who step on their toes
—Chinese Proverb
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
Parents wonder why the streams are bitter, when they themselves have poisoned the fountain.
—John Locke (1632–1704) English Philosopher, Physician
Parents often talk about the younger generation as if they didn’t have anything to do with it.
—Haim Ginott
Parents are not quite interested injustice, they are interested in quiet.
—Bill Cosby (b.1937) American Actor, Comedian, Activist, Producer, Author
The trouble with parents is that by the time they are experienced, they are unemployed.
—Indian Proverb
When you teach your son, you teach your son’s son.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
You must not expect old heads upon young shoulders.
—English Proverb
The truth is that parents are not really interested in justice. They just want quiet.
—Bill Cosby (b.1937) American Actor, Comedian, Activist, Producer, Author
Some parents really bring their children up; others let them down
—Indian Proverb
The voice of parents is the voice of gods, for to their children they are heaven’s lieutenants.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
What children hear their parents say by the fireside, they repeat in the highway.
—Spanish Proverb
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
Next to God, thy parents.
—William Penn (1644–1718) American Entrepreneur, Political leader, Philosopher
A suspicious parent makes an artful child.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton (1796–1865) Canadian Author, Humorist, Businessperson, Judge
Parents were invented to make children happy by giving them something to ignore.
—Ogden Nash (1902–71) American Writer of Sophisticated Light Verse
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
The child supplies the power but the parents have to do the steering.
—Benjamin Spock (1903–98) American Pediatrician, Author
A child, like your stomach, doesn’t need all you can afford to give it.
—Frank A. Clark
Respect the child. Be not too much his parent. Trespass not on his solitude.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
If you want a baby, have a new one. Don’t baby the old one.
—Jessamyn West
Irreverence ran on both sides of our family… my parents brought me up to think we could all change the world.
—Richard Branson (b.1950) British Entrepreneur
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
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
Children need guidance and sympathy far more than instruction.
—Anne Sullivan Macy (1866–1936) American Educator
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
How many hopes and fears, how many ardent wishes and anxious apprehensions are twisted together in the threads that connect the parent with the child!
—Samuel Griswold Goodrich (1793–1860) American Publisher, Writer
A wise parent humors the desire for independent action, so as to become the friend and advisor when his absolute rule shall cease.
—Elizabeth Gaskell (1810–65) English Novelist, Short-Story Writer
Don’t be discouraged if your children reject your advice. Years later they will offer it to their own offspring.
—Unknown
Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
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
Your children need your presence more than presents.
—Jesse Jackson (b.1941) American Baptist Civil Rights Activist, Minister
Maternity is a matter of fact; paternity is a matter of opinion.
—U.S. Proverb
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
We never know the love of our parents for us till we have become parents.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
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
This is the reason why mothers are more devoted to their children than fathers: it is that they suffer more in giving them birth and are more certain that they are their own.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
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
Parents lend children their experience and a vicarious memory; children endow their parents with a vicarious immortality.
—George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American Poet, Philosopher
How selfhood begins with a walking away, and love is proved in the letting go.
—Cecil Day-Lewis (1904–72) British Poet, Critic
If your children look up to you, you’ve made a success of life’s biggest job.
—Unknown
To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune… to lose both seems like carelessness.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands.
—Anne Frank (1929–45) Holocaust Victim
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
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
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
To understand your parents’ love you must raise children yourself.
—Chinese Proverb