By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he’s wrong.
—Charles Wadsworth (1929–2025) American Pianist, Musical Impresario
When you have children yourself, you begin to understand what you owe your parents.
—Japanese Proverb
Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
If you bungle raising your children, I don’t think whatever else you do well matters very much.
—Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (1929–94 ) American First Lady
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
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
Selective ignorance, a cornerstone of child rearing. You don’t put kids under surveillance: it might frighten you. Parents should sit tall in the saddle and look upon their troops with a noble and benevolent and extremely nearsighted gaze.
—Garrison Keillor (b.1942) American Author, Humorist, Radio Personality
If you want children to keep their feet on the ground, put some responsibility on their shoulders.
—Pauline Phillips (Abigail van Buren) (1918–2013) American Advice Columnist, Radio Personality
Parents are the bones on which children cut their teeth.
—Peter Ustinov (1921–2004) British Actor, Playwright, Director
How selfhood begins with a walking away, and love is proved in the letting go.
—Cecil Day-Lewis (1904–72) British Poet, Critic
For rarely are sons similar to their fathers: most are worse, and a few are better than their fathers.
—Homer (751–651 BCE) Ancient Greek 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
If you want a baby, have a new one. Don’t baby the old one.
—Jessamyn West
Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
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
Some parents really bring their children up; others let them down.
—Indian Proverb
The joys of parents are secret, and so are their griefs and fears: they cannot utter the one, nor will they utter the other.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
It is a wise father that knows his own child.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
What children hear their parents say by the fireside, they repeat in the highway.
—Spanish Proverb
Girls marry to please parents, widows to please themselves.
—Chinese Proverb
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, Journalist
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 Writer, Poet, Children’s Books Author
Respect the child. Be not too much his parent. Trespass not on his solitude.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The trouble with being a parent is that by the time you are experienced, you are unemployed.
—Indian Proverb
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
There is no friendship, no love, like that of a mother for her child.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
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, Historian, Sociologist, Anthropologist
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
My heroes are and were my parents. I can’t see having anyone else as my heroes.
—Michael Jordan (b.1963) American Sportsperson, Businessperson
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