As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live.
—Pope John Paul II, 1986Quotes
Mother died today. Or maybe it was yesterday, I don’t know.
—Albert Camus, 1942Familiarity breeds contempt—and children.
—Mark Twain, c. 1900If parents would only realize how they bore their children!
—George Bernard Shaw, c. 1910God is our father, but even more is God our mother.
—Pope John Paul I, 1978Families, I hate you! Shut-in homes, closed doors, jealous possessions of happiness.
—André Gide, 1897A family’s photograph album is generally about the extended family—and, often, is all that remains of it.
—Susan Sontag, 1977Every man sees in his relatives, and especially in his cousins, a series of grotesque caricatures of himself.
—H.L. Mencken, 1919The thing that impresses me most about America is the way parents obey their children.
—Edward, Duke of Windsor, 1957The greatest thing in family life is to take a hint when a hint is intended—and not to take a hint when a hint isn’t intended.
—Robert Frost, 1939Motherhood is the strangest thing, it can be like being one’s own Trojan horse.
—Rebecca West, 1959It is impossible to please all the world and one’s father.
—Jean de La Fontaine, 1668A Jewish man with parents alive is a fifteen-year-old boy, and will remain a fifteen-year-old boy till they die!
—Philip Roth, 1969