To be a successful father… there’s one absolute rule: when you have a kid, don’t look at it for the first two years.

Mother died today. Or maybe it was yesterday, I don’t know. 

Few sons are equal to their fathers; most fall short, all too few surpass them. 

The root of the kingdom is in the State. The root of the State is in the family. The root of the family is in the person of its Head.

Motherhood is the strangest thing, it can be like being one’s own Trojan horse.

He that raises a large family, does indeed, while he lives to observe them, stand…a broader mark for sorrow; but then he stands a broader mark for pleasure too. 

It is impossible to please all the world and one’s father.

The thing that impresses me most about America is the way parents obey their children.

A family’s photograph album is generally about the extended family—and, often, is all that remains of it.

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.

Again, men in general desire the good, and not merely what their fathers had.

All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That’s his.

Every man sees in his relatives, and especially in his cousins, a series of grotesque caricatures of himself.