Archive

Quotes

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

—Susan Sontag, 1977

The family is the test of freedom; because the family is the only thing that the free man makes for himself and by himself.

—G.K. Chesterton, 1919

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

—H.L. Mencken, 1919

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.

—Ernest Hemingway, 1954

Men are what their mothers made them.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1860

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.

—Simone de Beauvoir, 1966

The most socially subversive institution of our time is the one-parent family.

—Paul Johnson, 1989

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

—Albert Camus, 1942

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.

—Mencius, c. 270 BC

Familiarity breeds contempt—and children.

—Mark Twain, c. 1900

A 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

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

—Homer, c. 750 BC

Families, I hate you! Shut-in homes, closed doors, jealous possessions of happiness.

—André Gide, 1897