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. 

Familiarity breeds contempt—and children.

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.

There is not much less vexation in the government of a private family than in the managing of an entire state.

My father! The sun is my father, and the earth is my mother, and on her bosom I will recline.

He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief.

As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live.

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

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

In peace, children inter their parents; war violates the order of nature and causes parents to inter their children.

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

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

God is our father, but even more is God our mother.