Every adolescent has that dream every century has that dream every revolutionary has that dream, to destroy the family.
—Gertrude Stein, 1940Quotes
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, 1919Family! Thou art the home of all social evil, a charitable institution for comfortable women, an anchorage for house-fathers, and a hell for children.
—August Strindberg, 1886By and large, mothers and housewives are the only workers who do not have regular time off. They are the great vacationless class.
—Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1955Again, men in general desire the good, and not merely what their fathers had.
—Aristotle, c. 350 BCOne race there is of men, one of gods, but from one mother we both draw our breath.
—Pindar, c. 450 BCMother died today. Or maybe it was yesterday, I don’t know.
—Albert Camus, 1942There is not much less vexation in the government of a private family than in the managing of an entire state.
—Michel de Montaigne, 1580Few sons are equal to their fathers; most fall short, all too few surpass them.
—Homer, c. 750 BCIf parents would only realize how they bore their children!
—George Bernard Shaw, c. 1910To 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, 1954A Jewish man with parents alive is a fifteen-year-old boy, and will remain a fifteen-year-old boy till they die!
—Philip Roth, 1969The thing that impresses me most about America is the way parents obey their children.
—Edward, Duke of Windsor, 1957