The 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, 1939Quotes
Again, men in general desire the good, and not merely what their fathers had.
—Aristotle, c. 350 BCI cannot bear a parent’s tears.
—Virgil, c. 25 BCFamiliarity breeds contempt—and children.
—Mark Twain, c. 1900In our family, as far as we are concerned, we were born and what happened before that is myth.
—V.S. Pritchett, 1968The thing that impresses me most about America is the way parents obey their children.
—Edward, Duke of Windsor, 1957To 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, 1954As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live.
—Pope John Paul II, 1986By 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, 1955All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That’s his.
—Oscar Wilde, 1895Men are what their mothers made them.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1860My mother protected me from the world and my father threatened me with it.
—Quentin Crisp, 1968Families, I hate you! Shut-in homes, closed doors, jealous possessions of happiness.
—André Gide, 1897