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Quotes

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

—Homer, c. 750 BC

It is not flesh and blood but the heart which makes us fathers and sons.

—Friedrich Schiller, 1781

Familiarity breeds contempt—and children.

—Mark Twain, c. 1900

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

—Edward, Duke of Windsor, 1957

By 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, 1955

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

—Oscar Wilde, 1895

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

—Pope John Paul I, 1978

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

—Francis Bacon, 1625

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

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

—Michel de Montaigne, 1580

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

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. 

—Benjamin Franklin, 1786

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

—Tecumseh, 1810