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, 1786Quotes
Familiarity breeds contempt—and children.
—Mark Twain, c. 1900As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live.
—Pope John Paul II, 1986Few sons are equal to their fathers; most fall short, all too few surpass them.
—Homer, c. 750 BCA 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 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, 1919My mother protected me from the world and my father threatened me with it.
—Quentin Crisp, 1968In peace, children inter their parents; war violates the order of nature and causes parents to inter their children.
—Herodotus, 440 BCMy father! The sun is my father, and the earth is my mother, and on her bosom I will recline.
—Tecumseh, 1810God is our father, but even more is God our mother.
—Pope John Paul I, 1978The most socially subversive institution of our time is the one-parent family.
—Paul Johnson, 1989The 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 BCOne race there is of men, one of gods, but from one mother we both draw our breath.
—Pindar, c. 450 BC