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

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

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.

Mother died today. Or maybe it was yesterday, I don’t know. 

Familiarity breeds contempt—and children.

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

One race there is of men, one of gods, but from one mother we both draw our breath.

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

Nobody, who has not been in the interior of a family, can say what the difficulties of any individual of that family may be.

Every man sees in his relatives, and especially in his cousins, a series of grotesque caricatures of himself.

I cannot bear a parent’s tears.