The family is the test of freedom; because the family is the only thing that the free man makes for himself and by himself.

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

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.

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

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

The most socially subversive institution of our time is the one-parent family.

In peace, children inter their parents; war violates the order of nature and causes parents to inter their children.

Men are what their mothers made them.

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

A family’s photograph album is generally about the extended family—and, often, is all that remains of it.

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.