Every man sees in his relatives, and especially in his cousins, a series of grotesque caricatures of himself.
—H.L. Mencken, 1919Quotes
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, 1954A family’s photograph album is generally about the extended family—and, often, is all that remains of it.
—Susan Sontag, 1977Families, I hate you! Shut-in homes, closed doors, jealous possessions of happiness.
—André Gide, 1897Mother died today. Or maybe it was yesterday, I don’t know.
—Albert Camus, 1942Motherhood is the strangest thing, it can be like being one’s own Trojan horse.
—Rebecca West, 1959My mother protected me from the world and my father threatened me with it.
—Quentin Crisp, 1968Men are what their mothers made them.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1860In peace, children inter their parents; war violates the order of nature and causes parents to inter their children.
—Herodotus, 440 BCFamiliarity breeds contempt—and children.
—Mark Twain, c. 1900He 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