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

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

In our family, as far as we are concerned, we were born and what happened before that is myth.

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. 

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

Motherhood is the strangest thing, it can be like being one’s own Trojan horse.

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

Families, I hate you! Shut-in homes, closed doors, jealous possessions of happiness.

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.

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.