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

Few sons are equal to their fathers; most fall short, all too few surpass them. 

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

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

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

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. 

By and large, mothers and housewives are the only workers who do not have regular time off. They are the great vacationless class.

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.

Family! Thou art the home of all social evil, a charitable institution for comfortable women, an anchorage for house-fathers, and a hell for children.

I cannot bear a parent’s tears.

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