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

Men are what their mothers made them.

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

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

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

Familiarity breeds contempt—and children.

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

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

The strength of a family, like the strength of an army, is in its loyalty to each other.

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

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.