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.
—Robert Frost, 1939Quotes
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.
—August Strindberg, 1886Nobody, who has not been in the interior of a family, can say what the difficulties of any individual of that family may be.
—Jane Austen, 1815God is our father, but even more is God our mother.
—Pope John Paul I, 1978He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief.
—Francis Bacon, 1625In peace, children inter their parents; war violates the order of nature and causes parents to inter their children.
—Herodotus, 440 BCMother died today. Or maybe it was yesterday, I don’t know.
—Albert Camus, 1942Few sons are equal to their fathers; most fall short, all too few surpass them.
—Homer, c. 750 BCIf parents would only realize how they bore their children!
—George Bernard Shaw, c. 1910It’s frightening to think that you mark your children merely by being yourself… it seems unfair. You can’t assume the responsibility for everything you do—or don’t do.
—Simone de Beauvoir, 1966I cannot bear a parent’s tears.
—Virgil, c. 25 BC