Every man sees in his relatives, and especially in his cousins, a series of grotesque caricatures of himself.
—H.L. Mencken, 1919Quotes
Mother died today. Or maybe it was yesterday, I don’t know.
—Albert Camus, 1942Family! 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, 1886It’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, 1966It is impossible to please all the world and one’s father.
—Jean de La Fontaine, 1668In our family, as far as we are concerned, we were born and what happened before that is myth.
—V.S. Pritchett, 1968My father! The sun is my father, and the earth is my mother, and on her bosom I will recline.
—Tecumseh, 1810Families, I hate you! Shut-in homes, closed doors, jealous possessions of happiness.
—André Gide, 1897My mother protected me from the world and my father threatened me with it.
—Quentin Crisp, 1968If parents would only realize how they bore their children!
—George Bernard Shaw, c. 1910The root of the kingdom is in the State. The root of the State is in the family. The root of the family is in the person of its Head.
—Mencius, c. 270 BC