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

It is impossible to please all the world and one’s father.

My father! The sun is my father, and the earth is my mother, and on her bosom I will recline.

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.

It’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.

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

Familiarity breeds contempt—and children.

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

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