I cannot bear a parent’s tears.
—Virgil, c. 25 BCQuotes
Mother died today. Or maybe it was yesterday, I don’t know.
—Albert Camus, 1942He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief.
—Francis Bacon, 1625Few sons are equal to their fathers; most fall short, all too few surpass them.
—Homer, c. 750 BCAll women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That’s his.
—Oscar Wilde, 1895Every man sees in his relatives, and especially in his cousins, a series of grotesque caricatures of himself.
—H.L. Mencken, 1919One race there is of men, one of gods, but from one mother we both draw our breath.
—Pindar, c. 450 BCThe most socially subversive institution of our time is the one-parent family.
—Paul Johnson, 1989My mother protected me from the world and my father threatened me with it.
—Quentin Crisp, 1968Motherhood is the strangest thing, it can be like being one’s own Trojan horse.
—Rebecca West, 1959The 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