He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief.
—Francis Bacon, 1625Quotes
God is our father, but even more is God our mother.
—Pope John Paul I, 1978One race there is of men, one of gods, but from one mother we both draw our breath.
—Pindar, c. 450 BCFew sons are equal to their fathers; most fall short, all too few surpass them.
—Homer, c. 750 BCIt is not flesh and blood but the heart which makes us fathers and sons.
—Friedrich Schiller, 1781All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That’s his.
—Oscar Wilde, 1895The most socially subversive institution of our time is the one-parent family.
—Paul Johnson, 1989A Jewish man with parents alive is a fifteen-year-old boy, and will remain a fifteen-year-old boy till they die!
—Philip Roth, 1969As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live.
—Pope John Paul II, 1986Familiarity breeds contempt—and children.
—Mark Twain, c. 1900Motherhood is the strangest thing, it can be like being one’s own Trojan horse.
—Rebecca West, 1959