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Quotations by Subject: Parents
(Related Subjects: Children, Birth, Marriage)
Showing quotations 1 to 30 of 40 quotations in our collections

How simple a thing it seems to me that to know ourselves as we are, we must know our mothers' names.: Alice Walker (1944 - ), O Magazine, May 2003
The world is full of women blindsided by the unceasing demands of motherhood, still flabbergasted by how a job can be terrific and torturous.: Anna Quindlen (1953 - ), O Magazine, May 2003
Sometimes the laughter in mothering is the recognition of the ironies and absurdities. Sometime, though, it's just pure, unthinking delight.: Barbara Schapiro, O Magazine, May 2003
Sooner or later we all quote our mothers.: Bern Williams
The place of the father in the modern suburban family is a very small one, particularly if he plays golf.: Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970)
The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found.: Calvin Trillin (1935 - )
My parents only had one argument in forty-five years. It lasted forty-three years.: Cathy Ladman
By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he's wrong.: Charles Wadsworth
Your parents, they give you your life, but then they try to give you their life.: Chuck Palahniuk (1962 - ), Invisible Monsters, 1999
The first half of our lives is ruined by our parents, and the second half by our children.: Clarence Darrow (1857 - 1938)
There's something unnatural about a woman finding babies or, more specifically, conversation about babies, boring. They'll think she's bitter, jealous, lonely. But she's also bored of everybody telling her how lucky she is, what with all that sleep and all that freedom and spare time, the ability to go on dates or head off to Paris at a moments notice. It sounds like they're consoling her, and she resents this and feels patronized by it.: David Nicholls, One Day, 2010
If your parents never had children, chances are you won't, either.: Dick Cavett (1936 - )
A mother is not a person to lean on but a person to make leaning unnecessary.: Dorothy C. Fisher (1879 - 1958), quoted in O Magazine, May 2003
The art of mothering is to teach the art of living to children.: Elain Heffner, O Magazine, May 2003
The central struggle of parenthood is to let our hopes for our children outweigh our fears.: Ellen Goodman (1941 - )
Having a baby's sweet face so close to your own, for so long a time as it takes to nurse 'em, is a great tonic for a sad soul.: Erica Eisdorfer, The Wet Nurse's Tale, 2009
Losing a baby is not a thing that you could ever get used to.: Erica Eisdorfer, The Wet Nurse's Tale, 2009
The gods visit the sins of the fathers upon the children.: Euripides (484 BC - 406 BC), Phrixus
There is…nothing to suggest that mothering cannot be shared by several people.: H. R. Schaffer, O Magazine, May 2003
That’s sort of a cliché about parents. We all believe that our children are the most beautiful children in the world. But the thing is, what no one really talks about is the fact that we all really believe it.: Heather Armstrong, Dooce, 05-04-06
This is part of the essence of motherhood, watching your kid grow into her own person and not being able to do anything about it. Otherwise children would be nothing more than pets.: Heather Armstrong, Dooce, 11-15-05
For rarely are sons similar to their fathers: most are worse, and a few are better than their fathers.: Homer (800 BC - 700 BC), The Odyssey
The most important thing she'd learned over the years was that there was no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one.: Jill Churchill, O Magazine, May 2003
It's interesting, on your second day of existence, to realize that your father is going to blame all the future failures of his life on you.: Josh Lieb, I am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to be Your Class President, 2009
It does not always follow that good men are good fathers.: Kathryn L. Nelson, Pemberley Manor, 2006
The thing that impresses me the most about America is the way parents obey their children.: King Edward VIII (1894 - 1972)
Some men just aren't cut out for paternity. Better they should realize it before and not after they become responsible for a son.: Lois McMaster Bujold, Ethan of Athos, 1986
My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.: Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
Parents are never as bad as kids think they are.: Matt Witten, House M.D., Cursed, 2004
Parents were invented to make children happy by giving them something to ignore.: Ogden Nash (1902 - 1971)

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