quotations about parents
Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them.
OSCAR WILDE
The Picture of Dorian Gray
From the first dawn of consciousness, it was a parent's love that beamed upon our hearts, and awakened all their best and holiest sympathies.
SUSAN FERRIER
Destiny; Or, The Chief's Daughter
Parents are not interested in justice -- they want QUIET!
BILL COSBY
Himself
I suppose that every parent loves his child; but I know, without any supposing, that in a large number of homes the love is hidden behind authority, or its expression is crowded out by daily duties and cares.
ABBOTT ELIOT KITTREDGE
attributed, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers
Everything our parents said was good is bad. Sun, milk, red meat, college.
WOODY ALLEN
Annie Hall
In some sense every parent does love their children. But some parents are too broken to love them well.
WM. PAUL YOUNG
The Shack
It's especially hard to admit that you made a mistake to your parents, because, of course, you know so much more than they do.
SEAN COVEY
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens
Many kids, it seemed, would find out that their parents were flawed, messed-up people later in life, and I didn't appreciate getting to know it all so strong and early.
AIMEE BENDER
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
Everyone else we knew growing up is the same: image of their parents, no matter how loud they told themselves they'd be different.
TANA FRENCH
In the Woods
By becoming a parent, a service has been rendered to God and the country.
ZOROASTER
attributed, Day's Collacon
Parents try the best they can. They want the best for you. But a lot of their stuff is just their own. If you can pull yourself away from it and not always feel like they're attacking you, then it's easier to deal with.
JESSICA ALBA
Marie Claire, March 2008
A suspicious parent ... makes an artful child.
THOMAS CHANDLER HALIBURTON
Nature and Human Nature
The parent who sedulously endeavors to form the heart and enlarge the understanding of his child, has given that dignity to the discharge of a duty, common to the whole animal world, that only reason can give.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
People love the parents who beat their kids in department stores. It's the ones who just let their kids wreak havoc that everybody hates.
CHRISTOPHER MOORE
A Dirty Job
The trouble with the family is that children grow out of childhood, but parents never grow out of parenthood.
EVAN ESAR
The Comic Encyclopedia
I've come to realize that making it your life's work to be different than your parents is not only hard to do, it's a dumb idea. Not everything we found fault with was necessarily wrong; we were right, for example, to resent, as kids, being told when to go to bed. We'd be equally wrong, as parents, to let our kids stay up all night. To throw out all the tools of parenting just because our parents used them would be like making yourself speak English without using ten letters of the alphabet; it's hard to do.
PAUL REISER
Familyhood
The more boring a child is, the more the parents, when showing off the child, receive adulation for being good parents -- because they have a tame child-creature in their house.
FRANK ZAPPA
Mojo Magazine, 1993
The hand of our parents traces on our feeble hearts those first characters to which example and time give firmness, and which perhaps God alone can efface.
VOLTAIRE
attributed, Day's Collacon
How many hopes and fears, how many ardent wishes, how many anxious apprehensions are twisted together in the threads that connect the parent with the child.
SAMUEL GRISWOLD GOODRICH
Fireside Education
Parents who are ignorant of their duty, will be taught by the misconduct of their children what they ought to have done.
M. LAFAYETTE BYRN
attributed, Day's Collacon