You don't have to suffer to be a poet; adolescence is enough suffering for anyone.

You don't have to suffer to be a poet; adolescence is enough suffering for anyone.

Parents are often so busy with the physical rearing of children that they miss the glory of parenthood, just as read more

Parents are often so busy with the physical rearing of children that they miss the glory of parenthood, just as the grandeur of the trees is lost when raking leaves.

A child is a curly, dimpled lunatic.

A child is a curly, dimpled lunatic.

It might sound a paradoxical thing to say --for surely never has a generation of children occupied more sheer hours read more

It might sound a paradoxical thing to say --for surely never has a generation of children occupied more sheer hours of parental time --but the truth is that we neglected you. We allowed you a charade of trivial freedoms in order to avoid making those impositions on you that are in the end both the training ground and proving ground for true independence. We pronounced you strong when you were still weak in order to avoid the struggles with you that would have fed your true strength. We proclaimed you sound when you were foolish in order to avoid taking part in the long, slow, slogging effort that is the only route to genuine maturity of mind and feeling. Thus, it was no small anomaly of your growing up that while you were the most indulged generation, you were also in many ways the most abandoned to your own meager devices by those into whose safe-keeping you had been given.

What a cunning mixture of sentiment, pity, tenderness, irony surrounds adolescence, what knowing watchfulness! Young birds on their first flight read more

What a cunning mixture of sentiment, pity, tenderness, irony surrounds adolescence, what knowing watchfulness! Young birds on their first flight are hardly so hovered around.

It is dangerous to confuse children with angels.

It is dangerous to confuse children with angels.

Abortion is a skillfully marketed product sold to women at a crisis time in their life. If the product is read more

Abortion is a skillfully marketed product sold to women at a crisis time in their life. If the product is defective, she can't return it for a refund.

The soul is healed by being with children.

The soul is healed by being with children.

I don't know any parents that look into the eyes of a newborn baby and say, How can we screw read more

I don't know any parents that look into the eyes of a newborn baby and say, How can we screw this kid up.