My mother loved children--she would have given anything if I had been one.

My mother loved children--she would have given anything if I had been one.

A man may be born, but in order to be born he must first die, and in order to die read more

A man may be born, but in order to be born he must first die, and in order to die he must first awake.

Ah! what would the world be to us If the children were no more? We should dread the desert read more

Ah! what would the world be to us If the children were no more? We should dread the desert behind us Worse than the dark before.

The only moral lesson which is suited for a child, the most important lesson for every time of life, is read more

The only moral lesson which is suited for a child, the most important lesson for every time of life, is this: "Never hurt anybody.".

Children are our most valuable natural resource.

Children are our most valuable natural resource.

By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he's read more

By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he's wrong.

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.

It's frightening to think that you mark your children merely by being yourself. It seems unfair. You can't assume the read more

It's frightening to think that you mark your children merely by being yourself. It seems unfair. You can't assume the responsibility for everything you do --or don't do.

You have to love your children unselfishly. That is hard. But it is the only way.

You have to love your children unselfishly. That is hard. But it is the only way.