The families of our friends are always a disappointment.

Having a family is like having a bowling alley installed in your brain.

When I can no longer bear to think of the victims of broken homes, I begin to think of the victims of intact ones.

'Tis sweet to know there is an eye will mark our coming, and look brighter when we come.

The family-that dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape.

There's no vocabulary For love within a family, love that's lived in But not looked at, love within the light of which All else is seen, the love within which All other love finds speech. This love is silent.

There is nothing like tasting the grit of fear for rediscovering that the umbilical cord is made of piano wire.

Natural affection is a prejudice: for though we have cause to love our nearest connections better than others, we have no reason to think them better than others.

A man's women folk, whatever their outward show of respect for his merit and authority, always regard him secretly as an ass, and with something akin to pity.

There is little less trouble in governing a private family than a whole kingdom.