There are some extraordinary fathers, who seem, during the whole course of their lives, to be giving their children reasons for being consoled at their death.

If you and your child were going to be killed tomorrow, would you not give him to eat today?

Our [women's] bodies are shaped to bear children, and our lives are a working-out of the processes of creation. All our ambitions and intelligence are beside that great elemental point.

A father is very miserable who has no other hold on his children's affection than the need they have of his assistance, if that can be called affection.

Through the survival of their children, happy parents are able to think calmly, and with a very practical affection, of a world in which they are to have no direct share.

Men are generally more careful of the breed of their horses and dogs than of their children.

An angry father is most cruel toward himself.

Romance fails us and so do friendships, but the relationship of parent and child, less noisy than all others, remains indelible and indestructible, the strongest relationship on earth.

I opine ... "Judicious mothers will always keep in mind, that they are the first book read, and the last put aside, in every child's library."

The fundamental defect of fathers is that they want their children to be a credit to them.