I will say this: one of the things that is a pain when you’re expecting children is how much advice unsolicited people give you when you’re not asking for it.

I can encourage my daughter to love her body, but what really matters are the observations she makes about my relationship with my own body.

The kids are old enough now – I just want to let them be kids. I don’t want to comment on them too much. They’re at an age where I just want to let them be kids.

The worst men often give the best advice.

To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.

These technologies can make life easier, can let us touch people we might not otherwise. You may have a child with a birth defect and be able to get in touch with other parents and support groups, get medical information, the latest experimental drugs. These things can profoundly influence life. I’m not downplaying that.

The biggest thrill a ballplayer can have is when your son takes after you. That happened when my Bobby was in his championship Little League game. He really showed me something. Struck out three times. Made an error that lost the game. Parents were throwing things at our car and swearing at us as we drove off. Gosh, I was proud.

People change because of kids. They change how they eat. They change the way they think. They change the way they see one another.

These days, children can text on their cell phone all night long, and no one else is seeing that phone. You don’t know who is calling that child.

I have an expression I use as I’ve gone around the world through my career: ‚You never tell another man or woman what’s in their interest. They know their interest better than you know their interest.‘

If you must hold yourself up to your children as an object lesson, hold yourself up as a warning and not as an example.

Allow children to be happy in their own way, for what better way will they find?

I give opinions, not advice.

If the Almighty were to rebuild the world and asked me for advice, I would have English Channels round every country. And the atmosphere would be such that anything which attempted to fly would be set on fire.

You see, at the end of the day, my most important title is still ‚mom-in-chief.‘ My daughters are still the heart of my heart and the center of my world.

Wise men don’t need advice. Fools won’t take it.

In words, as fashions, the same rule will hold; Alike fantastic, if too new, or old: Be not the first by whom the new are tried, Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.

I used to live with my grandmother. I used to wonder why the other kids in school went home with their mothers and fathers. I wanted to be the guy that got married. I wanted to be the guy with the children and the white picket fence. I never had that.

The fundamental defect of fathers, in our competitive society, is that they want their children to be a credit to them.

I was kind of secretly hoping one of my kids would go out and make a million bucks. So when they put me in a home, at least I’ll have a window with a view.

A child miseducated is a child lost.

Little girls are cute and small only to adults. To one another they are not cute. They are life-sized.

I still learn, but I think it’s the best thing in life to have a kid.

The unjustifiable severity of a parent is loaded with this aggravation, that those whom he injures are always in his sight.

If I can give you one strong piece of advice, when you go away for that romantic weekend, whatever you do, do not accept or take the upgrade to the honeymoon suite.

Little children are still the symbol of the eternal marriage between love and duty.

I have spent so much time and so much energy making other people’s children stars.

You send a boy to school in order to make friends – the right sort.

Who will take responsibility for raising the next generation?

If you raise your children to feel that they can accomplish any goal or task they decide upon, you will have succeeded as a parent and you will have given your children the greatest of all blessings.

I want parents to teach that academic intelligence is essential, but so is financial intelligence.

Modern cynics and skeptics… see no harm in paying those to whom they entrust the minds of their children a smaller wage than is paid to those to whom they entrust the care of their plumbing.

A word to the wise is infuriating.

After momma gave birth to 12 of us kids, we put her up on a pedestal. It was mostly to keep Daddy away from her.

Kids end up seeing my movies anyway but some of the mothers get mad at me so I figured I’d make one that I can’t get yelled at for.

Always kiss your children goodnight, even if they’re already asleep.

Familiarity breeds contempt – and children.

My first job in all honesty is going to continue to be mom-in-chief. Making sure that in this transition, which will be even more of a transition for the girls… that they are settled and that they know they will continue to be the center of our universe.

To be a successful father… there’s one absolute rule: when you have a kid, don’t look at it for the first two years.

In our ecclesiastical region there are priests who don’t baptize the children of single mothers because they weren’t conceived in the sanctity of marriage. These are today’s hypocrites. Those who clericalize the church. Those who separate the people of God from salvation.

As the father of eight children, I’m quite convinced that each individual arrives here with their own unique personality. We are intended here from an invisible held of infinite potentiality. That which has no form, has no boundaries – it’s the I that’s in the ever-changing body.

Because I am a mother, I am capable of being shocked: as I never was when I was not one.

A woman seldom asks advice before she has bought her wedding clothes.

Being a housewife and a mother is the biggest job in the world, but if it doesn’t interest you, don’t do it – I would have made a terrible mother.

There’s very little advice in men’s magazines, because men don’t think there’s a lot they don’t know. Women do. Women want to learn. Men think, ‚I know what I’m doing, just show me somebody naked.‘

Children wish fathers looked but with their eyes; fathers that children with their judgment looked; and either may be wrong.

I have a son, who is my heart. A wonderful young man, daring and loving and strong and kind.

When befriended, remember it; when you befriend, forget it.

Children are all foreigners.

They are resilient children, but they are children, and as much as they need help to understand the hard truths in life, they also need what we all need – protection and love.

The ‚Maddox Jolie-Pitt‘ Foundation’s work is inspired by our children and their connections to particular countries.

Don’t go getting mixed up in the business of your betters, or you’ll land in trouble too big for you.

I’m just wanting to make the proper breakfast and keep the house. That’s my passion. At the request of my kids, I’m taking cooking classes. As I go to sleep at night, I think, ‚Did I do a great job as a mom, or was that an average day?‘

Our lifestyle was not in any way a negative. That was not the problem. That is and will remain one of the wonderful opportunities we are able to give our children.

In business or in life, don’t follow the wagon tracks too closely.

The time to take counsel of your fears is before you make an important battle decision. That’s the time to listen to every fear you can imagine! When you have collected all the facts and fears and made your decision, turn off all your fears and go ahead!

I’ve told Billy if I ever caught him cheating, I wouldn’t kill him because I love his children and they need a dad. But I would beat him up. I know where all of his sports injuries are.

I’ve said this time and again: My greatest concern coming into the White House was making sure my girls came out whole and normal, and decent and kind, just like I would expect them to if we were living on the South Side of Chicago. And it takes work to keep White House life normal for the kids.

I can testify to what UNICEF means to children because I was among those who received food and medical relief right after World War II.

Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased by tales, so is the other.

I always wanted to be a father and thought it would be great, but it just took the right woman and the right time to make it all happen.