I wish I had been home more when the children were growing up. I missed a lot.

The best thing about being a dad? Well, I think it’s just the thing that every man wants – to have a son and heir.

Neil Young is my hero, and such a great example. You know what that guy has been doing for the past 40 years? Making music. That’s what that guy does. Sometimes you pay attention, sometimes you don’t. Sometimes he hands it to you, sometimes he keeps it to himself. He’s a good man with a beautiful family and wonderful life.

My work and my family are very important to me.

When I was a youngster I lived with different families. I nearly always felt closer to the man of the house. Maybe because I always dreamed of having a father of my own.

With patient and firm determination, I am going to press on for jobs. I’m going to press on for equality. I’m going to press on for the sake of our children. I’m going to press on for the sake of all those families who are struggling right now. I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself. I don’t have time to complain. I am going to press on.

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

I listen to my mother, and that keeps me out of trouble. I’m a good son.

I believe everyone should have a good death. You know, with your grandchildren around you, a bit of sobbing. Because after all, tears are appropriate on a death bed. And you say goodbye to your loved ones, making certain that one of them has been left behind to look after the shop.

It is a most mortifying reflection for a man to consider what he has done, compared to what he might have done.

The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.

The only time you really live fully is from thirty to sixty. The young are slaves to dreams; the old servants of regrets. Only the middle-aged have all their five senses in the keeping of their wits.

My other brother-in-law died. He was a karate expert, then joined the army. The first time he saluted, he killed himself.

It is a wise father that knows his own child.

I’m gonna go hard no matter what because I gotta feed my family, and I gotta feed myself.

My children love Maleficent’s voice, so they always make me do it at home.

I want to thank God, obviously for the health, for the talent He’s given me, for my family who supports me, for the things that basketball’s taught me on and off the court. For the people that I’ve been able to meet through the game of basketball.

My father was a swim teacher. We used to swim before school, swim after school.

Imagine your family finally making it from nothing to something, and finally getting things going, and finally buying a beautiful house and taking care of your children – and the next day, it’s completely all gone. Zero. Boom. Flat broke. So that’s when I had to man up.

My own eight children all march to the beat of their inner music, and in some cases, it is definitely far away from what I hear. I’ve had to honor their instincts and their choices, and merely guided them out of harm’s way until they could be their own guides.

I do have a lot of gays in my family now, but some will never come out.

I used to carry my father’s Bible and put it on the pulpit so he could preach.

A man should never neglect his family for business.

I don’t let a lot of reporters meet my children.

Together, we can help make sure that every family that walks into a restaurant can make an easy, healthy choice.

Who in their infinite wisdom decreed that Little League uniforms be white? Certainly not a mother.

That’s what I do this for, to secure my family’s future. I don’t care about anything else. I’m able to spoil people, and that’s the best thing.

You know, nothing is more important than education, because nowhere are our stakes higher; our future depends on the quality of education of our children today.

A Sunday school is a prison in which children do penance for the evil conscience of their parents.

If thy brother wrongs thee, remember not so much his wrong-doing, but more than ever that he is thy brother.

As I got older, my pops tried to keep me involved with the culture by telling me the stories of the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, how he came to America, and about our family back home, because all that side of my family – my aunties, grandparents – is in Africa.

I just received the following wire from my generous Daddy; Dear Jack, Don’t buy a single vote more than is necessary. I’ll be damned if I’m going to pay for a landslide.

Although modesty is natural to man, it is not natural to children. Modesty only begins with the knowledge of evil.

I definitely connected to the fact that life gets out of control and you end up doing things and wishing you were doing other things instead.

The CIA is made up of boys whose families sent them to Princeton but wouldn’t let them into the family brokerage business.

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.

When I was nine years old, living on the south side of Chicago, my father was a minister and my mother used to scrub floors. I had seven brothers and four sisters. I told my mama, ‚One of these days I’m going to be big and strong and buy you a beautiful house.‘ That’s all I’ve ever wanted to do with my life, is to take care of my mother.

Those who know me know I’m passionate about lists, and top of my list of priorities is my family. My wife Joan and I do not consider our legacy to our children to be wealth or fame but the opportunity to pursue happiness by following their own path.

It is healthier, in any case, to write for the adults one’s children will become than for the children one’s ‚mature‘ critics often are.

I’m just glad I was able to return to some of that innocence and beauty I had as a child when I started my own family, and my children brought me back some of that spirit.

We ought to esteem it of the greatest importance that the fictions which children first hear should be adapted in the most perfect manner to the promotion of virtue.

Whoever does not have a good father should procure one.

My dad was the town drunk. Most of the time that’s not so bad; but New York City?

My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

I’ve been my mom’s kitchen helper since I was a little kid.

My parents were the same in the pulpit as they were at home. I think that’s where a lot of preachers‘ kids get off base sometimes. Because they don’t see the same things at both places.

I consider the fact that thousands of children die each day from starvation and a lack of medicine a crisis for humanity and a problem we must collectively attempt to solve.

I want my kids to see me as Dad, for God’s sake, not a television personality.

You learn that there’s no right way to do it, no wrong way to do it. It’s just what you feel comfortable with, to trust that, and don’t let anybody box you in to a certain style of parenting or make you feel a certain way about what your kids do.

It took Simone a long time to understand why people want Daddy’s autograph. I’d tell her, and my wife would tell her, too, ‚People see Daddy in the movies, and they are excited to meet him.‘ But she couldn’t really grasp it.

Children always turn to the light.

Ask an older person you respect to tell you his or her greatest regret.

I grew up in a musical family; the majority of my growing up was done in Hawaii. It’s what we do. You sing, you dance, you play ukulele and you drink.

My fans saw me get engaged, saw me make that woman my wife, me having kids, me divorcing, me talking about divorce before the divorce, me talking about my kids‘ reaction to that divorce.

The reason children accept discipline from their parents is because they know their parents love them.

There is no such thing as fun for the whole family.

You must be afraid, my son. That is how one becomes an honest citizen.

Without education, your children can never really meet the challenges they will face. So it’s very important to give children education and explain that they should play a role for their country.

If you’re the parent, be a parent. You know what I mean? I’m a parent. I have daughters.

I actually feel more of a woman because I feel like I’m being smart about my choices, and I’m putting my family first, and I’m in charge of my life and my health. I think that’s what makes a woman complete.

I soothe my conscience now with the thought that it is better for hard words to be on paper than that Mummy should carry them in her heart.