I’m not an analyzer. I’ve got a son that analyzes everything and everybody. But I don’t analyze people.

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.

The place of the father in the modern suburban family is a very small one, particularly if he plays golf.

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.

I have a brother and sister; my mother does not care for thought, and father, too busy with his briefs to notice what we do. He buys me many books, but begs me not to read them, because he fears they joggle the mind.

It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste.

We are by nature observers, and thereby learners. That is our permanent state.

Part of the reason for the ugliness of adults, in a child’s eyes, is that the child is usually looking upwards, and few faces are at their best when seen from below.

I can’t play bridge. I don’t play tennis. All those things that people learn, and I admire, there hasn’t seemed time for. But what there is time for is looking out the window.

The sky is the daily bread of the eyes.

I am the son of a freedom fighter, and a son of a freedom fighter automatically imbibes the value of democracy.

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

Do you know what you call those who use towels and never wash them, eat meals and never do the dishes, sit in rooms they never clean, and are entertained till they drop? If you have just answered, ‚A house guest,‘ you’re wrong because I have just described my kids.

Live so that when your children think of fairness, caring, and integrity, they think of you.

I am persuaded, you will permit me to observe, that the path of true piety is so plain as to require but little political direction.

We think it’s fun for our kids to have cameos and join us on set, but not to be actors. That’s not our goal for Brad and me at all. I think we would both prefer that they didn’t become actors.

I don’t take pictures when I’m with my kids, for the sake of my kids. It’s important when you’re as busy as I am that you give your kids your time when you’re with them, and nothing compromises that. I’ve been lucky enough to have fans that understand that.

When a child is locked in the bathroom with water running and he says he’s doing nothing but the dog is barking, call 911.

As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do.

The hardest thing to see is what is in front of your eyes.

If I ever had twins, I’d use one for parts.

My mother, I suppose, is still a main figure in my life because her life was so sad and unfair, and she so brave, but also because she was determined to make me into the Sunday-school-recitation little girl I was, from the age of seven or so, fighting not to be.

I give infinite thanks to God, who has been pleased to make me the first observer of marvelous things.

Women will only have true equality when men share with them the responsibility of bringing up the next generation.

It would have been difficult to have an ugly daughter.

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

I have spent the greater part of my life in a hotel room with seven or eight kids, looking after everyone, sorting out fights, wiping noses, handing out towels, not having a clean towel left for me.

Give a little love to a child, and you get a great deal back.

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

If you’re working 50 hours a week to try to maintain family income, and your children have the kinds of aspirations that come from being flooded with television from age one, and associations have declined, people end up hopeless, even though they have every option.

A child who is allowed to be disrespectful to his parents will not have true respect for anyone.

The training of children is a profession, where we must know how to waste time in order to save it.

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.

I’ve never lived my life in the opinion of others. I believe I’m a good person. I believe I’m a good mom. But that’s for my kids to decide, not for the world.

My mother was a full-time mother. She didn’t have much of her own career, her own life, her own experiences… everything was for her children. I will never be as good a mother as she was. She was just grace incarnate. She was the most generous, loving – she’s better than me.

When we talk about mortality, we are talking about our children.

It is necessary to look at the results of observation objectively, because you, the experimenter, might like one result better than another.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

Do I worry about being in the public eye and raising kids? Yeah. Any situation you’re in, you’re gonna worry about raising kids. But it’s champagne problems, too. There are people who can’t feed their kids.

Any teammate of mine that had a kid and a boy that was capable of playing baseball, I think I set a terrific example of ‚Don’t do this‘ and ‚Don’t do that.‘ And that’s one of the things that I’m most proud of.

I don’t go off and sit down and try to write material, because then it’s contrived and forced. I just live my life, and I see things in a word or a situation or a concept, and it will create a joke for me.

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 just want to make sure when I have kids, I can spend time with them. That’s the whole point.

Historically, the family has played the primary role in educating children for life, with the school providing supplemental scaffolding to the family.

My children came out as individuals in their own right. They were not my products. They had their own characters and were very strong-minded. I gave them a lot of freedom when they were still very young. The one thing they got from me is morals. They would never betray anyone. They are really good people.

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.

Parentage is a very important profession, but no test of fitness for it is ever imposed in the interest of the children.

I do not like broccoli. And I haven’t liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I’m President of the United States and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli.

As a father, safety is always a top of mind issue for me.

If I walked into the kitchen without washing my hands as a kid, I’d hear a loud ‚A-hem!‘ from my mother or grandmother. Now I count on other people to do the same.

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.

My son has followed fashion since he was a punk. He and I agree that fashion is about sex.

I had this child, and it destroyed my family.

I want kids. I want a soccer team, and I want a husband.

Everybody looks like clones and the only people you notice are my age. I don’t notice anybody unless they look great, and every now and again they do, and they are usually 70.

Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.

That was the first time I saw a horse start from a kneeling position!

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?‘

No, we don’t own our children. Our parental privilege is to love them, to lead them, and to let them go.

It’s amazing how confused and distracted and misdirected so many people are.

There is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me.