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

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 want to represent… to the kids to draw strength from me. So they can see that everybody goes through something, but you can rise up and do your best. Just try.

We just seem to have lost all our morals and principles and values these days.

I was really too honest a man to be a politician and live.

The great thing about having a bunch of kids is they just remind you that you’re the person who takes them to go poop!

I never had a speech from my father ‚this is what you must do or shouldn’t do‘ but I just learned to be led by example. My father wasn’t perfect.

I think about my own sons and my own daughters, and I’m sure that many parents are concerned about what their children are exposed to.

I want to reform the tax code so that it’s simple, fair, and asks the wealthiest households to pay higher taxes on incomes over $250,000 – the same rate we had when Bill Clinton was president; the same rate we had when our economy created nearly 23 million new jobs, the biggest surplus in history, and a lot of millionaires to boot.

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.

The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.

Pity may represent little more than the impersonal concern which prompts the mailing of a check, but true sympathy is the personal concern which demands the giving of one’s soul.

Just talk to me as a father – not what the Constitution says. What do you feel?

In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don’t try to control. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present.

Anyone who doesn’t take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either.

Being a child at home alone in the summer is a high-risk occupation. If you call your mother at work thirteen times an hour, she can hurt you.

People have told me, ‚You shouldn’t bring your daughter onto the podium, ‚cause it’s the workplace,‘ and things like that. But I’m not gonna really listen to that. I’m gonna do what I think is fun for me and my family, and everything’ll be all right.

I have ‚Parents‘ magazine in my home.

I’ve never been a manipulator, even in my bachelor days. I never wanted to do things to people that could catch up with me later on.

There is always inequality in life. Some men are killed in a war and some men are wounded and some men never leave the country. Life is unfair.

To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.

My brother Bob doesn’t want to be in government – he promised Dad he’d go straight.

My momma didn’t clean up floors so I could be a thug… so I could wear my pants down.

The uncertainty of parenting can bring up feelings in us that range from frustration to terror.

The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous.

The thing I really care about is the mission, making the world open.

The side of fairytales I don’t like is that they always have happy endings, that there’s just good and evil, and things are perfect. But life is a little more complicated, and that’s what I try to teach my kids.

I can’t very well be teaching one way and living my life another way. What I do in life must be consistent with the things I say. And the same goes for you.

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.

There are some important differences between me and Tony Stark, like I have five kids, so I spend more time going to Disneyland than parties.

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

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

Right after 9-11, as far as I know, one newspaper in the United States had the integrity to investigate opinion in the Muslim world: the ‚Wall Street Journal.‘

Most women put off entertaining until the kids are grown.

As a father and now a grandfather to three wonderful grandchildren, I know how magical the first year of a child’s life is but also how much hard work it takes. Being able to spend as much time as possible with your loved ones is absolutely vital, especially early on.

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

All virtue is summed up in dealing justly.

A child cannot be taught by anyone who despises him, and a child cannot afford to be fooled.

No lying knight or lying priest ever prospered in any age, but especially not in the dark ones. Men prospered then only in following an openly declared purpose, and preaching candidly beloved and trusted creeds.

My mom, she was a very, very soft woman. It was hard for her to yell or even curse. But when it came to fighting for her kids, she found a strength she didn’t always know she had.

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

Nothing reflects so much honor on a workman as a trial of his work and its endurance of it. So it is with God. It honors Him when His saints preserve their integrity.

When there is an income tax, the just man will pay more and the unjust less on the same amount of income.

An index is a great leveller.

Some people will have to be afraid. Those who plunder the nation, deliver injustice, will have to feel scared of me. And I am not afraid of admitting this. Government cannot be so lenient that it forgives them.

When you stand for something, you’ve got to stand for it all the way, not half way.

I am not a crook.

Most of us are raised to believe we are ordinary. The anchor of the universe is present in every child. A parent only needs to guide and step aside and let them fulfill their dharma. Help children remember that they can do or be anything.

You definitely want your kids to understand their heritage, but I don’t want my kids to just focus on being black. They are people. I don’t want them to judge other people or to be judged. I want them to be good people, so good people will treat them accordingly. I preach that to my kids and everything else falls into place.

You have to be careful about how much you reveal to people that look up to you so much.

The deep, personal material of the latter half of your life is your children. You can write about your parents when they’re gone, but your children are still going to be here, and you’re going to want them to come and visit you in the nursing home.

Never fret for an only son, the idea of failure will never occur to him.

I’ve always felt heroic about my life… As a child, I remember little girls in the playground moaning about how boys could do more than they could. I didn’t think that was the case at all. My parents didn’t treat me as a girl.

Moral authority is never retained by any attempt to hold on to it. It comes without seeking and is retained without effort.

The man of life upright has a guiltless heart, free from all dishonest deeds or thought of vanity.

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.

The best measure of a man’s honesty isn’t his income tax return. It’s the zero adjust on his bathroom scale.

I know from having had a child, and from having been a child myself, that children will copy you.

Marty was an extraordinary person. Of all the boys I had dated, he was the only one who really cared that I had a brain. And he was always – well, making me feel that I was better than I thought I was.

Wealthy men can’t live in an island that is encircled by poverty. We all breathe the same air. We must give a chance to everyone, at least a basic chance.

My son is becoming me – just a silly, silly prankster guy.