My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.

With Kansas, I had a four-year deal. The initial two months were real tough. I had to adjust a lot. Then, things started looking up.

It takes up enough of my time and interest just working on comedy. I just enjoy it and love doing it.

There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly; sometimes it’s like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges.

We’re all bombarded with so many dietary messages that it’s hard to find time to sort through all this information, but we do have time to take a look at our kids‘ plates.

Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.

The difference between us and them, between you and success, is not that you never fail, but it’s how you recover from those failures – is that you keep getting up time and time again. You figure out what you did wrong, and then you make it right. I say that to my kids every day.

I never lose sight of the fact that just being is fun.

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.

Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.

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

All my stepchildren carried the burden of my fame. Sometimes they would read terrible things about me, and I’d worry about whether it would hurt them. I would tell them: ‚Don’t hide these things from me. I’d rather you ask me these things straight out, and I’ll answer all your questions.‘

I would like to fly in space. Absolutely. That would be cool. I used to just do personally risky things, but now I’ve got kids and responsibilities, so I can’t be my own test pilot. That wouldn’t be a good idea. But I definitely want to fly as soon as it’s a sensible thing to do.

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, personally, think there is a really danger of taking food too seriously. Food should be part of the bigger picture.

I wish every American had an opportunity to sit down, to go to a base, to meet with families, to meet with service members, to sit down with our veterans – because we would think differently about our challenges as individuals.

I play piano every day. I enjoy that.

I was very worried about my mother, growing up – a lot. I do not want my children to be worried about me.

You have to be smart. The easy days are over.

I love being a dad. I just love it.

The day-to-day making of policy is arguing all the time. You’re trying to get the right approach and the right answer, and there are moments that aren’t very pleasant. But in the end, you look at the overall product.

I don’t call myself a Buddhist. I’m a free spirit. I believe I’m here on earth to admire and enjoy it; that’s my religion.

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

A lot of preachers‘ kids are some of the most rebellious kids in the world. I never was like that.

I grew up as this very carefree, happy kid then things turned darker for me. Maybe it was because I saw that the world wasn’t as happy a place as I had hoped it would be for me.

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

If you look at space companies, they’ve failed either because they’ve had a technical solution where success was not a possible outcome, they were unable to attract a critical mass of talent, or they just ran out of money. The finish line is usually a lot further away than you think.

We live in ugly times.

I remember thinking quite logically that I didn’t want to spoil my children with wealth and so that I would create a foundation, but not knowing exactly what it would focus on.

I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity.

To rule children by force is the technique of Satan, not of the Savior.

The problems of victory are more agreeable than those of defeat, but they are no less difficult.

Mothers all want their sons to grow up to be president, but they don’t want them to become politicians in the process.

There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.

The problem with EMMA is that it is cost prohibitive for the small investors who were supposed to benefit from the new transparency.

We can’t form our children on our own concepts; we must take them and love them as God gives them to us.

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

It takes three to make a child.

The only time my records are going to be broken is by my own spawn. I’m going be training that child out the womb.

Generosity is nothing else than a craze to possess. All which I abandon, all which I give, I enjoy in a higher manner through the fact that I give it away. To give is to enjoy possessively the object which one gives.

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

My husband’s a pediatrician, so he and I talk about parenting all the time. You can’t raise children who have more shame resilience than you do.

Fun is good.

There are a lot of inaccuracies out there when it comes to the SEAL training process. You will see guys carrying logs around on television. They think that the hardest part about being on a SEAL team is getting through that training. The fact of the matter is, if you have a good attitude, that training is fun. I had a blast.

Old age may have its limitations and challenges, but in spite of them, our latter years can be some of the most rewarding and fulfilling of our lives.

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

Beauty deprived of its proper foils and adjuncts ceases to be enjoyed as beauty, just as light deprived of all shadows ceases to be enjoyed as light.

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 never had a mother. I suppose a mother is one to whom you hurry when you are troubled.

The loss of a child is my greatest nightmare.

He that will enjoy the brightness of sunshine, must quit the coolness of the shade.

If you want someone to say, ‚She’s so sweet, and she’s so cute, and, honey, point your foot,‘ that’s not my school. You can go to the YMCA and have a nobody teach your kid if that’s what you want to hear.

When I take my kid to school, all the parents stop and stare.

You’ll never find a better sparring partner than adversity.

The best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.

See, people are watching you. Especially your children. They’re taking in every single thing you do. They are like video cameras with legs. And they are always in the record mode. They learn more from what you do than from what you say.

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.

When I started my last business, I didn’t receive a paycheck for 13 months. The average person can’t handle that pressure.

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

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

Speed provides the one genuinely modern pleasure.