My mother insisted that her children read.

Children are educated by what the grown-up is and not by his talk.

My mother cooked like a scientist. She had a giant Chinese-style cleaver that she chopped with, and a cupboard full of spices.

The decline of literature indicates the decline of a nation.

If you’re in a workplace you don’t like right now, be encouraged because God will use it for your good. Think about it this way: He wants you to be a light in the darkness – and He’s putting His confidence in you!

Shakespeare didn’t work at all for me.

There’s love, and certainly children you care about more than yourself. But nevertheless, we’re alone in our heads.

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.

Any man who doesn’t love his mama can’t be no friend of mine.

Let reverence for the laws be breathed by every American mother to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap – let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in primers, spelling books, and in almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice.

My father… removed from Kentucky to… Indiana, in my eighth year… It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. There I grew up… Of course when I came of age, I did not know much. Still somehow, I could read, write, and cipher… but that was all.

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.

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 idea that there is one kind of African is, of course, ridiculous. Sometimes African entrepreneurs want to kill you because you are saying public health is the priority, not roads. Of course they are right to press for that issue, but so are we right, I believe, to argue, for example, that millions of children could and should be vaccinated.

Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn.

To describe my scarce leisure time in today’s terms, I always default to reading.

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

When I tell a child something the first time, I’m nice. The 15th time, I start to get aggravated.

A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read.

There are children playing in the streets who could solve some of my top problems in physics, because they have modes of sensory perception that I lost long ago.

I don’t know if I officially proofread my father’s book, but I read it. I did get some conception of grammar in general from that.

Too many people treat parenting like it’s the 20th item on their to-do list.

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.

If a country is to be corruption free and become a nation of beautiful minds, I strongly feel there are three key societal members who can make a difference. They are the father, the mother and the teacher.

No man should bring children into the world who is unwilling to persevere to the end in their nature and education.

When you pick up a book, everyone knows it’s imaginary. You don’t have to pretend it’s not a book. We don’t have to pretend that people don’t write books. That omniscient third-person narration isn’t the only way to do it. Once you’re writing in the first person, then the narrator is a writer.

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.

These wretched babies don’t come until they are ready.

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

When I was a child I asked my mother what homosexuality was about and she said – and this was 100 years ago in Germany and she was very open-minded – ‚It’s like hair color. It’s nothing. Some people are blond and some people have dark hair. It’s not a subject.‘ This was a very healthy attitude.

Mr. T. been to chemo, Mr. T been to radiation, hair fall out… but he’s back. Now I can give hope when I go to the hospital, see the sick kids with cancer, tell them, don’t quit.

All I know is just what I read in the papers, and that’s an alibi for my ignorance.

Children are a wonderful gift. They have an extraordinary capacity to see into the heart of things and to expose sham and humbug for what they are.

Crowded classrooms and half-day sessions are a tragic waste of our greatest national resource – the minds of our children.

I never expected any sort of success with ‚Mockingbird’… I sort of hoped someone would like it enough to give me encouragement.

One thing that writers have in common is that they are readers first. They have read lots and lots of stuff, because they’re just infested with lots of stuff.

Life guided me to being a bodyguard, protecting people, then in the movies, so I’m happy with everything because basically all I ever wanted to do was be a good son and take care of my mother.

Mum had done everything you need to educate a kid. She made me a kid who likes books and she told me about ‚Wind in the Willows‘ and read it and I thought this is weird, Rat, Mole, Toad and my first ever Bolshie thought – you know about ‚The Wind in the Willows.‘

I don’t like to beat people down. They need to be lifted up.

Perhaps the greatest social service that can be rendered by anybody to the country and to mankind is to bring up a family.

I was mischievous. I wasn’t bad. I stole food so we could eat. My mother didn’t know. I used to tell her some man gave me $10 to sweep out the yard. I was like Robin Hood. I took from the rich and gave to the poor. Me.

Get someone else to blow your horn and the sound will carry twice as far.

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.

Children have always responded to me because I have that cartoon-character look.

The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.

I have no problem yelling at anybody’s kid – free of charge!

Through the ages, many of His children have had access to the blessings of the gospel, but many more have not.

My biggest hobby is hanging out with my family and kids.

We should not teach children the sciences; but give them a taste for them.

He didn’t come out of my belly, but my God, I’ve made his bones, because I’ve attended to every meal, and how he sleeps, and the fact that he swims like a fish because I took him to the ocean. I’m so proud of all those things. But he is my biggest pride.

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

We’re African-American and we work together as a family, so people assume we’re like the Jacksons. But I didn’t have parents using me to get out of a bad situation.

The trend of opinion among eugenists is that we must make marriage more difficult. Certainly no one who is not a desirable parent should be permitted to produce progeny.

Someday I want to have children and give them all the love I never had.

Each new generation born is in effect an invasion of civilization by little barbarians, who must be civilized before it is too late.

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

I exhort you also to take part in the great combat, which is the combat of life, and greater than every other earthly conflict.

I tell my fellow reggaetoneros, keep giving it your all and bring more creativity.

My parents taught me never to judge others based on whom they love, what color their skin is, or their religion.

You will never exaggerate when you speak good things of God. It is not possible to do so. Try, dear brethren, and boast in the Lord.

Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid, one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory.