The unjustifiable severity of a parent is loaded with this aggravation, that those whom he injures are always in his sight.

You’re never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child.

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.

By gnawing through a dike, even a rat may drown a nation.

The ‚Billionaire‘ song is what my kids tease me with. They sing it to me. It’s funny.

You teach your daughters the diameters of the planets and wonder when you are done that they do not delight in your company.

In each action we must look beyond the action at our past, present, and future state, and at others whom it affects, and see the relations of all those things. And then we shall be very cautious.

My next baby will be my new record.

As a mom, I know it is my responsibility, and no one else’s, to raise my kids. But we have to ask ourselves, what does it mean when so many parents are finding their best efforts undermined by an avalanche of advertisements aimed at our kids.

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.

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

I’ve worked with children all my life.

The loss of a child is my greatest nightmare.

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

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.

I had one incident where my daughter said that a girl asked if she was a brown person. I said, ‚We’re black. You have black people, white people, Chinese people, Hispanic people; we’re all brought up differently.‘

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

I’ve always put everybody else’s child first before my own health, before my own outfit, before my own time frame.

Being a housewife and a mother is the biggest job in the world, but if it doesn’t interest you, don’t do it – I would have made a terrible mother.

Hell isn’t merely paved with good intentions; it’s walled and roofed with them. Yes, and furnished too.

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

Don’t judge other people. For example, if you want God’s anointing to be on you for parenting, you need to be careful not to criticize other parents.

With every word we utter, with every action we take, we know our kids are watching us. We as parents are their most important role models.

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?‘

I mean, I look at my dad. He was twenty when he started having a family, and he was always the coolest dad. He did everything for his kids, and he never made us feel like he was pressured. I know that it must be a great feeling to be a guy like that.

Plumbers can be masters, the guy who did my patio is a master, some people are masters at raising really great children.

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

In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.

When you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that is in itself a choice.

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.

To suffer the penalty of too much haste, which is too little speed.

Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.

Leaders are responsible not for running public opinion polls but for the consequences of their actions.

Since the world has existed, there has been injustice. But it is one world, the more so as it becomes smaller, more accessible. There is just no question that there is more obligation that those who have should give to those who have nothing.

There’s no political point worth my son’s life.

Clearly this is a tough economic time, and a lot of families are hurting. So when we talk to parents, we talk about small changes for kids and things that don’t cost extra money. Like adding water and eliminating sugary drinks and sodas. That’s going to save money right there. Or adding a few more vegetables.

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

The effect of liberty to individuals is that they may do what they please: we ought to see what it will please them to do, before we risk congratulations.

As the eagle was killed by the arrow winged with his own feather, so the hand of the world is wounded by its own skill.

Men ought either to be indulged or utterly destroyed, for if you merely offend them they take vengeance, but if you injure them greatly they are unable to retaliate, so that the injury done to a man ought to be such that vengeance cannot be feared.

The kids are old enough now – I just want to let them be kids. I don’t want to comment on them too much. They’re at an age where I just want to let them be kids.

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

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.

It is true we have won all our wars, but we have paid for them. We don’t want victories anymore.

Kids will remind you that, even though you’ve gone down a road 100 times, it’s brand new for them – and that’s healthy.

To be a successful father… there’s one absolute rule: when you have a kid, don’t look at it for the first two years.

A weak man is just by accident. A strong but non-violent man is unjust by accident.

The excessive increase of anything causes a reaction in the opposite direction.

Whether you call it Buddhism or another religion, self-discipline, that’s important. Self-discipline with awareness of consequences.

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.

I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.

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

Don’t create more enemies than you take out by some immoral act.

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.

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

People are unaware of what is going on. When I talk to people, they know the basics, they know the planet is warming because of greenhouse gases… but they don’t know the actual consequence of that.

Resistance is feasible even for those who are not heroes by nature, and it is an obligation, I believe, for those who fear the consequences and detest the reality of the attempt to impose American hegemony.

One thing I have learned in my painful career as a gambler is that bragging when you get lucky and win a few games will plunge you into gloom and unacceptable beatings very soon. It happens every time.

The childcare tax credit makes some sense.

Ultimately this issue is on us. We’re the ones who make the decisions about what our kids eat.

When death, the great reconciler, has come, it is never our tenderness that we repent of, but our severity.