C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917.
Parents
Does not nature for the child prepare the parent’s love, the tender nurse’s care?
Next to God, thy parents.
Honor thy parents to prolong thy end.
A suspicious parent makes an artful child.
In general those parents have the most reverence who most deserve it; for he that lives well cannot be despised.
There is no friendship, no love, like that of the parent for the child.
Parents must give good example and reverent deportment in the face of their children.
Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
How pleasant it is for a father to sit at his child’s board. It is like the aged man reclining under the shadow of the oak which he has planted.
In love to our wives there is desire, to our sons there is ambition; but in that to our daughters there is something which there are no words to express.
The most indifferent thing has its force and beauty when it is spoken by a kind father, and an insignificant trifle has its weight when offered by a dutiful child.
I suppose that every parent loves his child; but I know without any supposing, that in a large number of homes the love is hidden behind authority, or its expression is crowded out by daily duties and cares.
The voice of parents is the voice of gods, for to their children they are heaven’s lieutenants.
It is the most beautiful object the eyes of man can behold to see a man of worth and his son live in an entire, unreserved correspondence.
Some corrupt in their morals as vice could make them, have yet been solicitous to have their children soberly, virtuously, and piously brought up.
The sacred books of the ancient Persians say: “If you would be holy instruct your children, because all the good acts they perform will be imputed to you.”
Of all hardness of heart there is none so inexcusable as that of parents toward their children. An obstinate, inflexible, unforgiving temper is odious upon all occasions; but here it is unnatural.
Children, honor your parents in your hearts; bear them not only awe and respect, but kindness and affection: love their persons, fear to do anything that may justly provoke them; highly esteem them as the instruments under God of your being: for “Ye shall fear every man his mother and his father.”
The joys of parents are secret, and so are their griefs and fears; they cannot utter the one, nor they will not utter the other. Children sweeten labors, but they make misfortunes more bitter; increase the cares of life, but they mitigate the remembrance of death.
Parents must give good example and reverent deportment in the face of their children. And all those instances of charity which usually endear each other—sweetness of conversation, affability, frequent admonition—all signification of love and tenderness, care and watchfulness, must be expressed towards children; that they may look upon their parents as their friends and patrons, their defence and sanctuary, their treasure and their guide.