Parent quotes
3.9K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Browse quotes that often appear alongside parent — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"When we consider how much climate contributes to the happiness of our condition, by the fine sensation it excites, and the productions it is the parent of, we have reason to value highly the accident of birth in such a one as that of Virginia."
"I've never been to a shrink. But my parents were very psychologically literate - my father had undergone Freudian analysis - and we often talked about other people in psychological terms, so I picked up a lot of that."
"I swore that I wouldn't be one of those parents who leaves a Bugaboo pram parked in the communal entry hall. Well guess what, ours is there right now."
"I never questioned I would have any trouble doing what I wanted to do. I'm not talking about getting to a certain position - or to success. It was just that I knew I wanted to act, and that I would make my living that way. Having the unconditional support of your parents is really freeing."
"I love women. I actually prefer girls, as a parent, because they disappoint at a different age. They go through that, "Dad's an idiot," which lasted a little longer than I'd like."
"It's not the cost (although that pinches), or the time (though that grinds). After a while, it's the sheer galling indignity of being asked to prove, pay, and prove all over again that you're a worthy parent. Any true parent will tell you that that is impossible to prove in advance."
"My parents won’t let me have a motorcycle, but they give me all the guns I want. I asked them for a motorcycle last Christmas and they told me I’d only kill myself. They got me this twelve-gauge instead."
"Parents are the most likely to be victims of the violence of their mentally ill children."
"Good and evil are not what our parents told us, not what our church tells us, or our country, not what anybody else tells us! All of us decide good and evil for ourselves, automatically, by choosing what we want to do!"
"I thought when I... made my first big mistakes in public that that was really going to be the end of me. My parents cried. My friends were desperate."
"My parents were my worst audience."
"I went home and they seemed... my parents seemed normal. They didn't seem to feel like somehow they had been victims of some Nazi camp or something."
"Not even my parents know how I vote."
"My brother is the lead singer of The Torn, and my parents are in a country duo."
"No matter how sheltered [my students] are, no matter how their parents try to do right by them, every single one of them, you know, every single one of us, that's what we all face. And so it's made me - that's the one change I've marked in myself - it's made me change in the way I relate to my students. I've become a different teacher in that way."
"I'm probably the only kid in history whose parents made him stop taking music lessons. They made me stop studying the accordion."
"Never underestimate the power of self-absorption, including your parents' self-absorption."
"If our parents fixed everything for us and did not allow us to do anything on our own, or intervened every single time, we would all grow up to be completely dependent."
"Like a good parent can't also be his child's best friend, a leader with authority requires some separation from subordinates."
"I lost my dad when I was younger, and I know what its like to lose a beloved parent."
