Heredity: An omnibus in which all our ancestors ride, and every now and then one of them puts his head out and embarrasses us.

The great virtue of parents is a great dowry.

I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage, with my books, my family and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon, and letting the world roll on as it liked, than to occupy the most splendid post which any human power can give.

A family’s photograph album is generally about the extended family, and, often, is all that remains of it.

It is not only paying wages, and giving commands, that constitute a master of a family; but prudence, equal behavior, with a readiness to protect and cherish them, is what entitles man to that character in their very hearts and sentiments.

To be a parent without an assistant is hard work.

Some people seem compelled by unkind fate to parental servitude for life. There is no form of penal service worse than this.

Other things may change us, but we start and end with the family.

All humanity is one undivided and indivisible family, and each one of us is responsible for the misdeeds of all the others. I cannot detach myself from the wickedest soul.

It is only shallow-minded pretenders who either make distinguished origin a matter of personal merit, or obscure origin a matter of personal reproach.