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81a9dc7 Happiness [is] only real when shared marriage family happiness love inspirational Jon Krakauer
5a57562 "One can never have enough socks," said Dumbledore. "Another Christmas has come and gone and I didn't get a single pair. People will insist on giving me books." family christmas deathly-hallows socks joke desire J.K. Rowling
ec4f93e Youth can not know how age thinks and feels. But old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young. family J.K. Rowling
6451914 All parents damage their children. It cannot be helped. Youth, like pristine glass, absorbs the prints of its handlers. Some parents smudge, others crack, a few shatter childhoods completely into jagged little pieces, beyond repair. family life inspirational parents Mitch Albom
d2d18c0 I may not always be with yo relationships poetry family friendship love inspirational Marc Wambolt
d13fbeb I don't care about whose DNA has recombined with whose. When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching--they are your family. friends family friendship Jim Butcher
4ab1788 Nothing like watching your relatives fight, I always say. family relatives percy-jackson fight Rick Riordan
aae8c5d I sustain myself with the love of family. family inspirational Maya Angelou
63ff326 You can measure the happiness of a marriage by the number of scars that each partner carries on their tongues, earned from years of biting back angry words. marriage relationships family Elizabeth Gilbert
61bc3c7 A dog reflects the family life. Whoever saw a frisky dog in a gloomy family, or a sad dog in a happy one? Snarling people have snarling dogs, dangerous people have dangerous ones. dogs family families family-life pets Arthur Conan Doyle
5136c1f Legion, cuneum formate!' Reyna yelled. 'Advance!' Another cheer on Jason's right as Percy and Annabeth reunited with the forces of Camp Half-Blood. 'Greeks!' Percy yelled. 'Let's, um, fight stuff!' They yelled like banshees and charged. Jason grinned. He loved the Greeks. They had no organization whatsoever, but they made up for it with enthusiasm. war family home reyna percy-jackson jason-grace Rick Riordan
936b247 To lose a brother is to lose someone with whom you can share the experience of growing old, who is supposed to bring you a sister-in-law and nieces and nephews, creatures who people the tree of your life and give it new branches. To lose your father is to lose the one whose guidance and help you seek, who supports you like a tree trunk supports its branches. To lose your mother, well, that is like losing the sun above you. It is like losing--I'm sorry, I would rather not go on. family philosophy Yann Martel
b4000aa The real loneliness is living among all these kind people who only ask one to pretend! loneliness kindness friends family insincerity pretense Edith Wharton
2b3e9f4 Those whom we most love are often the most alien to us. family love Christopher Paolini
c0e43d0 I hadn't been in proper school in three years. My parents were my two best friends. My third best friend was an author who did not know I existed. family friendship John Green
78a0650 Have you ever noticed how parents can go from the most wonderful people in the world to totally embarrassing in three seconds? relationships family parents Rick Riordan
8332b30 "I'll be your family now," he says. "I love you," I say. (....) He stares at me. I wait with my hands clutching his arms for stability as he considers his response. He frowns at me. "Say it again." "Tobias," I say, "I love you." family love tobias-and-tris insurgent tobias-eaton four veronica-roth Veronica Roth
01ea03f "She was a very pretty woman. She had dark red hair and her eyes -- her eyes are just like mine, Harry thought, edging a little closer to the glass. Bright green -- exactly the same shape, but then he noticed that she was crying; smiling, but crying at the same time. The tall, thin, black-haired man standing next to her put his arm around her. He wore glasses, and his hair was very untidy. It stuck up at the back, just like Harry's did. Harry was so close to the mirror now that his nose was nearly touching that of his reflection. "Mum?" he whispered. "Dad?" They just looked at him, smiling. And slowly, Harry looked into the faces of the other people in the mirror and saw other pairs of green eyes like his, other noses like his, even a little old man who looked as though he had Harry's knobbly knees -- Harry was looking at his family, for the first time in his life. The Potters smiled and waved at Harry and he stared hungrily back at them, his hands pressed flat against the glass as though he was hoping to fall right through it and reach them. He had a powerful kind of ache inside of him, half joy, half terrible sadness." family wistfulness sad J.K. Rowling
63548f6 Lunatics are similar to designated hitters. Often an entire family is crazy, but since an entire family can't go into the hospital, one person is designated as crazy and goes inside. Then, depending on how the rest of the family is feeling that person is kept inside or snatched out, to prove something about the family's mental health. family mental-health Susanna Kaysen
42e3de8 "Percy says be talked to a Nereid in Charleston Harbor!" "Good for him!" Leo yelled back. "The Nereid said we should seek help from Chiron's brothers." "What does that mean? The Party Ponies?" Leo had never met Chiron's crazy centaur relatives, but he'd heard rumors of Nerf sword-fights, root beer-chugging contests, and Super Soakers filled with pressurized whipped cream. "Not sure," Annabeth said. "But I've got coordinates. Can you input latitude and longitude in this thing?" "I can input star charts and order you a smoothie, if you want. Of I can do latitude and longitude!" family humor nereids party-ponies chiron heroes-of-olympus percy-jackson percy-jackson-and-the-olympians the-mark-of-athena leo-valdez Rick Riordan
0b6dc2e "I'm nobody's sidekick," Annabeth growled. "And, Percy, his accent sounds familiar because he sounds like his mother. We killed her in New Jersey." Percy frowned. "I'm pretty sure that accent isn't New Jersey. Who's his--? Oh." It all fell into place. Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium--the lair of Medusa. She'd talked with that same accent, at least until Percy had cut off her head. " is your mom?" he asked. "Dude, that sucks for you." family humor annabeth-chase medusa new-jersey percy-jackson percy-jackson-and-the-olympians the-mark-of-athena the-heroes-of-olympus Rick Riordan
c62b710 Heaven is comfort, but it's still not living. rape murder family inspirational haunting imaginative personal-growth Alice Sebold
494940f My mother used to tell me that when push comes to shove, you always know who to turn to. That being a family isn't a social construct but an instinct. family love Jodi Picoult
23c5f4a I will see you again,' Hades promised. 'I will prepare a room for you at the palace in case you do not survive. Perhaps your chambers would look good decorated with the skulls of monks.' 'Now I can't tell if you're joking.' Hades's eyes glittered as his form began to fade. 'Then perhaps we are alike in some important ways.' The god vanished. family hades son nico-di-angelo father Rick Riordan
c947be8 He knew Alec enough by now to know the conflicting impulses that warred in him. He was conscientious, the kind of person who believed that the others around him were so much more important than he was, who already believed he was letting everybody down. And he was honest, the kind of person that was naturally open about all he felt and wanted. Alec's virtues had made a trap for him; these two good qualities had collided painfully. He felt he could not be honest without disappointing everyone he loved. It was a hideous conundrum for him. It was as if the world had been designed to make him unhappy. family life love alexander-lightwood shadowhunter malec magnus-bane infernal-devices mortal-instruments cassandra-clare Cassandra Clare
c3a4bfb I once spoke to someone who had survived the genocide in Rwanda, and she said to me that there was now nobody left on the face of the earth, either friend or relative, . No one who remembered her girlhood and her early mischief and family lore; no sibling or boon companion who could tease her about that first romance; no lover or pal with whom to reminisce. All her birthdays, exam results, illnesses, friendships, kinships--gone. She went on living, but with a as her diary and calendar and notebook. I think of this every time I hear of the callow ambition to 'make a new start' or to be 'born again': Do those who talk this way truly wish for the slate to be wiped? Genocide means not just mass killing, to the level of extermination, but mass obliteration to the verge of extinction. You wish to have one more reflection on what it is to have been made the object of a 'clean' sweep? Try Vladimir Nabokov's microcosmic miniature story 'Signs and Symbols,' which is about angst and misery in general but also succeeds in placing it in what might be termed a starkly individual perspective. The album of the distraught family contains a faded study of Aunt Rosa, a fussy, angular, wild-eyed old lady, who had lived in a tremulous world of bad news, bankruptcies, train accidents, cancerous growths--until the Germans put her to death, together with all the people she had worried about. family anonymity born-again clean-slate nabokov signs-and-symbols extinction nazis genocide rwanda rwandan-genocide germans misery short-stories survivors Christopher Hitchens
72fd88d People aren't born good or bad. Maybe they're born with tendencies either way, but it's the way you live your life that matters. And the people you know. Valentine was Hodge's friend, and I don't think Hodge really had anyone else in his life to challenge him or make him be a better person. If I'd had that life, I don't know how I would have turned out. But I didn't. I have my family. And I have you. family friendship inspirational simon-lewis Cassandra Clare
ed61b78 Maybe it's just a daughter's job to piss off her mother. family mother Chuck Palahniuk
1e887c0 A brother is like gold and a friend is like diamond. If gold cracks you can melt it and make it just like it was before. If a diamond cracks, it can never be like it was before. family inspirational Ali Ibn Abi Talib A.S
3a1af91 Don't you dare take the lazy way. It's too easy to excuse yourself because of your ancestry. Don't let me catch you doing it! Now -- look close at me so you will remember. Whatever you do, it will be you who do. excuses family John Steinbeck
bb4295d "Hagrid, look what I've got for relatives!" Harry said furiously. "Look at the Dursleys!" "An excellent point," said Professor Dumbledore. "My own brother, Aberforth, was prosecuted for practicing inappropriate charms on a goat. It was all over the papers, but did Aberforth hide? No, he did not! He held his head high and went about his business as usual! Of course, I'm not entirely sure he can read, so that may not have been bravery. . . ." family hagrid dursley dumbledore relatives J.K. Rowling
89af7b6 Mother is a verb. It's something you do. Not just who you are. family inspirational parenting Cheryl Lacey Donovan
c09a0ab "I don't know," Mark said, looking down at his own long pale fingers tangled in the little boy's brown curls. "He just - Julian left, and Tavvy fell asleep on my lap." He sounded amazed, wondering. "Of course he did," Cristina said. "He's your brother. He trusts you." "Nobody trusts a Hunter," Mark said." trust family octavian-blackthorn mark-blackthorn innocence Cassandra Clare
4e9f543 The shared meal elevates eating from a mechanical process of fueling the body to a ritual of family and community, from the mere animal biology to an act of culture. family meal food Michael Pollan
f4c6b43 "What do you think it would have been like if Valentine had brought you up along with me? Would you have loved me?" Clary was very glad she had put her cup down, because if she hadn't, she would have dropped it. Sebastian was looking at her not with any shyness or the sort of natural awkwardness that might be attendant on such a bizarre question, but as if she were a curious, foreign life-form. "Well," she said. "You're my brother. I would have loved you. I would have...had to." family love jonathan Cassandra Clare
d3cf3f4 "What can we do?" Mom asked again. I shrugged. But she kept asking, as if there were something she could do, until I just kind of crawled across the couch into her lap and my dad came over and held my legs really tight and I wrapped my arms all the way around my mom's middle and they held on to me for hours while the tide rolled in." family sadness hazel John Green
b6098d0 The fact is, there is no foundation, no secure ground, upon which people may stand today if it isn't the family. If you don't have the support and love and caring and concern that you get from a family, you don't have much at all. Love is so supremely important. As our great poet Auden said, 'Love each other or perish'. family life love truth concern support fact Mitch Albom
678e0c0 He said you were the only one who was bitter about S.'s suicide and the only one who really forgave him for it. The rest of us, he said, were outwardly unbitter and inwardly unforgiving. suicide family death forgiveness J.D. Salinger
61591ab she wasn't very interesting but few people are. poem poetry people women humanity family death life love bukowski interesting conversation society Charles Bukowski
33ba8e1 "And then it occurs to me. They are frightened. In me, they see their own daughters, just as ignorant, just as unmindful of all the truths and hopes they have brought to America. They see daughters who grow impatient when their mothers talk in Chinese, who think they are stupid when they explain things in fractured English. They see that joy and luck do not mean the same to their daughters, that to these closed American-born minds "joy luck" is not a word, it does not exist. They see daughters who will bear grandchildren born without any connecting hope passed from generation to generation." women joy fear family hope concepts daughters heritage mothers immigration language perception ideas tradition luck Amy Tan
eaa091b "Will is... difficult," Jem said. "But family is difficult. If I didn't think the Institute was the best place for you, Tessa, I wouldn't say it was. And one can build one's own family. I know you feel inhuman, and as if you were set apart, away from life and love, but..." His voice cracked a little, the first time Tessa had heard him sound unsure. He cleared his throat. "I promise you, the right man won't care." family love jem-carstairs Cassandra Clare
60188d1 I love hearing my relations abused. It is the only thing that makes me put up with them at all. Relations are simply a tedious pack of people, who haven't got the remotest knowledge of how to live nor the smallest instinct about when to die. family humor Oscar Wilde
825b6d7 Babies need not to be taught a trade, but to be introduced to a world. To put the matter shortly, woman is generally shut up in a house with a human being at the time when he asks all the questions that there are, and some that there aren't. It would be odd if she retained any of the narrowness of a specialist. Now if anyone says that this duty of general enlightenment (even when freed from modern rules and hours, and exercised more spontaneously by a more protected person) is in itself too exacting and oppressive, I can understand the view. I can only answer that our race has thought it worth while to cast this burden on women in order to keep common-sense in the world. But when people begin to talk about this domestic duty as not merely difficult but trivial and dreary, I simply give up the question. For I cannot with the utmost energy of imagination conceive what they mean. When domesticity, for instance, is called drudgery, all the difficulty arises from a double meaning in the word. If drudgery only means dreadfully hard work, I admit the woman drudges in the home, as a man might drudge at the Cathedral of Amiens or drudge behind a gun at Trafalgar. But if it means that the hard work is more heavy because it is trifling, colorless and of small import to the soul, then as I say, I give it up; I do not know what the words mean. To be Queen Elizabeth within a definite area, deciding sales, banquets, labors and holidays; to be Whiteley within a certain area, providing toys, boots, sheets, cakes. and books, to be Aristotle within a certain area, teaching morals, manners, theology, and hygiene; I can understand how this might exhaust the mind, but I cannot imagine how it could narrow it. How can it be a large career to tell other people's children about the Rule of Three, and a small career to tell one's own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone? No; a woman's function is laborious, but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute. I will pity Mrs. Jones for the hugeness of her task; I will never pity her for its smallness. motherhood women family family-life catholicism womanhood mother women-s-strength G.K. Chesterton
588cfa1 "It sounded old. Old and tired and beaten to death. Deserve. Now it seemed to him that he was always saying or thinking that he didn't deserve some bad luck, or some bad treatment from others. He'd told Guitar that he didn't "deserve" his family's dependence, hatred, or whatever. That he didn't even "deserve" to hear all the misery and mutual accusations his parents unloaded on him. Nor did he "deserve" Hagar's vengeance. But why shouldn't his parents tell him their personal problems? If not him, then who? And if a stranger could try to kill him, surely Hagar, who knew him and whom he'd thrown away like a wad of chewing gum after the flavor was gone--she had a right to try to kill him too. Apparently he though he deserved only to be loved--from a distance, though--and given what he wanted. And in return he would be...what? Pleasant? Generous? Maybe all he was really saying was: I am not responsible for your pain; share your happiness with me but not your unhappiness." pain responsibility sorrow family happiness deserve maturity Toni Morrison
3d98343 ...; Clary saw the group of lycanthropes look up, alert as a group of hunting dogs senting game. She turned- And saw Luke, tired and bloodstained, coming through the double doors of the Hall. She ran toward him. Forgetting how upset she'd been when he'd left, and forgetting how angry he'd been with her for bringing them here, forgetting everything but how glad she was to see him. He looked surprised for a moment as she barreled toward him- then he smiled, and put his arms out, and picked her up as he hugged her, the way he'd done when she'd been very small. He smelled like blood and flannel and smoke, and for a moment she closed her eyes, thinking of the way Alec had grabbed onto Jace the moment he'd seen him in the Hall, because that was what you did with family when you'd been worried about them, you grabbed them and held on to them and told them how much they'd pissed you off, and it was okay, becaused no matter how angry you got, they still belonged to you. And what she had said to Valentine was true. Luke was her family. family valentine mortal-instruments Cassandra Clare
de621bb "Yet even in the loneliness of the canyon I knew there were others like me who had brothers they did not understand but wanted to help. We are probably those referred to as "our brother's keepers," possessed of one of the oldest and possible one of the most futile and certainly one of the most haunting instincts. It will not let us go." relationships people family philosophy Norman Maclean
14972ea "When your mama was the geek, my dreamlets," Papa would say, "she made the nipping off of noggins such a crystal mystery that the hens themselves yearned toward her, waltzing around her, hypnotized with longing." family freaks chicken first-sentence Katherine Dunn
dd2d75c "Are you ashamed of what I've done?" she dared to ask. His brow creased. "Why would you ever think that?" She couldn't quite look him in the eye as she ran a finger down the blanket. "Are you?" Aedion was silent long enough that she lifted her head - but found him gazing toward the door, as though he could see through it, across the city, to the captain. When he turned to her, his handsome face was open - soft in a way she doubted many ever saw. "Never," he said. "I could never be ashamed of you." family friendship love throne-of-glass aelin-ashryver-galathynius queen-of-shadows Sarah J. Maas
e88761e Except for cases that clearly involve a homicidal maniac, the police like to believe murders are committed by those we know and love, and most of the time they're right - a chilling thought when you sit down to dinner with a family of five. All those potential killers passing their plates. murder family chilling dinner Sue Grafton
48abed4 A family can be the bane of one's existence. A family can also be most of the meaning of one's existence. I don't know whether my family is bane or meaning, but they have surely gone away and left a large hole in my heart. relationships family Keri Hulme
6200f55 ...he prayed fundamentally as a gesture of love for what had gone and would go and could be loved in no other way. When he prayed he touched his parents, who could not otherwise be touched, and he touched a feeling that we are all children who lose our parents, all of us, every man and woman and boy and girl, and we too will all be lost by those who come after us and love us, and this loss unites humanity, unites every human being, the temporary nature of our being-ness, and our shared sorrow, the heartache we each carry and yet too often refuse to acknowledge in one another, and out of this Saeed felt it might be possible, in the face of death, to believe in humanity's potential for building a better world, so he prayed as a lament, as a consolation, and as a hope.... mourning grief loss relationships prayer family exit-west mohsin-hamid Mohsin Hamid
f37408f I don't feel the need to explain my actions to her. I don't clarify, I don't doubt, I don't worry. I don't tell her everything, not anymore, but I tell her more than anyone else, by far. I tell her as much as I can. family-relationships trust family love sibling-bond sibling-relationships unconditional-love sister brothers siblings family-love twins sisters loyalty Gillian Flynn
8286b9d Nico didn't like to be touched, but somehow this brief contact with his father felt reassuring - the same way the Chapel of Bones was reassuring. Like death, his father's presence was cold and often callous, but it was real - brutally honest, inescapably dependable. reassurance family impending-doom foreboding hades nico-di-angelo Rick Riordan
8b3a776 I do not concern myself with my inability to feel such comfort amidst humans (other than with very few friends and family), but, rather, am simply thankful that at least dogs exist, and I'm humbly aware of how much less a person I'd be - how less a human - if they did not exist. friends family exist Rick Bass
f798659 There is no experience like having children.' That's all. There is no substitute for it. You cannot do it with a friend. You cannot do it with a lover. If you want the experience of having complete responsibility for another human being, and to learn how to love and bond in the deepest way, then you should have children. having-children responsibility family life love truth experience children Mitch Albom
03b297a It never takes longer than a few minutes, when they get together, for everyone to revert to the state of nature, like a party marooned by a shipwreck. That's what a family is. Also the storm at sea, the ship, and the unknown shore. And the hats and the whiskey stills that you make out of bamboo and coconuts. And the fire that you light to keep away the beasts. family thanksgiving Michael Chabon
f3d2963 (You do not have to be shamed in my closeness. Family are the people who must never make you feel ashamed.) (You are wrong. Family are the people who must make you feel ashamed when you are deserving of shame.) (And you are deserving of shame?) (I am. I am trying to tell you.) 'We were stupid,' he said, 'because we believed in things.' 'Why is this stupid?' 'Because there are not things to believe in.' (Love?) (There is no love. Only the end of love.) (Goodness?) (Do not be a fool.) (God?) (If God exists, He is not to be believed in.) family god love shame Jonathan Safran Foer
a77ab7e ...my father, [was] a mid-level phonecompany manager who treated my mother at best like an incompetent employee. At worst? He never beat her, but his pure, inarticulate fury would fill the house for days, weeks, at a time, making the air humid, hard to breathe, my father stalking around with his lower jaw jutting out, giving him the look of a wounded, vengeful boxer, grinding his teeth so loud you could hear it across the room ... I'm sure he told himself: 'I never hit her'. I'm sure because of this technicality he never saw himself as an abuser. But he turned our family life into an endless road trip with bad directions and a rage-clenched driver, a vacation that never got a chance to be fun. rage silence family heartbreak love abusive-parents mental-abuse abusive broken-home heartbroken love-lost fights divorce childhood-memories malice emotional-abuse anger communication fighting parents parents-and-children mother fury fight father childhood terror parenthood scared sexism Gillian Flynn
1a8ca9d Clearly God was in some kind of mood on my birthday. family death sadness jodi-picoult my-sister-s-keeper leukemia cancer kate jesse Jodi Picoult
b2e3434 There are some things in life that shouldn't be given so much importance, if they don't change what is essential. r passion family love food Laura Esquivel
3793d90 [T]he family is a school of compassion because it is here that we learn to live with other people. (68) humanity living family life Karen Armstrong
2cedf0d The world is crazy. You need a license to drive a car and go fishing. You don't need a license to start a family. Two people have sex and BAM! Perfectly innocent kid is born whose life will be screwed up by her parents forever. family love the-impossible-knife-of-memory laurie-halse-anderson Laurie Halse Anderson
9e9159f Nately had a bad start. He came from a good family. nately good family Joseph Heller
88a7570 For as long as I can remember, my father saved. He saves money, he saves disfigured sticks that resemble disfigured celebrities, and most of all, he saves food. Cherry tomatoes, sausage biscuits, the olives plucked from other people's martinis --he hides these things in strange places until they are rotten. And then he eats them. family packrat strangeness food David Sedaris
b48d10f They'd been forged of the same ore, two sides of the same golden, scarred coin. She'd know it when she spied him atop the execution plataform. She couldn't explain it. No one could understand that instant bond, that soul-deep assurance and rightness, unless they, too, had experienced it. But she owned no explanations to anyone - not about Aedion. family love the-ashryver-cousins aelin-ashryver-galathynius bond Sarah J. Maas
cd04187 This last year... I learned something about family. Like it's not about blood alone. It's being connected... it's growing up together and loving each other. It's believing in the same God and knowing you'd do anything for the person across from you at dinner. family love inspirational Karen Kingsbury
d61d23b The first time someone I loved left me behind...I didn't know how my family would balance. We had been such a sturdy little end table, four solid legs. I was sure we would now be off-kilter, always unstable. Until one day I looked more closely, and realized that we had simply become a stool. relationships family Jodi Picoult
e85b179 Perhaps family itself, like beauty, is temporary, and no discredit need attach to impermanence. family impermanence Gregory Maguire
fb1116a Having Aelin help him the first time had been awkward enough that he couldn't even go until she started singing a bawdy tune at the top of her lungs and turned on the sink faucet, all the while helping him stand over the toilet. family two-side-of-the-same-coin the-ashryver-cousins aelin-ashryver-galathynius Sarah J. Maas
904b627 [I]n Africa I was a member of a family--of a sort of family that the people of your culture haven't known for thousands of years. If gorillas were capable of such an expression, they would tell you that their family is like a hand, of which they are the fingers. They are fully aware of being a family but are very little aware of being individuals. Here in the zoo there were other gorillas--but there was no family. Five severed fingers do not make a hand. family philosophy community Daniel Quinn
48ce90d "Blood is thicker than water," The young man said As he knifed his friend For a drooling old bitch And a house full of lies." murder family friendship blood-is-thicker-than-water Ernest Hemingway
1edea85 "I was also sick of my neighbors, as most Parisians are. I now knew every second of the morning routine of the family upstairs. At 7:00 am alarm goes off, boom, Madame gets out of bed, puts on her deep-sea divers' boots, and stomps across my ceiling to megaphone the kids awake. The kids drop bags of cannonballs onto the floor, then, apparently dragging several sledgehammers each, stampede into the kitchen. They grab their chunks of baguette and go and sit in front of the TV, which is always showing a cartoon about people who do nothing but scream at each other and explode. Every minute, one of the kids cartwheels (while bouncing cannonballs) back into the kitchen for seconds, then returns (bringing with it a family of excitable kangaroos) to the TV. Meanwhile the toilet is flushed, on average, fifty times per drop of urine expelled. Finally, there is a ten-minute period of intensive yelling, and at 8:15 on the dot they all howl and crash their way out of the apartment to school." (p.137)" kids family cannonball cartoon cartwheel ceiling deep-sea-divers-boots kangaroo madame megaphone sledgehammers stampede floor urine yelling neighbors tv bed routine morning toilet kitchen parisians school Stephen Clarke
20e0ea0 "We went our several ways," said Lady Dedlock, "and had little in common even before we agreed to differ. It is to be regretted, I suppose, but it could not be helped." family differ estranged sisters Charles Dickens
bc47ba8 When Nico had woken up at Barrachina and found the Hunters' note about kidnapping Reyna, he'd torn apart the courtyard in rage. He didn't want the Hunters stealing another important person from him. Fortunately, he'd got Reyna back, but he didn't like how brooding she had become. Every time he tried to ask her about the incident on the Calle San Jose - those ghosts on the balcony, all staring at her, whispering accusations - Reyna shut him down. family friendship love Rick Riordan
dbb92a8 Since that night I have come to understand that sometimes the best families of all are those we create ourselves, the people we choose to be with. family families Silas House
5f933ee "Instructions for Dad. I don't want to go into a fridge at an undertaker's. I want you to keep me at home until the funeral. Please can someone sit with me in case I got lonely? I promise not to scare you. I want to be buried in my butterfly dress, my lilac bra and knicker set and my black zip boots (all still in the suitcase that I packed for Sicily). I also want to wear the bracelet Adam gave me. Don't put make-up on me. It looks stupid on dead people. I do NOT want to be cremated. Cremations pollute the atmosphere with dioxins,k hydrochloric acid, hydrofluoric acid, sulphur dioxide and carbon dioxide. They also have those spooky curtains in crematoriums. I want a biodegradable willow coffin and a woodland burial. The people at the Natural Death Centre helped me pick a site not for from where we live, and they'll help you with all the arrangements. I want a native tree planted on or near my grave. I'd like an oak, but I don't mind a sweet chestnut or even a willow. I want a wooden plaque with my name on. I want wild plants and flowers growing on my grave. I want the service to be simple. Tell Zoey to bring Lauren (if she's born by then). Invite Philippa and her husband Andy (if he wants to come), also James from the hospital (though he might be busy). I don't want anyone who doesn't know my saying anything about me. THe Natural Death Centre people will stay with you, but should also stay out of it. I want the people I love to get up and speak about me, and even if you cry it'll be OK. I want you to say honest things. Say I was a monster if you like, say how I made you all run around after me. If you can think of anything good, say that too! Write it down first, because apparently people often forget what they mean to say at funerals. Don't under any circumstances read that poem by Auden. It's been done to death (ha, ha) and it's too sad. Get someone to read Sonnet 12 by Shakespeare. Music- "Blackbird" by the Beatles. "Plainsong" by The Cure. "Live Like You Were Dying" by Tim McGraw. "All the Trees of the Field Will Clap Their Hands" by Sufian Stevens. There may not be time for all of them, but make sure you play the last one. Zoey helped me choose them and she's got them all on her iPod (it's got speakers if you need to borrow it). Afterwards, go to a pub for lunch. I've got PS260 in my savings account and I really want you to use it for that. Really, I mean it-lunch is on me. Make sure you have pudding-sticky toffee, chocolate fudge cake, ice-cream sundae, something really bad for you. Get drunk too if you like (but don't scare Cal). Spend all the money. And after that, when days have gone by, keep an eye out for me. I might write on the steam in the mirror when you're having a bath, or play with the leaves on the apple tree when you're out in the garden. I might slip into a dream. Visit my grave when you can, but don't kick yourself if you can't, or if you move house and it's suddenly too far away. It looks pretty there in the summer (check out the website). You could bring a picnic and sit with me. I'd like that. OK. That's it. feelings family love now-is-good tessa-scott dad Jenny Downham
272b6fb "I love you," was his reply. "I make myself keep on loving you, despite what you do. I've got to love you. We all have to love you, and believe in you, and think you are looking out for our best interests. But look at us, Momma, and really see us." -- faith trust family love best-interests despite replies mothers see sight V.C. Andrews
95747a3 At sixteen, you still think you can escape from your father. You aren't listening to his voice speaking through your mouth, you don't see how your gestures already mirror his; you don't see him in the way you hold your body, in the way you sign your name. You don't hear his whisper in your blood. fathers family traits genetics parents Salman Rushdie
a230b3b Bean could see the hunger in their eyes. Not the regular hunger, for food, but the real hunger, the deep hunger, for family, for love, for belonging. family love belonging hunger human-nature Orson Scott Card
b960bdb It is easy to say that you can adopt the whole human race as your children, but it is not the same as living in a home with a child and shaping all you do to help him learn to be happy and whole and good. Don't live your life without ever holding a child in your arms, on your lap, in your home, and feeling a child's arms around you and hearing his voice in your ear and seeing his smile, given to you because you put it into your heart. family science-fiction Orson Scott Card
29a7bc6 We want to climb in with you,' Dermot said. 'We'll all sleep better.' That seemed incredibly weird and creepy to me - or maybe I only thought it should have. I was simply too tired to argue. I climbed in the bed. Claude got in on one side of me, Dermot on the other. Just when I was thinking, I would never be able to sleep, that this situation was too odd and too wrong, I felt a kind of blissful relaxation roll through my body, a kind of unfamiliar comfort. I was with family. I was with blood. And I slept. family fairies dermot sookie-stackhouse sleeping Charlaine Harris
1d06b85 They had laughed. They had leaned on each other and laughed until the tears had come, while everything else--the cold, and where he'd go in it--was outside, for a while anyway. winter relationships family everything-stuck-to-him fighting Raymond Carver
0592238 They were talking more distantly than if they were strangers who had just met, for if they had been he would have been interested in her just because of that, and curious, but their common past was a wall of indifference between them. Kitty knew too well that she had done nothing to beget her father's affection, he had never counted in the house and had been taken for granted, the bread-winner who was a little despised because he could provide no more luxuriously for his family; but she had taken for granted that he loved her just because he was her father, and it was a shock to discover that his heart was empty of feeling for her. She had known that they were all bored by him, but it had never occurred to her that he was equally bored by them. He was as ever kind and subdued, but the sad perspicacity which she had learnt in suffering suggested to her that, though he probably never acknowledged it to himself and never would, in his heart he disliked her. fathers family love parents W. Somerset Maugham
e767685 Natalie was buried in the family plot, next to a gravestone that already bore her parents' names. I know the wisdom, that no parents should see their child die, that such an event is like nature spun backward. But it's the only way to truly keep your child. Kid grow up, they forge more potent allegiances. They find a spouse or a lover. They will not be buried with you. The Keenes, however, will remain the purest form of family. Underground. family child Gillian Flynn
0e58f98 I thought of how proud he was when he took the marks- cutting the skin of his throat in a long slash and then packing it with ashes until keloid scars rose up. He called it his second smile. family life mob mobster pride mafia honor protection loyalty Holly Black
f7897db "There was no reply. So Z glanced over again - just as a tear slide down Phury's cheek. "Ah...fuck," Z muttered. "Yeah. Pretty much." Another tear rolled out of Phury's eye. "God...damn. I'm leaking." "Okay, brace yourself." Phury scrubbed his face with his palms. "Why?" "Because... I think I'm going to try to hug you." family love J.R. Ward
748b88a I thought how you can never tell just by looking at them what they were thinking or what was happening In their lives. Even when you got daft people or drunk people on buses, people that went on stupid and shouted rubbish or tried to tell you all about themselves, you could never really tell about them either... I knew if somebody looked at me, they'd know nothing about me, either. family friendship love inspirational judgement David Almond
aa427b0 My mother's gifts of courage to me were both large and small. The latter are woven so subtly into the fabric of my psyche that I can hardly distinguish where she stops and I begin. motherhood family education inspirational-love upbringing mother Maya Angelou
b16ad9b "He stares at me in blankly. "Are you accusing me of not caring for your sister?" he asks. "If I truly believed you didn't care for Taryn, we wouldn't be having this conversation." He gives a long sigh. "Because you'd murder me?" "If you're playing with Taryn, Madoc will murder you; I won't even get a chance." I sheath my knife and head toward the door. "Your ridiculous family might be surprised to find that not everything is solved by murder," Locke calls after me. "We would be surprised to find that," I call back." murder family surprised Holly Black
4d712f0 When my friends began to have babies and I came to comprehend the heroic labor it takes to keep one alive, the constant exhausting tending of a being who can do nothing and demands everything, I realized that my mother had done all of these things for me before I remembered. I was fed; I was washed; I was clothed; I was taught to speak and given a thousand other things, over and over again, hourly, daily, for years. She gave me everything before she gave me nothing. family-relationships motherhood family babies mothers mothering children childhood Rebecca Solnit
99a777d What I think was hardest for me to realize was that he had tried each time to stop himself. He had killed animals, taking lesser lives to keep from killing a child rape murder heaven family pergatory personal-growth Alice Sebold
42da48b You can always count on your family to love you. And to betray you. And then to feel guilty about it. family love guilty betrayal rue guilt Holly Black
89cd78e Jill had three basic statements about life, 1. It is your life, usually with some added social commentary. 2. What you want and what you get are usually two entirely different things. 3. No one ever said that life was fair. family friendship life love inspitational sibling-relationships tour unfair home siblings Nicholas Sparks Micah Sparks
97f44f6 I think maybe, when I was very young, I witnessed a chaste cheek kiss between the two when it was impossible to avoid. Christmas, birthdays. Dry lips. On their best married days, their communications were entirely transactional: 'We're out of milk again.' (I'll get some today.) 'I need this ironed properly.' (I'll do that today.) 'How hard is it to buy milk?' (Silence.) 'You forgot to call the plumber.' (Sigh.) 'Goddammit, put on your coat, right now, and go out and get some goddamn milk. Now.' These messages and orders brought to you by my father, a mid-level phonecompany manager who treated my mother at best like an incompetent employee. silence depression relationship family heartbreak love abusive-relationship bad-parenting abusive broken-home love-lost fights divorce childhood-memories abusive-relationships communication fighting parents parents-and-children mother fight father childhood parenthood sexism Gillian Flynn
7f3f38d My mother always pouted that it was actually her paintings and not her charm, her beauty or her sass that made him fall in love with her. He'd always insisted that it was definitely her sass. I knew the truth. He fell for all those things, and when she died, it was like someone had extinguished the sun, and he had nothing left to orbit. grief family Tammara Webber
4627b56 Harry... take my body back, will you? Take my body back to my parents... family death J.K. Rowling
60cc3c5 The dead leave their shadows, an echo of the space within which once they lived. They haunt us, never fading or growing older as we do. The loss we grieve is not just their futures but our own. family loved-ones Kate Mosse
5ff3feb "Sister, why do you do that?" "Do what?" "Cage the animals at night?" "Well..." She looked up and out through the barred window before answering me."We don't want to, Jennings, but we have to. You see, the animals that are given to us we have to take care of. If we didn't cage them up in one place, we might lose them, they might get hurt or damaged. It's not the best thing, but it's the only way we have to take care of them." "But if somebody loved one them," I asked, "wouldn't it be a good idea to let them have one? To keep, I mean?" "Yes, it would be. But not everyone would love them and take care of them as you would. I wish I could give them all away tomorrow." She looked at me. There were tears in her eyes. "But I can't. My heart would break if I saw just one of those animals lying by the wayside uncared for, unloved. No, Jennings. It's better if we keep them together." -- youth family stuffed-animals foster-care runaway memoirs nun neglect Jennings Michael Burch
f7fe1ca We were born in the '70s, back when twins were rare, a bit magical: cousins of the unicorn, siblings of the elves. magic family love the-70s the-seventies unicorn old-fashioned rare elves siblings unicorns superstition twins Gillian Flynn
ba0520d What a thing to acknowledge in your heart! To lose a brother is to lose someone with whom you can share the experience of growing old, who is supposed to bring you a sister-in-law and nieces and nephews, creatures to people the tree of your life and give it new branches. To lose your father is to lose the one whose guidance and help you seek, who supports you like a tree trunk supports its branches. To lose your mother, well, that is like losing the sun above you. It is like losing-I'm sorry, I would rather not go on. relationships family death-of-a-loved-one Yann Martel
a402af6 She has always been a bystander in family destruction, never realizing she herself possessed the capacity to inflict it. family Curtis Sittenfeld
045a427 When I tell you not to marry without love, I do not advise you to marry for love alone - there are many, many other things to be considered. marriage family love Anne Brontë
be6bef5 Sometimes I'd see my father, walking past my building on his way to another nowhere. I could have given him a key, offered a piece of my floor. A futon. A bed. But I never did. If I let him inside I would become him, the line between us would blur, my own slow-motion car wreck would speed up. The slogan on the side of a moving company truck read TOGETHER WE ARE GOING PLACES--modified by a vandal or a disgruntled employee to read TOGETHER WE ARE GOING DOWN. If I went to the drowning man the drowning man would pull me under. I couldn't be his life raft. fathers family homelessness Nick Flynn
796e9ed "She was enfolded in the great wings of Mrs. Whatsit and she felt comfort and strength pouring through her. Mrs. Whatsit was not speaking aloud, and yet through the wings Meg understood words. "My child, do not despair. Do you think we would have brought you here if there was no hope? We are asking you to do a difficult thing, but we are confident that you can do it. Your father needs help, he needs courage, and for his children he may be able to do what he cannot do for himself." fear family love Madeleine L'Engle
91b33a3 What scared Stanley the most about dying wasn't his actual death. He figured he could handle the pain. It wouldn't be much worse than what he felt now. In fact, maybe at the moment of his death he would be too weak to feel pain. Death would be a relief. What worried him the most was the thought of his parents not knowing what happened to him, not knowing whether he was dead or alive. He hated to imagine what it would be like for his mother and father, day after day, month after month, not knowing, living on false hope. For him, at least, it would be over. For his parents, the pain would never end. family Louis Sachar
dc8da5f "He lay in bed staring upward into the darkness. On the bunk above him, he could hear Peter turning and tossing restlessly. Then Peter slid off the bunk and walked out of the room. Ender heard the hushing sound of the toilet clearing; then Peter stood silhouetted in the doorway. He thinks I'm asleep. He's going to kill me. Peter walked to the bed, and sure enough, he did not lift himself up to his bed. Instead he came and stood by Ender's head. But he did not reach for a pillow to smother Ender. He did not have a weapon. He whispered, "Ender, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I know how it feels, I'm sorry, I'm your brother, I love you." A long time later, Peter's even breathing said that he was asleep. Ender peeled the bandaid from his neck. And for the second time that day he cried." family Orson Scott Card
e72b89a Ka found it very soothing: for the first time in years, he felt part of a family. In spite of the trials and responsibilities of what was called 'family', he saw now the joys of its unyielding togetherness, and was sorry not to have known more of it in his life. family Orhan Pamuk
89fa8bd We wander in our thousands over the face of the earth, the illustrious and the obscure, earning beyond the seas our fame, our money, or only a crust of bread; but it seems to me that for each of us going home must be like going to render an account. We return to face our superiors, our kindred, our friends--those whom we obey, and those whom we love; but even they who have neither, the most free, lonely, irresponsible and bereft of ties,--even those for whom home holds no dear face, no familiar voice,--even they have to meet the spirit that dwells within the land, under its sky, in its air, in its valleys, and on its rises, in its fields, in its waters and its trees--a mute friend, judge, and inspirer. mankind humanity family home-town prodigal-daughters prodigal-sons stomping-grounds old-friends homecoming reunion return home ghosts Joseph Conrad
d09b69f "Family is the one human institution we have no choice over. We get in simply by being born, and as a result we are involuntarily thrown together with a menagerie of strange and unlike people. Church calls for another step: to voluntarily choose to band together with a strange menagerie because of a common bond in Jesus Christ. I have found that such a community more resembles a family than any other human institution. Henri Nouwen once defined a community as "a place where the person you least want to live with always lives." His definition applies equally to the group that gathers each Thanksgiving and the group that congregates each Sunday morning. (p. 64-65, Church: Why Bother?)" faith family church Philip Yancey
cd3803f "Then we still have time!" I gasp. "It's not too late. We know what he's going to do. We'll return to the cave and fight." " ?" Kernel says sarcastically. "Yes! I'll fight to save Dervish and Bill-E. I don't care what those monsters throw at us. When it's family, it's different." "You really think you can choose not to be a coward if and when it suits you?" Kernel jeers. Beranabus interrupts wearily before I can retort. "It doesn't matter. You're arguing about nothing. The time for heroics has passed." family kernel-fleck grubbs-grady Darren Shan
c250cbd Every Saturday morning, first thing before breakfast, his parents held conferences with their children requiring them to answer two questions put to each of them: 1. What have you learned that is true (and how do you know)? 2. What problem do you have? family rituals Toni Morrison
3984234 Before I can say , I was. Heraclitus and I, prophets of flux, know that the flux is composed of parts that imitate and repeat each other. Am or was, I am cumulative, too. I am everything I ever was, whatever you and Leah may think. I am much of what my parents and especially my grandparents were -- inherited stature, coloring, brains, bones (that part unfortunate), plus transmitted prejudices, culture, scruples, likings, moralities, and moral errors that I defend as if they were personal and not familial. personality morality past family identity predispositions heritage personal-history values Wallace Stegner
137c282 "Families are wonderful institution," he said. "I value mine more than I can possibly say. But each of us has an individual life to live, our own path to tread, our own destiny to forge. You can imagine, if you will, how my family wished to shelter and protect me and do my living for me so that I would never again know fear or pain or abandonment. Eventually I had to step clear of them-or I might have fallen into the temptation of allowing them to do just that." family life shelter protect Mary Balogh
cc53c5f "I love people who play guitars on roofs!" said Rose, hopping along the pavement in one of her sudden happy moods. "Don't you?" "Never knew anyone else who did it!" "Don't you like Tom?" "Of course I do. But I don't know about all the other guitar-on-roof players! They might be really awful people, with just that one good thing about them. Playing guitars on roofs... or bagpipes... Or drums... Sarah would like that, and Saffy could have the bagpipes! Caddy could have a harp.... What about Mum?" "One of those gourds filled with beans!" said Rose at once. "And Daddy could have a grand piano. On a flat roof. With a balcony and pink flowers in pots around the edge! And I'll have a very loud trumpet! What about you?" "I'll just listen," said Indigo." family music listening Hilary McKay
8de45eb To be part of a family, or any community, is to have duties and responsibility, to be bound by the rules of that group. socialism responsibility relationship family friendship community duties rules Robin Hobb
7597343 The family is the cradle of the world's misinformation. family information fact knowledge Don DeLillo
f5f6ad2 "For Saffron," it said in shaky old writing on the damaged base, and on the other side, "Saffy's angel." Saffron, picking up the broken fragments one by one, said it didn't matter. She hugged Rose and Indigo and Caddy and Sarah, and said again and again that it didn't matter, it didn't matter at all." family broken Hilary McKay
f04eb89 That's my town,' Joaquin said. 'What a fine town, but how the buena gente, the good people of that town, have suffered in this war.' Then, his face grave, 'There they shot my father. My mother. My brother-in-law and now my sister.' 'What barbarians,' Robert Jordan said. How many times had he heard this? How many times had he watched people say it with difficulty? How many times had he seen their eyes fill and their throats harden with the difficulty of saying my father, or my brother, or my mother, or my sister? He could not remember how many times he heard them mention their dead in this way. Nearly always they spoke as this boy did now; suddenly and apropos of the mention of the town and always you said, 'What barbarians. violence war family Ernest Hemingway
b50fcc6 ...if I try to make only enough money for my family' immediate needs, it may violate Scripture. ...Even though earning just enough to meet the needs of my family may seem nonmaterialistic, it's actually selfish when I could earn enough to care for others as well. money family more earning stewardship others needs selfish enough scripture materialism Randy Alcorn
f8a91e2 She said once that time is nothing to me but a series of bookmarks that I use to jump back and forth through the text of my life, returning again and again to the events that mark me in the eyes of my more astute colleagues, as bearing all the characteristics of the classic melancholic. mourning grief depression family friendship professional the-past melancholy reflection regret remember dead sad lost mental-illness Dennis Lehane
1054299 To plant a family! This idea is at the bottom of most of the wrong and mischief which men do. The truth is, that, once in every half century, at longest, a family should be merged into the great, obscure mass of humanity, and forget all about its ancestors. family assimilation ancestors heritage family-line Nathaniel Hawthorne
da73aef "They'll be at it for a while," Mor said, leaning against the threshold of the house. She held open the door. "Welcome to the family, Feyre." And I thought those might have been the most beautiful words I'd ever heard." family mor sarah-j-maas feyre morrigan Sarah J. Maas
7a19a77 A few days after we came home from the hospital, I sent a letter to a friend, including a photo of my son and some first impressions of fatherhood. He responded, simply, 'Everything is possible again.' It was the perfect thing to write because that was exactly how it felt. motherhood family love fatherhood parenthood Jonathan Safran Foer
17bc76e The world is full of unrequited love,' I said finally. 'You and Patrick having problems?' Dad said, reaching around to get the butter out of the fridge. 'No, I was just wondering what you would say if I was a lesbian.' 'Come again?' said Lester. 'I'm having a hard time following this conversation. funny family love fridge brother lesbian dinner problems conversation random sexuality father unrequited-love Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
6a71f7b I came to this house for safety. They came because the foster care system ran out of homes. We stayed because we were stray pieces of other puzzles, tired of never fitting. family foster-care Katie McGarry
54ea3fa The problem is that we don't believe that we are much alike as we are. Whites and blacks, Catholic and Protestants, men and women. If we saw each other as more alike, we might be very eager to join in one human family in this world, and to care about that family the way we care about our own. family Mitch Albom
01bedc9 "Of course what I'm about to share isn't true for me but... Friends, somebody said, are "god's apology for relations." (p. 129)" friends family death Christopher Hitchens
609169a who knows you better than your own brother? family siblings Karen Joy Fowler
abc0cff What makes people good communicators is, in essence, an ability not to be fazed by the more problematic or offbeat aspects of their own characters. They can contemplate their anger, their sexuality, and their unpopular, awkward, or unfashionable opinions without losing confidence or collapsing into self-disgust. They can speak clearly because they have managed to develop a priceless sense of their own acceptability. They like themselves well enough to believe that they are worthy of, and can win, the goodwill of others if only they have the wherewithal to present themselves with the right degree of patience and imagination. As children, these good communicators must have been blessed with caregivers who knew how to love their charges without demanding that every last thing about them be agreeable and perfect. Such parents would have been able to live with the idea that their offspring might sometimes--for a while, at least--be odd, violent, angry, mean, peculiar, or sad, and yet still deserve a place within the circle of familial love. self-knowledge family communicators self-acceptance communication parenting parents children Alain de Botton
8fcc33a It's like I'd been walking a tightrope with a big safety net underneath me, but I never really thought about the net until someone took it away. And then every single step scared me to death. loss feelings relationship family death life love concern security emotions separation Margaret Peterson Haddix
526ad12 We often pity the poor, because they have no leisure to mourn their departed relatives, and necessity obliges them to labor through their severest afflictions: but is not active employment the best remedy for overwhelming sorrow--the surest antidote for despair? It may be a rough comforter: it may seem hard to be harassed with the cares of life when we have no relish for its enjoyments; to be goaded to labor when the heart is ready to break, and the vexed spirit implores for rest only to weep in silence: but is not labor better than the rest we covet? and are not those petty, tormenting cares less hurtful than a continual brooding over the great affliction that oppresses us? Besides, we cannot have cares, and anxieties, and toil, without hope--if it be but the hope of fulfilling our joyless task, accomplishing some needful project, or escaping some further annoyance. mourning work family Anne Brontë
48e33e5 Maintaining connections with family and community across class boundaries demands more than just summary recall of where one's roots are, where one comes from. It requires knowing, naming, and being ever-mindful of those aspects of one's past that have enabled and do enable one's self-development in the present, that sustain and support, that enrich. One must also honestly confront barriers that do exist, aspects of that past that do diminish. family bell hooks
fa266a6 Children do not find fault with their parents until later. In the beginning, the love you get is the love that sets. family love faults parents Jeanette Winterson
49d0095 Mothers are urgently trying to tell something to their daughters, and this urgency is precisely what repels their daughters, forcing them to turn away. Mothers are left stranded, madly holding a lump of London clay, some grass, some white tubers, a dandelion, a fat worm passing the world through itself. family life love repel urgency daughters mothers generations mothers-and-daughters london Zadie Smith
c0ac46a We have been cut off, the past has been ended and the family has broken up and the present is adrift in its wheelchair. ... That is no gap between the generations, that is a gulf. The elements have changed, there are whole new orders of magnitude and kind. [...] My grandparents had to live their way out of one world and into another, or into several others, making new out of old the way corals live their reef upward. I am on my grandparents' side. I believe in Time, as they did, and in the life chronological rather than in the life existential. We live in time and through it, we build our huts in its ruins, or used to, and we cannot afford all these abandonings. present time history past family life build-up chronology development generation-gap existentialism modernity Wallace Stegner
c8e4de5 Do not expect too much from your child and she will grow in your love... But if you push her too much, you will push her away. A child is not yours to own but to raise. She may not be what you will have her to be, but she will be what she has to be. Remember what they say, that 'Wood may remain twenty years in the water, but it is still not a fish. family daughter parenting parenthood Jane Yolen
939df1e What must you break apart in order to bring a family close together? Bread, of course. family the-storyteller Jodi Picoult
7a9c449 ...Food serves two parallel purposes: it nourishes and it helps you remember. Eating and storytelling are inseparable--the saltwater is also tears; the honey not only tastes sweet, but makes us think of sweetness; the matzo is the bread of our affliction. family religion veganism vegetarianism mythology food stories Jonathan Safran Foer
7e77646 Funny thing- Morgenstern's folk's were named Max and Valerie and his father was a doctor. funny family miracle-max s-morgenstern william-goldman the-princess-bride valerie William Goldman
7375243 I'd wrestled against the inner voice of my mother, the voice of caution, of duty, of fear of the unknown, the voice that said the world was dangerous and safety was always the first measure and that often confused pleasure with danger, the mother who had, when I'd moved to the city, sent me clippings about young women who were raped and murdered there, who elaborated on obscure perils and injuries that had never happened to her all her life, and who feared mistakes even when the consequences were minor. Why go to Paradise when the dishes aren't done? What if the dirty dishes clamor more loudly than Paradise? family-relationships motherhood family coming-of-age mothers Rebecca Solnit
92c1f5f Hard to believe that so nearby, just across the Channel, such atrocities could still occur in their supposedly civilized world, that one could wake up one morning and find oneself bereft of brothers, parents, friends, all with the slice of an ax. family revolution Lauren Willig
9c55337 Everything has a past, a voice, existed at some point, even things as small and seemingly meaningless as a house in a huge suburb. It's a house like every other house... but at some point a family lived there, made it theirs, made it important. When people forget that history, that somebody at some point thought the house mattered, it just becomes an empty pile of nailed wood and brick and concrete that gets torn down for some strip mall or chain store to take its place... and that's what happens more and more now, everything is disposable, always replaced with no thought at all. That's where things get lost, memories get lost, humanity slips through the cracks, because when we all fail to pay attention to the things that make up our lives, we're no longer human at all, not really. earth human family hope life material together Rebecca McNutt
561b985 "[Mom] said she didn't want her youngest daughter dressed in the thrift-store clothes the rest of us wore. Mom told us we would have to go shoplifting. "Isn't that a sin?" I asked Mom. "Not exactly," Mom said. "God doesn't mind you bending the rules a little if you have good reason. It's sort of like justifiable homicide. This is justifiable pilfering." glass-castle jeannette-walls family Jeannette Walls
4a50286 When the wounded were screaming, you dreamed of sharing a little house somewhere, of an ordinary life, of a family line, connection. All around him, men were walking silently with their thoughts, reforming their lives, making resolutions. If I ever get out of this lot... They could never be counted, the dreamed-up children, mentally conceived on the walk into Dunkirk, and later made flesh. family-relationships war inspiration family love soldiers Ian McEwan
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