Family is complicated, which is what makes it interesting. These quotes cover the bonds, tensions, loyalties, and unconditional love that define our closest relationships — the people we did not choose but who shaped us anyway.
“I don't hide my feelings, but when it comes to illness, I guess I don't panic. My father was the same way. I'm the provider for the family and the caretaker. If I panic, who is anybody going to run to?”
“But let me perfectly clear, because I know you'll hear the same old claims that rolling back these tax breaks means a massive tax increase on the American people: if your family earns less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes increased a single dime. I repeat: not one single dime.”
“If you have autism in the family history, you still vaccinate. Delay it a bit, space them out.”
“I think my father would have liked to have been an artist, actually. But I think he didn't quite have perhaps the drive or, I don't know, I mean he had a family to bring up I suppose.”
“Here's the thing: the unit of reverence in Europe is the family, which is why a child born today of unmarried parents in Sweden has a better chance of growing up in a house with both of his parents than a child born to a married couple in America. Here we revere the couple, there they revere the family.”
“If God can work through me, he can work through anyone.”
“Because I didn't have brothers, I was always interested in the kids down the street that had four brothers in their family, so I became one of them - but it was not my family. I've always been attracted to temporary families. They tend to be lost characters.”
“Studies have shown that since women have had access to the pill and family planning measures, they have made huge gains in both wages and in careers that were dominated by men.”
“In my family, in the days prior to television, we liked to while away the evenings by making ourselves miserable, solely based on our ability to speak the language viciously.”
“I hurt my wife, my kids, my mother, my wife's family, my friends, my foundation and kids all around the world who admired me.”
“I sang in the choir for years, even though my family belonged to another church.”
“The family is one of nature's masterpieces.”
“It never occurred to me that I wouldn't go to college and have a career - as well as a family - of my own. Both my parents, but especially my mother, encouraged me and led me to believe that it was possible.”
“It's very strange that most people don't care if their knowledge of their family history only goes back three generations.”
“I have now disposed of all my property to my family. There is one thing more I wish I could give them, and that is the Christian religion.”
“My family moved a lot as a kid. We started in Colorado, where I lived for five years. We moved to Chicago for two years, to San Francisco for one year, Connecticut for seven, Oregon for a couple years, and then I went to school. So I was always moving, I'm still always moving.”