David Eddings Quotes

That was a judicious mother who said, "I obey my children for the first year of their lives, but ever after I expect them to obey me.

She can't force us to go to the ball. We're grown men, for Lord's sake!" Will cocked an eyebrow at his younger brother. "You don't think she can force us? We are speaking of the same mother, correct? Small frame, enormous will?

It's very important that we instill some respect for the parents. In America especially, the kids are unruly, screaming at Mommy and Daddy, running the show.

I wish my kid would act like my dog sometimes. My dog listens to me and does what I tell him to do.

In my family, if I talk back to my dad, I get in trouble.

Reward and punishment are the twin instruments of power in the State; they must not be revealed to anyone.

He will punish you as a father punishes his disobedient child, unless you do as he desires.

My mom, she's the strict one. If we did something bad, we'd get a whippin' but nothing too bad.

I say to my kids all the time - and this is absolutely true - I always say, 'Who's the boss?' and they go, 'You are.'

I hope all the kids out there who don't like listening to their mothers, who yell and scream at them, that moms are always right just so you guys know.

If at age 10 I say there are monsters in the basement and they don't believe it, I would have stayed in that house. My father would have said "Shut up and get to your room." So I thought the only sanctioned tyranny in the world is parenthood and everybody goes "Yeah." It's a dictatorship - parenthood.

Since the child knew his parents would give in, he tried the same trick again and again.

I will obey every law, or submit to the penalty.

When I was in high school, my parents had this power over me - if I ever lied or got caught doing something that I shouldn't be doing, then I would no longer be able to go to L.A. and continue to pursue the acting thing.

When children are small, parents should run their lives and not the other way around.

Dad was a strict disciplinarian and would give us a wallop with a wooden spoon if we were out of order. But we really respected him - he didn't try to be our best friend.

When I was a kid and got in trouble, I'd always say, Mom, I'm in trouble. Well, Mom, I'm in trouble.

I wanted to be on my own and get out of the house. We were the kind of kids that - we - obeyed our parents. If they said no, you don't ask why.

Teachability and trust always leads to total obedience.

My job is to persuade people to toe the line and play within the laws of the game.

When I was in fact a child, six and seven and eight years old, I was utterly baffled by the enthusiasm with which my cousin Brenda, a year and a half younger, accepted her mother's definition of her as someone who needed to go to bed at six-thirty and finish every bite of three vegetables, one of them yellow, with every meal.

My mother would thump me sharply on the head with a thimble or a spoon if I became too noisy with the whistle when I was playing I was a steamboat captain. She had no sense of the dignity of command.

As a teenager, I was perpetually grounded. I was stubborn rather than rebellious.

While they are kids, my children must do as I say.

One father is enough to govern one hundred sons, but not a hundred sons one father.