Andre Maurois Quotes

Yes, you will. And I will warn you now that not their blood but your suspicion might build evil in them. They will be what you expect of them…I think when a man finds good or bad in his children he is seeing only what he planted in them after they cleared the womb." "You can’t make a race horse of a pig." "No," said Samuel, "but you can make a very fast pig.

I've always kind of gotten my personality from my mom, and whether that's 'star quality' or whatever... a lot of her is in me.

I have five kids, and people can say 'nature versus nurture,' but it is nature! Nurture has so little to do with it. I have five kids, and there are five totally different people in my house.

Bringing up children is not a real occupation, because children come up just the same, brought or not.

Children will grow up substantially what they are by nature--and only that.

A mother's example sketches the outline of her child's character.

"What is the greatest mistake a parent can make?" she asked. "To believe that your children will be just like you."

So no, it's not all in the genes, but what isn't in the genes isn't in the family environment either. It can't be explained in terms of the overall personalities or the child-rearing practices of parents.

Day after day with them, I see more and more of my parents in me. I see where all my quirks come from. I see my future.

I think having children in general is always very helpful for acting.

Don't try to make children grow up to be like you, or they may do it.

Give me a child for the first 7 years, and you may do what you like with him afterwards.

Good heredity and environment are necessary. You cannot compare the child of a savage with the child of a civilized person.

And Grandmother Hall really imagines that she can raise Eleanor and her two brothers differently than these children were raised. And if she is very strict and everything is very regimented and ordered and disciplined, that they will become the perfect children who her own children did not become.

Parenthood is an endless series of small events, periodic conflicts, and sudden crises which call for a response. The response is not without consequence: it affects personality for better or for worse.

Our children give us the opportunity to become the parents we always wished we'd had.

Children need parents who will let them grow up to be themselves, but parents often have personal agendas they try to impose on their children.

sometimes the very faults of parents produce a tendency to opposite virtues in their children.

A low self-love in the parent desires that his child should repeat his character and fortune.

Badgered, snubbed and scolded on the one hand; petted, flattered and indulged on the other-it is astonishing how many children work their way up to an honest manhood in spite of parents and friends. Human nature has an element of great toughness in it.

Children pay little attention to their parents' teachings, but reproduce their characters faithfully

Children can scarcely be fashioned to meet with our likes and our purpose. Just as God did us give them, so must we hold them and love them, nurture and teach them to fullness and leave them to be what they are.

The most important influence on a child is the character of its parents, rather than this or that single event.

Rearing three children is like growing a cactus, a gardenia, and a tubful of impatiens. Each needs varying amounts of water, sunlight and pruning. Were I to be absolutely fair, I would have to treat each child as if he or she were absolutely identical to the other siblings, and there would be no profit for anyone in that.