Francis Collins Quotes

We have two kids, my wife and myself.

Genes can't possibly explain all of what makes us what we are.

Being parents suits us. Having kids has been the best thing for both of us.

I think the greatest gift we can give our children is to show them that devotion to God's purposes - love for all beings - is the center of all right living.

Time and experience have taught me a priceless lesson: Any child you take for your own becomes your own if you give of yourself to that child. I have born two children and had seven others by adoption, and they are all my children, equally beloved and precious.

I'm the worst at favourites! I don't have one - I love all my children, I love them all equally.

... the worst possible heritage to leave with children: high spiritual pretensions and low performance.

Do your kids a favor: Love your spouse.

Friendships are different from all other relationships. Unlike acquaintanceship, friendship is based on love. Unlike lovers and married couples, it is free of jealousy. Unlike children and parents, it knows neither criticism nor resentment. Friendship has no status in law. Business partnerships are based on a contract. So is marriage. Parents are bound by law. But friendships are freely entered into, freely given, and freely exercised.

My kids really are my center. They create a beautiful chaos. It's always a nice chaos with them.

A father can pass on his nose and eyes and even his intelligence to his child, but not his soul. In every human being the soul is new

Do you really think we'll ever--" "I do," he said with certainty, not letting me finish. He leaned over and kissed my forehead. "I know it, Sassenach, and so do you. You were meant to be a mother, and I surely dinna intend to let anyone else father your children.

Motherhood is the most beautiful, exciting thing, and there's nothing that I feel like I can't accomplish while having children in my life. I would sacrifice having more years of being wherever I want whenever I want for years with my kids.

How long has it been since you took your children, whatever their size, in your arms and told them that you love them and are glad that they can be yours forever?

Mothers, tell your children: be quick, you must be strong. Life is full of wonder, love is never wrong. Remember how they taught you, how much of it was fear. Refuse to hand it down - the legacy stops here.

I can see myself adopting. I'm not in a rush to do it. I'm 39, I know, but I do love kids, and I'm very good - I've got a lot of really good moves.

I sometimes think love is God's way of hoodwinking people into having kids. You fall in love, and all that passion goes into procreating and wanting children. I've felt that need to want to raise a child. It's a creative urge.

But maybe a man was nothing but a man, which is what Baby Suggs always said. They encouraged you to put some of your weight in their hands and soon as you felt how light and lovely that was, they studied your scars and tribulations, after which they did what he had done: ran her children out and tore up the house. [...] A man ain't nothing but a man,' said Baby Suggs. 'But a son? Well now, that's somebody.

This is what love does and continues to do. It tastes like honey to adults and milk to children.

. . . besides love, independence of thought is the greatest gift an adult can give a child.

Everyone's got to be for a child to have a home and love. I mean I don't know anyone who would be against that.

Life affords no greater responsibility, no greater privilege, than the raising of the next generation

Kind looks, kind actions, kind words, and a lovely, holy deportment towards them will bind our children to us with bands that cannot easily be broken; while abuse and unkindness will drive them from us, and break asunder every holy tie that should bind them to us and to the everlasting covenant in which we are all embraced.

Sometimes when you pick up your child you can feel the map of your own bones beneath your hands, or smell the scent of your skin in the nape of his neck. This is the most extraordinary thing about motherhood - finding a piece of yourself separate and apart that all the same you could not live without.

When we teach our children to be good, to be gentle, to be forgiving (all these are attributes of God), to be generous, to love their follow men, to regard this present age as nothing, we instill virtue in their souls, and reveal the image of God within them.