Andrew Vachss Quotes

Sleep not when others speak, sit not when others stand, speak not when you should hold your peace, walk not when others stop.

From a very early age, my wife and I told our son that there are times and places for everything. I told him, look, when you're in class, you have to be quiet and listen to your teacher, but when you go out to the playground, you can scream and be silly.

There wasn't a lot of discipline in my life, and I hated it being imposed on me at school.

I watch children a great deal; their idea is that rules are always negotiable, whereas you absolutely cannot joke at the airport about your toothpaste, and you cannot rollerblade in Grand Central Station. I keep running up against these things.

I think that discipline is so much of an important part of being a parent. Because it's very, very important to teach your children to take responsibility for their actions.

Discipline is not a nasty word.

When I was younger and my parents used to always slap my hand if I was picking my nose or if I was running around screaming I was told to shut up.

Sometimes it's good to know there are limits.

If we are silent when we should speak, we are not living the Discipline of silence. If we speak when we should be silent, we again miss the mark.

Let's not be afraid to speak the common sense truth: you can't have high standards without good discipline.

Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.

I can't get carried away with having a good time because everyone, especially the young guys, have to know there's a time and place for everything.

There couldn't be better parents than mine, loving yet strict. They disciplined with love. A child without discipline is, in away, a lost child. You cannot have freedom without discipline.

We must watch over our modesty in the presence of those who cannot understand its grounds.

I'm going to be a strict mum. I know that love is the most important thing - you've got to have lots of kisses and cuddles - but you also need to mix it with discipline or you'll be in a heap of trouble.

Be aware that the more often a child hears the word no, the greater his need to say no himself.

There's no handbook for parenting. So you walk a very fine line as a parent because you are civilizing these raw things. They will tip the coffee over and finger-paint on the table. At some point, you have to say, 'We're gonna have to clean that up because you don't paint with coffee on a table.'

I need to rein myself in sometimes.

We are all of us the worse for too much liberty.

There is a time and a place for things. Sometimes one needs to put a filter on oneself. That can be a good thing.

But we're not supposed to talk anything besides football.

The processes of teaching the child that everything cannot be as he wills it are apt to be painful both to him and to his teacher.

I try to be a hard boiled sometimes. My kids see right through it. I'm acting. It's always, 'When I say you'll be back at 11, that means 11, not 11.15. Do you hear me!?' Then, 'Yeah, Dad.'

As much as you don't like disciplining your kids, you have to sometimes. Kids want that structure, that leadership, that guidance. I think that's what I try to give my children.

Too much freedom can lead to the soul's decay.