Alison Gopnik Quotes

The vilest abortionist is he who attempts to mould a child's character.

Be what you wish your children to be. Parents have perpetuated by precept and example their own stamp of character to their posterity.

The prospect of being a father made me ask myself a question. How do you know what kind of adult your child will turn out to be? And how much can you control that?

If you have children, you know you're responsible for somebody. You realize you are being imitated; your belief systems and priorities have a direct influence on these children, who are like flowers in a garden.

In all seriousness, it really should be difficult for me to be too strange. After all, a great family raised me.

I think you are who you are, and your kids will see who you are. So you'd better be a good person, because they are going to see it, and that's going to shape them. They are going to become you.

A family is where character is formed, values are learned, ethics are created, and society preserved.

If you want to know my character, look at the kids I've raised.

I've got two small kids. I want to make sure they grow up to be good people. Do they treat people well? Are they kind?

People often believe that character causes action, but when it comes to producing moral children, we need to remember that action also shapes character.

Having a kid motivates you to really take stock of yourself and how much of yourself you want to be reflected back in the actions of your kid.

The spirit and tone of your home will have great influence on your children. If it is what it ought to be, it will fasten conviction on their minds, however wicked they may become.

A child's character develops in accordance with the obstacles he has encountered... or the freedom favoring his development that he has enjoyed.

I think when you have children, it just changes your worldview.

There's no better way to unplug than having children. Changing diapers is one of the most leveling things that has ever happened to me.

Education has for its object the formation of character. To curb restive propensities, to awaken dormant sentiments, to strengthen the perceptions, and cultivate the tastes, to encourage this feeling and repress that, so as finally to develop the child into a man of well proportioned and harmonious nature, this is alike the aim of parent and teacher.

Children teach you so much. You take another look at life when you have a child. Everything is new again for you. They ground you.

Realizing that my children are the center of the universe and not me is probably one of the greatest ways to acclimatize.

We grow because the clamorous, permanent presence of our children forces us to put their needs before ours. We grow because our love for our children urges us to change as nothing else in our lives has the power to do. We grow (if we're willing to grow, that is: not every parent is willing) because being a parent helps us stop being a child.

What we are teaches the child far more than what we say, so we must be what we want our children to become.

Are you the adult that you want your child to grow up to be?

We cannot hope only to leave our children a bigger car, a bigger bank account. We must hope to give them a sense of what it means to be a loyal friend, a loving parent, a citizen who leaves his home, his neighborhood and town better than he found it.

Children inherit the qualities of the parents, no less than their physical features. Environment does play an important part, but the original capital on which a child starts in life is inherited from its ancestors. I have also seen children successfully surmounting the effects of an evil inheritance. That is due to purity being an inherent attribute of the soul.

What you leave in your children, is more important than what you leave to them

Children's books are written for upbringing...but upbringing is a great thing; it decides the fate of the human being.