PROVERBS, SAYINGS, ETC., ABOUT PARENTS, FATHER AND
MOTHER.
1. Be a father to virtue, but a father-in-law to vice.
2. Bread is our father, but _kasha_ [porridge] is our mother.
--_Russian_.
3. Call not that man wretched, who, whatever ills he suffers, has a
child he loves.--_Southey_.
4. Children suck the mother when they are young, and the father when
they are old.
5. Children see in their parents the past, they again in their children
the future; and if we find more love in parents for their children than
in children for their parents, this is sad and natural. Who does not
fondle his hopes more than his recollections?--_Eötvös_.
6. Choose a good mother's daughter, though her father were the
devil.--_Gaelic_.
7. Die Menschheit geben uns Vater und Mutter, die Menschlichkeit aber
gibt uns nur die Erziehung. [Human nature we owe to father and mother,
but humanity to education alone.]--_Weber_.
8. Die Mütter geben uns von Geiste Wärme, und die Väter Licht. [Our
mothers give us warmth of spirit; our fathers, light.]--_Jean
Paul_.
9. Die Mutter sagt es, der Vater glaubt es, ein Narr zweifelt daran.
[The mother says it, the father believes it, the fool doubts
it.]--_Pistorius._
10. Dos est magna parentum Virtus. [The virtue of parents is a great
dowry.]--_Horace._
11. En olle kan beter söfen kinner erneren, as söfen kinner ên olle. [A
parent can more easily maintain seven children than seven children one
parent.]--_Low German._
12. Fader og Moder ere gode, end er Gud bedre. [Father and mother are
kind, but God is better.]--_Danish._
13. He knows not what love is that hath no children.
14. He that loveth father and mother more than me is not worthy of
me.--_Jesus._
15. If poverty is the mother of crimes, want of sense is the father of
them.--_La Bruyere._
16. Keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy
mother.--_Bible._
17. La buena vida padre y madre olvida. [Prosperity forgets father and
mother.]--_Spanish._
18. Laus magna natis obsequi parentibus. [Great praise comes to children
for having complied with the wishes of their parents.]
--_Phoedrus._
19. Look at home, father priest, mother priest; your church is a
hundred-fold heavier responsibility than mine can be. Your priesthood is
from God's own hands.--_Henry Ward Beecher._
20. One mother is more venerable than a thousand fathers.
--_Laws of Manu._
21. Parents are the enemies of their children, if they refuse them
education.--_Eastern Proverb._
22. Parents' blessings can neither be drowned in water, nor consumed in
fire.
23. Parents we can have but once.--_Dr. Johnson._
24. Parents say: "Our boy is growing up." They forget his life is
shortening.--_Afghan._
25. Respect for one's parents is the highest duty of civil life.
--_Chinese._
26. The bazaar knows neither father nor mother.--_Turkish._
27. The crow says: "O my son, whiter than muslin."--_Afghan._
28. The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his
mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles
shall eat it.--_Bible._
29. The house of the childless is empty; and so is the heart of him that
hath no wife.--_Hitopadesa._
30. The joys of parents are secret, and so are their griefs and
fears.--_Bacon._
31. These are my jewels.--_Cornelia (mother of the Gracchi)._
32. They who have lost an infant are never, as it were, without an
infant child.--_Leigh Hunt._
33. To a father, when his child dies, the future dies; to a child, when
his parents die, the past dies.--_Auerbach._
34. To make a boy despise his mother's care is the straightest way to
make him also despise his Redeemer's voice; and to make him scorn his
father and his father's house, the straightest way to make him deny his
God and his God's heaven.--_Ruskin._
35. Unworthy offspring brag most of their worthy descent.
--_Danish._
36.
Vom Vater hab'ich die Statur,
Des Lebens ernstes Fuhren;
Von Mutterchen die Frohnatur
Und Lust zu fabulieren.
[My father's stature I possess
And life's more solemn glory;
My mother's fund of cheerfulness,
Her love for song and story.]--_Goethe._
37. Was der Mutter an's Herz geht, das geht dem Vater nur an die Kniee.
[What goes to the mother's heart goes only to the father's
knees.]--_German._
38. Wer nicht Kinder hat, der weiss nicht, warum er lebt. [Who has not
children knows not why he lives.]--_German._
39. Whoso curseth his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in
obscure darkness.--_Bible._
40. Whoso robbeth his father or his mother, and saith, It is no
transgression, the same is the companion of a destroyer.--_Bible._