The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought - Part 47
Library

Part 47

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?--_Eotvos_.

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 Mutter geben uns von Geiste Warme, und die Vater 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 sofen kinner erneren, as sofen kinner en olle. [A parent can more easily maintain seven children than seven children one parent.]--_Low German._

12. Fader og Moder ere G.o.de, end er Gud bedre. [Father and mother are kind, but G.o.d 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 G.o.d'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 G.o.d and his G.o.d'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 l.u.s.t 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._

CHAPTER XXVIII.

PROVERBS, SAYINGS, ETC., ABOUT THE CHILD, MANKIND, GENIUS, ETC.