The difference between keeping things clean and keeping kids clean was that things just sat still and waited for the dirt to collect. We kids were carriers. We ran a pickup and delivery service.
Sam LevensonRead
Our parents set the moral tone of the family. They expected more of some of us and less of others, but never less than they thought we were capable of.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Parents influence the moral values of their children and hold them to their potential.
This quote emphasizes the vital role that parents play in establishing the moral foundation of a family. It suggests that while parents may have different expectations for each child based on their perceived capabilities, they never underestimate their children's potential, thereby instilling a sense of responsibility and aspiration in each member of the family.
Themes
ParentsMoralityFamilyExpectationsPotential
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about parenting, one might say, 'As Sam Levenson wisely put it, our parents set the moral tone of the family.'
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When I was a boy I used to do what my father wanted. Now I have to do what my boy wants. My problem is: When am I going to do what I want?
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When you smell our candles burning, what does it make you think of, my child?" Winterfell, she might have said. I smell snow and smoke and pine needles. I smell the stables. I smell Hodor laughing, and Jon and Robb battling in the yard, and Sansa singing about some stupid lady fair. I smell the crypts where the stone kings sit. I smell hot bread baking. I smell the godswood. I smell my wolf. I smell her fur, almost as if she were still beside me. "I don't smell anything," she said.
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You stayed around your children as long as you could, inhaling the ambient gold shavings of their childhood, and at the last minute you tried to see them off into life and hoped that the little piece of time you’d given them was enough to prevent them from one day feeling lonely and afraid and hopeless. You wouldn’t know the outcome for a long time.
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Family life is too intimate to be preserved by the spirit of justice. It can only be sustained by a spirit of love which goes beyond justice. Justice requires that we carefully weigh rights and privileges and assure that each member of a community receives his due share. Love does not weigh rights and privileges too carefully because it prompts each to bear the burden of the other.
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The man the world knew as Billy Graham was always 'Daddy' to me. I was well into my teens before I fully comprehended that my father had a household name and a worldwide ministry.
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When we're dealing with the people in our family - no matter how annoying or gross they may be, no matter how self-inflicted their suffering may appear, no matter how afflicted they are with ignorance, prejudice or nose hairs - we give from the deepest parts of ourselves.
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