You should make it hard on yourself to write so you’re easier to read.
Fran LebowitzRead
Your responsibility as a parent is not as great as you might imagine. You need not supply the world with the next conqueror of disease or major motion picture star. If your child simply grows up to be someone who does not use the word "collectible" as a noun, you can consider yourself an unqualified success.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Parenting is less about extraordinary achievements and more about raising a well-adjusted individual.
In this quote, Fran Lebowitz emphasizes that the primary role of a parent is not to mold their child into a future superstar or groundbreaking innovator but rather to instill basic decency and understanding. Success in parenting can be measured by the child's ability to navigate life with simple, meaningful values rather than lofty societal expectations.
Themes
ParentingSuccessValuesResponsibilityChildren
In practice
Example use cases
A speech at a parenting seminar to inspire new parents.
More from Fran Lebowitz
All quotes →Special-interest publications should realize that if they are attracting enough advertising and readers to make a profit, the interest is not so special.
Fran LebowitzRead
I place a high moral value on the way people behave. I find it repellent to have a lot, and to behave with anything other than courtesy in the old sense of the word - politeness of the heart, a gentleness of the spirit.
Fran LebowitzRead
I must take issue with the term 'a mere child,' for it has been my invariable experience that the company of a mere child is infinitely preferable to that of a mere adult.
Fran LebowitzRead
Original thought is like original sin: both happened before you were born to people you could not have possibly met.
Fran LebowitzRead
I never took hallucinogenic drugs because I never wanted my consciousness expanded one unnecessary iota.
Fran LebowitzRead
Similar quotes
[Motherhood is] the biggest gamble in the world. It is the glorious life force. It's huge and scary-it's an act of infinite optimism.
Gilda RadnerRead
My mother's death brought me to my knees. She was my hero, my role model, my very best friend. I spoke to her every single day of my life. I really tried hard when I grew up to make her proud of me.
Maria ShriverRead
Though my father was Norwegian, he always wrote his diaries in perfect English.
Roald DahlRead
As a teenage daughter hears her sweet mother plead unto the Lord that her daughter will be inspired in the selection of her companions, that she will prepare herself for a temple marriage, don't you believe that such a daughter will seek to honor this humble, pleading petition of her mother, whom she so dearly loves?
Thomas S. MonsonRead
You can't separate a house from a family. It's a living, breathing home.
Leonard LauderRead
Love her as in childhood Through feeble, old and grey. For you’ll never miss a mother’s love Till she’s buried beneath the clay.
Frank MccourtRead