The fundamental defect of fathers, in our competitive society, is that they want their children to be a credit to them.
Interpretation
Fathers often desire their children to reflect positively on them, instead of allowing them to forge their own paths.
In this quote, Bertrand Russell highlights a significant issue within parental relationships, particularly between fathers and their children. He argues that in a competitive society, many fathers place undue pressure on their children to succeed in ways that reflect well on the fathers themselves. This desire for children to be a 'credit' can hinder the child's personal growth and independence, as they may feel compelled to meet their father's expectations rather than pursue their own passions or identities.
In practice
In a speech about parenting at a local community center, one might quote this to discuss the importance of supporting children's individuality.
St. Paul introduced an entirely novel view of marriage, that it existed primarily to prevent the sin of fornication. It is just as if one were to maintain that the sole reason for baking bread is to prevent people from stealing cake.
Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.
Of these austerer virtues the love of truth is the chief, and in mathematics, more than elsewhere, the love of truth may find encouragement for waning faith. Every great study is not only an end in itself, but also a means of creating and sustaining a lofty habit of mind; and this purpose should be kept always in view throughout the teaching and learning of mathematics.
At all times, except when a monarch could enforce his will, war has been facilitated by the fact that vigorous males, confident of victory, enjoyed it, while their females admired them for their prowess.
Moreover, the attitude that one ought to believe such and such a proposition, independently of the question whether there is evidence in its favor, is an attitude which produces hostility to evidence and causes us to close our minds to every fact that does not suit our prejudices.
Extreme hopes are born from extreme misery.
Work for black women has been an important and valued dimension of Afrocentric definitions of black motherhood.
What motivates me more than money are God and my family.
If a child is given love, he becomes loving ... If he's helped when he needs help, he becomes helpful. And if he has been truly valued at home ... he grows up secure enough to look beyond himself to the welfare of others.
Christmas is a day of meaning and traditions, a special day spent in the warm circle of family and friends." ~ (1925- ), English political leader.
Of all my father's teachings, the most enduring was the one about the true measure of a man. That true measure was how well he provided for his children, and it stuck with me as if it were etched in my brain.
There is always a place where, if you listen closely in the night, you will hear a mother telling a story and at the end of the tale, she will ask you this question: 'Ou libéré?' Are you free, my daughter?" My grandmother quickly pressed her fingers over my lips. Now," she said, "you will know how to answer.
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