All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.
Johann Wolfgang Von GoetheRead
There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that providing children with a strong foundation and the freedom to pursue their dreams is essential.
In this quote, Goethe emphasizes the dual responsibility of parents in raising children: to give them 'roots' which represent a sense of security, belonging, and identity, and 'wings' which symbolize the freedom and encouragement to explore their potential and follow their aspirations. This balance is crucial for cultivating well-rounded individuals who feel grounded yet empowered to take flight in life.
In practice
During a parenting workshop on child development.
All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.
Destiny grants us our wishes, but in its own way, in order to give us something beyond our wishes.
There is a courtesy of the heart; it is allied to love. From its springs the purest courtesy in the outward behavior.
I am amazed to see how deliberately I have entangled myself step by step. To have seen my position so clearly, and yet to have acted so like a child!
Seldom in the business and transactions of ordinary life, do we find the sympathy we want.
Know thyself? If I knew myself I would run away.
When I was young, my brother David and I were farmed off to foster homes, and I spent time in orphanages. My father abandoned us. Here's the most important person in my life, and I never met him.
My son smelled like a cinnamon bun, and that smell entered into my biological being, and it became an imperative that I keep him alive at all costs, so then there's this monster - this tiger or lion - that comes forward in you to protect them. And it doesn't stop. It doesn't matter if they become men or women.
The one thing I want to leave my children is an honorable name.
I made it to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. But all I want in this world is for my kids to say, 'He was a Hall of Fame dad.'
The greatest gift a parent can give a child is unconditional love. As a child wanders and strays, finding his bearings, he needs a sense of absolute love from a parent. There's nothing wrong with tough love, as long as the love is unconditional.
It was the beginning of the greatest Christmas ever. Little food. No presents. But there was a snowman in their basement.
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