"We could see that our mothers blackmailed us with self-sacrifice, even if we did not know whether or not they might have been great opera stars or toasts of the town if they had not borne us. In our intractable moments we pointed out that we had not asked to be born, or even to go to an expensive school. We knew that they must have had motives of their own for what they did with us and to us. The notion of our parents' self-sacrifice filled us not with gratitude but with confusion and guilt. We wanted them to be happy yet they were sad and deprived and it was our fault."

Family, Parenting, Sacrifice, Guilt

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"We could see that our mothers blackmailed us with self-sacrifice, even if we did not know whether or not they might have been great opera stars or toasts of the town if they had not borne us. In our intractable moments we pointed out that we had not asked to be born, or even to go to an expensive school. We knew that they must have had motives of their own for what they did with us and to us. The notion of our parents' self-sacrifice filled us not with gratitude but with confusion and guilt. We wanted them to be happy yet they were sad and deprived and it was our fault."

Exlpore more Family quotes

"If I would be made come to earth again, I would ask for the same mother again. If made to return 100 times to earth, I would request to be born through the same mother 100 times!"

Israelmore Ayivor, Ghanaian Author

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"I am sure that if the mothers of various nations could meet, there would be no more wars."

E. M. Forster, English Novelist

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"So live that you wouldn't be ashamed to sell the family parrot to the town gossip."

Will Rogers, American Actor

Family, Gossip

"They play in the Meadow. The dancing girl with the dark hair and blue eyes. The boy with blond curls and gray eyes, struggling to keep up with her on his chubby toddler legs. It took five, ten, fifteen years for me to agree. But Peeta wanted them so badly. When I first felt her stirring inside of me, I was consumed with a terror that felt as old as life itself. Only the joy of holding her in my arms could tame it."

Suzanne Collins, American Novelist

Family, Fear, Joy, Motherhood, Love

"It's funny how two people can grow up in the same town, go to the same school, have the same friends, and end up so totally different. Family, or lack of it, counts for more than you'd think."

Sarah Dessen, American Author

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"A good mother... when you CRY, she CARRIES you; when you are HUNGRY, she will HURRY to feed you; when you are about to SLEEP, she SINGS for you! Long live good mothers! Thank you mama!"

Israelmore Ayivor, Ghanaian Author

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"Family quarrels are bitter things. They don't go according to any rules. They're not like aches or wounds, they're more like splits in the skin that won't heal because there's not enough material."

F. Scott Fitzgerald, American Author

Family, Quarrels, Rules, Skin

"Not a few millions of parents strongly hope that their own children will step in by instantly becoming their own parents' foster parents, if and when the parents reach their second childhood."

Mokokoma Mokhonoana, South African Philosopher

Family, Aging, Responsibility, Hope

"If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance."

George Bernard Shaw, Irish Dramatist

Family, Dance, May

"Mother is the center of the family, everyone else surrounds her."

Debasish Mridha, American Author

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Explore more quotes by Germaine Greer

"Evolution is what it is. The upper classes have always died out; it's one of the most charming things about them."

Evolution

"Freedom is fragile and must be protected. To sacrifice it, even as a temporary measure, is to betray it."

Sacrifice

"Loneliness is never more cruel than when it is felt in close propinquity with someone who has ceased to communicate."

Relationship

"Freud is the father of psychoanalysis. It has no mother."

Family

"Women are reputed never to be disgusted. The sad fact is that they often are, but not with men; following the lead of men, they are most often disgusted with themselves."

Woman

"Security is when everything is settled. When nothing can happen to you. Security is the denial of life."

Life

"The surest guide to the correctness of the path that women take is joy in the struggle. Revolution is the festival of the oppressed."

Woman

"Perhaps catastrophe is the natural human environment, and even though we spend a good deal of energy trying to get away from it, we are programmed for survival amid catastrophe."

Survival

"Even crushed against his brother in the Tube the average Englishman pretends desperately that he is alone."

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"Perhaps women have always been in closer contact with reality than men: it would seem to be the just recompense for being deprived of idealism."

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