On Mothers and Fathers

“Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land.”

“My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother.”

“Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.”

“My son, help thy father in his age, and grieve him not as long as he liveth.”

“Honour thy father with thy whole heart, and forget not the sorrows of thy mother.”

“Lower to them the wing of humility out of mercy, and say: My Lord, have mercy on them, as they brought me up when I was little.”

“Filial piety and fraternal submission, are they not the root of all benevolent actions?”

“Heaven and Earth are great; father and mother are honourable.”

“Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.”

“I have always felt proud that she refused to go into debt for that which she did not have the money to pay for.”

Tracking the same men for sixty years, the researchers found that those who had grown up in warm relationships with their parents were the ones most securely attached to their partners in their eighties.

“He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers.”