Growing Up Well

Eli Newberger

“A healthy-minded boy should feel hearty contempt for the coward and even more hearty indignation for the boy who bullies girls or small boys, or tortures animals.”…”What we have a right to expect of the American boy is that he shall turn out to be a good American man.”

Theodore Roosevelt

“When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around.  But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”

Mark Twain

“And whoever welcomes a child like this in my name welcomes me.” -  Matthew 18:5

“The day the soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them.  They have either lost confidence that you can help them or they have concluded that you do not care.”

General Colin Powell

“Our children can tell.  They know when we are not fully there with them.  And that disengagement sends a clear message –whether we mean it or not–about where among our priorities they fall.  So we need to step out of our own heads and tune in.  We need to turn off the television and start talking with our kids, and listening to them, and understanding what’s going on in their lives.”

Barack Obama

“A child is a person who is going to carry on what you have started.  He is going to sit where you are sitting, and when you are gone, attend to those things which you think are important.  You may adopt all the policies you please, but how they are carried out depends on him.  He will assume control of your cities, your states, and your nation.  He is going to move in and take your churches, your schools, your universities, and your corporations.  All your books are going to be judged, praised, or condemned by him.  The fate of humanity is in his hands.”

Abraham Lincoln

“The best index to a person’s character is (a) how he treats people who can’t do him any good, and (b) how he treats people who can’t fight back.”

Abigail Van Buren

“Raising a teenager is like flying a kite on a windy day.  Teens are blown around by the culture, by peer pressure, and by hormones, and the string is my connection to my teenager, from my heart to his heart.”

Danny Silk

“All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”

Edmund Burke, 1795

“I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have.”

Abraham Lincoln

“The oldest form of theater is the dinner table. It’s got five or six people, new show every night, same players. Good ensemble; the people have worked together a lot.  I heard at a parenting seminar that the best place to reduce stress and boost confidence in children is to set aside a regular time together at the dinner table. I shall eat with my boy!”

Michael J. Fox

“The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.  What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value.  I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow brave.”

Thomas Paine

“Children are great imitators, so give them something great to imitate.”  -  Anonymous