Joe Lawrence

“You could get slaves to do anything at all, bear anything, if you gave them any hope that they could keep their children.”
― Toni Morrison, The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations

“Don't be ignorant your whole life.”
― Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men

“I, and I only, am to blame for all their sins; I spoiled them. To-day they are as eager for pleasure as they used to be for sugar-plums. When they were little girls I indulged them in every whim. They had a carriage of their own when they were fifteen. They have never been crossed. I am guilty, and not they—but I sinned through love.”
― Honoré de Balzac, Père Goriot

“Yet what I have learned in my research is that when we let kids skip out on chores or family events so they can study or practice for their soccer games, we support an overly self-focused outlook in them. It doesn’t just make them selfish and self-involved and a little hard to live with. Too much self-focus is unhealthy for them. It’s associated with clinical depression, personality disorders, and anxiety.”
― Jennifer Breheny Wallace, Never Enough: When Achievement Culture Becomes Toxic-and What We Can Do About It