Couples with children may argue more, the author suggests, because children are a reminder of just how crucial our choices are.

The author observes the shift now that children are not a source of labor for the family, that they have gone from employees of the parents to the bosses of the parents.

Even when our children are still young and defenseless, we feel intimations of their departure. We find ourselves staring at them with nostalgia, wistful for the person they're about to no longer be.

You don't have a good story until something deviates from the expected, " says McAdams. "And raising children leads to some pretty unexpected happenings.

What makes a mother? Looking at your child and identifying emotion

Vocabulary for aggravation is large. Vocabulary for transcendence is elusive.

The 20th century, the author observes, fostered the idea that fulfillment is possible on Earth.

The phrase "having it all" has little to do with having what we want.

Your children are going through life with their eyes closed, so YOU'RE the one who has to steer.

Children live life as a controlled experiment.

Union with God is the only heaven there is, and it begins here on earth.

No matter how much youcare about someone, you can’t take responsibilityfor their happiness.

Many injuries and deaths can be prevented through an understanding of the dangers of power lines, electrical appliances, extension cords, and lightning.

We drink one another's health and spoil our own.

Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, has on several occasions talked about transparency as an absolute principle. I don't personally believe that.

Until every good man is brave, we must expect to find many good women timid--too timid even to believe in the correctness of their own best promptings, when these would place them in a minority.

In art there is a need for truth, not sincerity.

I find a lot of people struggling in their lives because they feel like it was expected they do a certain thing or act a certain way and not follow what their gut is telling them to do.

Emerson, I am trying to live, as you said we must, the examined life. But there are days I wish there was less in my head to examine, not to speak of the busy heart.

We always prefer war on our own terms to peace on someone else's.