You're only as happy as your least happy child.

There is only one thing children find harder to hold back than tears, and that is joy.

You're sad because you're sad.
It's psychic. It's the age. It's chemical.
Go see a shrink or take a pill,
or hug your sadness like an eyeless doll
you need to sleep.

Well, all children are sad
but some get over it.
Count your blessings. Better than that,
buy a hat. Buy a coat or a pet.
Take up dancing to forget.

Your children get only one childhood.

All children are sad,
but some get over it.

...why were you happier when you were a kid? Because you didn't know anything. The more you know, the sadder you get.

You only live through your kids once.

It takes so little to make a child happy, that it is a pity in a world full of sunshine and pleasant things, that there should be any wistful faces, empty hands, or lonely little hearts.

I want more than anything for my children to be happy, and I love them because they are sad, and the erratic project of kneading that sadness into joy is the engine of my life as a father, as a son, as a friend—and as a writer.

One of your siblings has got to be the dumbest. And if you’re an only child — you’re the dumb one.

Never despair of a child. The one you weep the most for at the mercy-seat may fill your heart with the sweetest joys.

My guess is that you can only be so happy. While there seems to be no floor to sorrow.

There is no greater suffering than that of a parent who is unable to save their own child who wants to die.

The best thing for being sad ... is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then - to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.