What do we owe our parents? No man can owe love; none can owe obedience. We owe, I think, chiefly pity; for we are the pledge of their dear and joyful union, we have been the solicitude of their days and the anxiety of their nights, we have made them, though by no will of ours, to carry the burthen of our sins, sorrows, and physical infirmities; and too many of us grow up at length to disappoint the purpose of their lives and requite their care and piety with cruel pangs.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Essay (1880-01/02?), “Reflections and Remarks on Human Life,” § 2.2 “Parent and Child”
(Source)
A collection of aphorisms and musings, first published in the Edinburgh Edition of his Works, vol. 28 (1898).
Quotations about:
filial duty
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I have no sympathy with the old idea that children owe such immense gratitude to their parents that they can never fulfill their obligations to them. I think the obligation is all on the other side.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) American social activist, abolitionist, woman's suffragist
Journal (1880-11-12)
(Source)
