Generational Wisdom Quotes

Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.

There must be people who remember World War II and the Holocaust who can help us get out of this rut.

Most definitely, my dad was my biggest influence.

I had the good fortune to spend hours with my parents around the dinner table having debates on politics and economics.

I think my mother is my biggest influence. There are so many things I hate about her but at the same time I'm thankful for her. All I know is that when I'm a parent I want to be just like my mom. I can talk to my mom more than any of my friends could talk to their parents.

To be honest my mentor was my mom and dad. I was very blessed and fortunate to have parents like I had.

Every character I do has a bit of my mum in her. She's like the doyenne of Dayton, Ohio.

When you take the time to understand why your parents did the things they did, you stand a good chance of learning more about your own behavior.

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these.

I had intelligent, high-minded, liberal parents who wanted to make sure my values were just like theirs.

And how we become like our parents! How their scorned advice - based, we felt in our superiority, on prejudices and muddled folk wisdom - how their opinions are subsequently borne out by our own discoveries and sense of the world, one after one. And as this happens, we realise with increasing horror that proposition which we would never have entertained before: our mothers were right!

My 91-year-old great-grandma would get out of her chair and whip me if I start acting like I'm some star or something like that.

I grew up with my grandparents around. I think that's important for a child. If for no other reason than to hear stories about their parents when they were children.

My parents and my grandmother inspire me every day and, every day, in my work and personal life.

When I was a child, I loved old people. My New Hampshire grandfather was my model human being.

My grandmother's generation and generations before always saw beyond the horizons of their own lives and their own circumstances. They believed that opportunity created today would lead to prosperity tomorrow.

I always have felt that elders are really important. I think it's because, in my little Southern black culture, elders really were respected. Everybody listened to them. They may not have agreed - that's a whole different story - but they would totally listen and consider what the elder had to say.

Each generation of rabbis is necessarily less perfect than the rabbis that came before, since each generation is more removed from the perfection of the Garden. Therefore, no rabbi is allowed to overturn any of his forebears' wisdom, since they are all, by definition, smarter than him.

Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.

Think of what's stored in an 80- or a 90-year-old mind. Just marvel at it. You've got to get out this information, this knowledge, because you've got something to pass on. There'll be nobody like you ever again. Make the most of every molecule you've got as long as you've got a second to go.

Some of the best kids I coach were raised by a grandmother who was so firm that they understood.

My biological father and I had a really good relationship at one point. He was one of my close friends and gave me wonderful advice.

My heroes in real life are definitely my mom for being true to herself, for having a foot in both worlds, for being so very polite - Canadian and also such a traditional Greek woman. I would sum it up this way: the life lesson she would say is be polite while you're breaking the rules.

My dad is just like everybody else's dad. I see him as kind of a goofy guy with a great sense of humor. I try to get in a battle of wits with him, but he always gets me. I emulate him because I've never seen anyone work as hard as he does.

Three of my children are medical doctors, they know at least a hundred times as much about your body as my grandfather knew, but they don't know much more about soul than he did.