"I've come to believe that children live for the satisfaction of surprising their parents..."

Nicholas Sparks Literature See all quotes by Nicholas Sparks →

React to this quote

More by Nicholas Sparks

“So many people these days, it seemed, believed that these things could come only from work, not from parenting, and many people believed that having children had nothing to do with raising them.”

“When you chase a dream, you learn about yourself. You learn your capabilities and limitations, and the value of hard work and persistence.”

“A truth emerges in any long marriage, and the truth is this: Our spouses sometimes know us better than we even know ourselves.”

“My mom used to tell me that whatever you do, marry someone who loves you more than you love him.”

“It was a life, she eventually concluded, that had been lived in the middle ground, where contentment and love were found in the smallest details of people's lives. It was a life of dignity and honor, not without sorrows yet fulfilling in a way that few experiences ever were. She knew Tuck understood that more than anyone.”

“...once she becomes a teenager...well, sometimes there's nothing you can do. With or without you, in the end, children grow up to become the people they were meant to be.”

Resonant Thoughts

"There are four stages to marriage. First there's the affair, then there's the marriage, then children, and finally the fourth stage, without which you cannot know a woman, the divorce."

— Norman Mailer

Literature1923–2007

#family

"Much of this he strove to express to Ruth, and shocked her and made it clear that more remodelling was necessary. Hers was that common insularity of mind that makes human creatures believe that their …"

— Jack London

Literature1905–1966

#life

"The international problems with which the United Nations is concerned are the problems of the interrelations of the peoples of the world. They are human problems. The United Nations is entitled to bel…"

— Ralph Bunche

Politics1904–1971

#Human Nature

"I would like to clarify the answer published in my name in last month’s issue of Moment Magazine. First of all, the opinions published in my name are solely my own, and do not represent the official p…"

— Manis Friedman

Literature1946

#time