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

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.

Children live life as a controlled experiment.

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

The fear of being yourself is the beginning of self-doubt.

We're all real people with moments of intense honesty and pathos and humanity. We all experience that, whether you're comedic or not.

A man should not risk his life for beauty alone, Kiall, for that fades. You might as well risk it for a rose. Think on it.

Every human being has appetites difficult to control but far fewer have humility, gentleness, and an awareness of their weaknesses.

I know very few young people, but it seems to me that they are all possessed with an almost fatal hunger for permanence.

I'm still spending my working life trying to mine people's souls and now they're complimenting me in reviews on the amount of time I spend in the gym. On the definition of my triceps.

There are surely people in London who would love to play us off against each other. That would be disastrous for the EU.

The MDGs have been useful in moving human rights and development discourse together and in highlighting the need for greater accountability at all levels.

There have been a lot of murders and suicides in my family; it's like the primary cause of death. I wonder if there's a certain energy that attracts that.

You can't get away, you can't escape. You'll jump through a plate-glass window several times and end up being right back in the spider's web.