“Take two kids in competition for their parents’ love and attention.”

And once he’s clear about that reality, he gathers the strength to begin to cope.

Let us be different in our homes.

When we acknowledge a child’s feelings, we do him a great service.

Keeping our youth and yesterdays alive / Comrades with one history.

Let us realize that along with food, shelter, and clothing

We deprive them of the experience that comes from wrestling with their own problems.

The resentment that each child feels for the privileges of the other;

Deep inside you know / when trouble comes / and there’s no one else to turn to

No wonder they mobilize all their energy to have more or most. Or better still, all.

Add to that the envy that one child feels for the accomplishments of the other;

I was a wonderful parent before I had children.

From their verbal sparring they learn the difference between being clever and being hurtful.

The personal frustrations that they don’t dare let out on anyone else but a brother or sister,

I was an expert on why everyone else was having problems with theirs. Then I had three of my own.

From their endless rough-housing with each other, they develop speed and agility.

I was a wonderful parent before I had children.

Time, matter, space – all, it may be, are no more than a point.

I have to throw in on a personal note that I didn’t like history when I was in high school.

If you want to live your whole life free from pain you must become either a god or else a corpse. Consider other men’s troubles and that will comfort you.

Water is the best of all things.

May God grant me love for that which has splendor; but in this time of my life let me strive for attainable things.

On recovering my senses

Be advised that all flatterers live at the expense of those who listen to them.

In the Third World, there are 1.3 billion poor people. In other words, one out of every three inhabitants lives in poverty.