Compass, a handbook on parents leadership by James Stenson. Quotes IV

-As a parent you make sacrificial effort every day, for years, to turn your children's daily habits into lifelong virtues. You lead your children to become responsible, you teach them justice, fortitude, -courage is the memory of past successes-, you teach them healthy, realistic self-esteem from work well done, you teach them an all important lesson about life: comfort and convenience are only by-products of a successful life, not its purpose.
-We are here to serve others with our powers.
-As a parent you never give up until your children have acquired the powers to live rightly on their own.
-Verbal explanation works mostly to form children's judgment and conscience.
-You explain the importance of work well done and the disgrace of being a slacker or quitter.
-You rely on talk only to reinforce and explain action, to help the children grasp why you live the way you do, and why you press them the way you do.
-The two most troubled stages of children's lives: at ages two to five, and again at thirteen to seventeen.
-Practice builds habits, while explanations build judgment, conscience, attitudes, values.
-For most people, the voice of conscience is the voice of their parents, the memory of their parents' lessons about right and wrong.
-Above all you should listen to your children: their progress in judgment and conscience, their worries and self-doubts, their problems.
-Adolescents who deeply love and respect their parents remain virtually immune to perilous peer-pressures and untouched by the rock-sex-drug culture. Their parent's character is the measure by which they judge their peers.
-When you chat with your children, be sure you listen with your eyes. Children are extremely sensitive to what they see in their parent's eyes. Make eye-contact with them to show your undivided attention: that's how important they are to you. When they look into your eyes, let them see your heartfelt love for them, your hopes for their future, your pride in their growing character.