“It seems clear to me that marriage ought to be constituted by children, and relations not involving children ought to be ignored by the law and treated as indifferent by public opinion. It is only through children that relations cease to be a purely private matter.”

“Lapset: The children are dexterous, true, but being unable to do calculations, they need help with matters relating to wages.”

Pauli Hanhiniemi (1964) Finnish musician and composer

“You ought not to cross your children unnecessarily, for it makes them ill-natured.”

Ann Lee (1736–1784) English Shaker leader

“Certain forms of sex which do not lead to children are at present punished by the criminal law: this is purely superstitious, since the matter is one which affects no one except the parties directly concerned… The peculiar importance attached, at present, to adultery is quite irrational… Moral rules ought not to be such as to make instinctive happiness impossible.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

“The value of marriage is not that adults produce children, but that children produce adults.”

Peter de Vries (1910–1993) American editor and novelist

“It ought to be possible for American consumers of any color to receive equal service in places of public accommodation, such as hotels and restaurants and theaters and retail stores, without being forced to resort to demonstrations in the street, and it ought to be possible for American citizens of any color to register and to vote in a free election without interference or fear of reprisal. It ought to be possible, in short, for every American to enjoy the privileges of being American without regard to his race or his color. In short, every American ought to have the right to be treated as he would wish to be treated, as one would wish his children to be treated. But this is not the case.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

“Marriage is like a table with four legs - the couple, the children, the parents and the in-laws. Break any of these and the marriage crashes to the floor”

Siddharth Katragadda (1972) Indian writer

“You ought never to speak to your children in a passion; for if you do, you will put devils into them.”

Ann Lee (1736–1784) English Shaker leader

“As parents in private life teach wisdom to their children, so do [poets] in public life to their cities.”

Philo (-15–45 BC) Roman philosopher

“Violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism and tribalism and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children: organized religion ought to have a great deal on its conscience.”

Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) British American author and journalist