“Selective ignorance, a cornerstone of child rearing. You don't put kids under surveillance: it might frighten you. Parents should sit tall in the saddle and look upon their troops with a noble and benevolent and extremely nearsighted gaze.”
Leaving Home (1987), p. 19
Source: Leaving Home: A Collection of Lake Wobegon Stories
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Garrison Keillor 61
American radio host and writer 1942Related quotes

It is sad because you would like to believe that everyone is unique and then they disappoint you every time by being exactly the same, asking for the same things, reciting the exact same lines as though they have been handed a script.
All of us take pride and pleasure in the fact that we are unique, but I'm afraid that when all is said and done the police are right: it all comes down to the fingerprints.
Essay, "Santaland diaries" - p.233-234, 235
Barrel Fever (1994)

“A fool puts a burr under the saddle before she rides.”
Lini
(15 October 1993)

Rachel on how different her and her parents' lifestyle is compared to other parents and their children.
Off & On Broadway documentary (2006)

“Jake, why are you sitting in the front? I thought you liked it in the rear.”
On stage comment to Jake Gyllenhaal, who has been recently nominated for an Oscar for Brokeback Mountain, at the ESPY Awards (16 July 2006)

Aphorism 146 from Jenseits von Gut und Böse (Beyond Good and Evil) an 1886 book by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.
Translated from: Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. Und wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein.
Source: Gutenberg-DE
Translation source: Hollingdale
Misattributed

Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care (1945)

Source: The Age of Revolution (1962), Chapter 4, War