“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!”
The Book of Psalms, 1611 · Psalm 133:1, King James Version
Chapter 1
On Family
“Children's children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers.”
The Book of Proverbs, 1611 · Proverbs 17:6, King James Version
“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
Leo Tolstoy, 1877 · opening line of Anna Karenina, translated by Constance Garnett
“A family is like a forest. When you are outside it is dense; when you are inside you see that each tree has its own place.”
Akan proverb, 1900 · traditional saying of the Akan people of Ghana
“In a united family happiness springs up of itself.”
Chinese proverb, 1875 · proverb 392 in Scarborough's collection
“A year's opportunities depend on Spring; a day's on the dawn; a family's on harmony; and a life's on industry.”
Chinese proverb, 1875 · proverb 803 in Scarborough's collection
“A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.”
The Book of Proverbs, 1611 · Proverbs 18:24, King James Version
Across 148 studies and more than 300,000 people, those with strong social and family ties were about half again as likely to still be alive at follow-up as those without them.
Julianne Holt-Lunstad and colleagues, 2010 · meta-analytic review of social relationships and mortality risk
In the world's longest-lived communities, one habit repeats: keep the family close, keep aging parents and grandparents in or near the home, and commit to the people you have chosen.
Blue Zones research team, 2016 · the Power 9 shared habits of the world's longest-lived populations
Family practices and the small symbolic events a household repeats turn out to be tied to parenting competence, to how children adjust, and to how satisfied a marriage is.
Barbara Fiese and colleagues, 2002 · review of fifty years of research on family routines and rituals
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