A friend once said to me: "So long as my children were little, I lived at peace with my faults and bad habits. Perhaps they were annoying to others, but the caused me no uneasiness. But since my children have grown up, I am ashamed to meet their eyes, for I know they judge me, observe my attitude, my manner of acting, and measure my words. Nothing escapes them; neither the little 'white lie,' nor my illogical reasoning; neither unjustifiable irritation, nor any of the thousand imperfections I formerly indulged in. I require now to be constantly on my guard, and what will finally happen is this, that, instead of my having trained them, my children will have formed my character." --Dora Melegari, "Makers of Sorrow and Makers of Joy."
