Our children will not survive our habits of thinking, our failures of the spirit, our wreck of the universe into which we bring new life as blithely as we do. Mostly, our children will resemble our own misery and spite and anger, because we give them no choice about it. In the name of motherhood and fatherhood and education and good manners, we threaten and suffocate and bind and ensnare and bribe and trick children into wholesale emulation of our ways.

Summary

This quote suggests that if we continue with our negative thinking patterns, moral failures, and destructive actions, our children will not be able to escape the same fate. The speaker argues that by imposing our own bitterness, hatred, and anger onto them, we give them no chance to develop differently. Despite our claims of nurturing and educating them, we often restrict, manipulate, and force children to imitate our own flawed behavior. Thus, the quote highlights the importance of breaking these cycles and ensuring that our habits and actions do not hinder the well-being and growth of future generations.

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