More than two decades after the birth of Louise Brown, and all the hysteria that surrounded her 'test tube' conception, we should know that institutions, not technologies, create dystopias. Artificially conceived children are everywhere, beloved by their parents, and they haven't radically altered our world.
Virginia Postrel
Related Louise Brown's birth marked the end of the beginning of human IVF, acclaimed at the Royal Colleg... ROBERT EDWARDS Are you taking us to the beach?" - Dan Cahill JUDE WATSON Let's head out to the ruins." - Dan Cahill ROLAND SMITH Native Americans' families experience living surrounded, living in increasingly small reservatio... JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER I like to open for a band as it brings on sort of a challenge and it makes things more interesting. ... KELLY JONES It looks ancient," - Amy Cahill JUDE WATSON I can tell you that you will have your hearts broken more by the people you love than by the people ... MARGARET PETERSON HADDIX I believe that we haven't begun to understand the many forces that bind the physical world, any ... TAMORA PIERCE It SMELLS ancient," - Dan Cahill JUDE WATSON Palm trees were fanned by a warm, light breeze, and they rolled down their windows to smell the sea. JUDE WATSON As parents are usually working, they haven't time to teach children about cooking, and it's ... MARY BERRY It's something I've noticed with my two children - children frequently know and don't kn... LENNY ABRAHAMSON We are all very deeply the children of our parents and their parents. Far more than we generally rea... BILL DRAYTON I believe that children are, by nature, very forgiving. I don't think children expect their pare... BETH MOORE Maryland's different than Virginia. Maryland has certain advantages that Virginia doesn't ha... JOHN DELANEY Our children think our world will end. It's a tragic thing. Adults don't think that. They do... YANN ARTHUS-BERTRAND We've seen more reform in the last year than we've seen in decades, and we haven't spent... ARNE DUNCAN On the evidence I have on hand at home, social media isn't killing our children. It isn't ki... WARREN ELLIS I think it's important that the rest of the world know that we're not all the same and that ... JAMES DENTON What we know is smartphones are everywhere and they are rich in data. What we know is that there are... KAMALA HARRIS There are two types of companies in the world: those that know they've been hacked, and those th... MISHA GLENNY About f-f-ace!" she said to the horse, flailing with her boots. "Into the barn, please. It's time fo... PETER LERANGIS You see?" Damien leaned over his desk and spread out half a dozen charcoal sketches. "These are only... RICK RIORDAN In the past, kids didn't tell their parents they were gay, so there were never the bust-ups. Som... IAN MCKELLEN Other than Green Day, we haven't had a lot of protest music over the past few decades. ADAM MCKAY Like the 'test tube babies' born of in vitro fertilization, cloned children need not be iden... VIRGINIA POSTREL By measuring the proportion of children living with the same parents from birth and whether their pa... IAIN DUNCAN SMITH Popular culture tells you that schools and parents don't know what's going on, the police ar... STANLEY CROUCH Parents must lead by example. Don't use the cliche; do as I say and not as I do. We are our chil... LEE HANEY In America we tell our parents to bring their child home and put him or her in a crib; as they get o... SHEENA IYENGAR I don't agree with the sentiment 'write what you know.'... I think one should write what... CYNTHIA OZICK And, that's what I truly believe that we're doing when we're advancing scientific knowle... DUANE G. CAREY By loving them for more than their abilities we show our children that they are much more than the s... EILEEN KENNEDY-MOORE Since the conception of our country, America has held that parents, not schools, teachers, and certa... JOHN DOOLITTLE I like that in 'Caprica' the virtual world is a new thing. The parents didn't have that ... MAGDA APANOWICZ I've been told that 'Midnight at the Oasis' has been responsible for the conception of m... MARIA MULDAUR I don't know the secret of Mrs. Brown, but what I do know is that there are things that Mrs. Bro... BRENDAN O'CARROLL It's not that I don't like TV. It's alien to me. I haven't watched a television show... ETHAN COEN I don't care what color the parents are. I don't care if it's a giraffe and a fish livin... PATRICIA POLACCO When people know I wrote 'Thelma and Louise,' they don't want to mess with me. CALLIE KHOURI Unfortunately, the public might not know that we get a script usually two days before shooting. So s... FISHER STEVENS It's coaches. It's people that are involved in kids' lives at every level, and it's ... DONNA SHALALA I think that most of the children's writers live in the world that they've created, and thei... A. S. BYATT I received a lot of complaints from parents who wrote and told me that their kids wouldn't go to... MILTON BERLE I haven't read the 'Twilight' books. But it's everywhere so I feel like I know it. E... MAX IRONS Parents should continue to become more involved with their communities, and more involved in their c... SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR We're quite into graphics that are simultaneously two- and three-dimensional. But I can't re... SEAN BOOTH At age three, if you have a still-growing brain, it's a human behavior. In chimps, by age three,... ZERESENAY ALEMSEGED We know that our senses are subject to decay, that from our middle years they are decaying all the t... WILLIAM HENRY HUDSON Children will be children, and they're inquisitive. If teenagers want to know what's out the... KEELEY HAWES As a Naval officer, I've been all over the world, and one of the foundational lessons I learned ... MICHAEL MULLEN I think the biggest difference is that I've noticed Western parents seem much more concerned abo... AMY CHUA I've got a few ideas," (Amy) admitted. "But I don't know where we're going in the long term. I mean ... RICK RIORDAN I haven't lived in Sweden since I was a teenager. We lived in southern Sweden, about two hours n... NENEH CHERRY My parents never understood why I didn't want to be a doctor or lawyer. They're Cuban immigr... NARCISO RODRIGUEZ I haven't been very enthusiastic about the commercialization of children's literature. Kids ... BEVERLY CLEARY Parents are always more knowledgeable than their children, and children are always smarter than thei... JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER My family and I have been blessed with good fortune in the world of business. We've created quit... ELI BROAD I haven't won a World Cup. There's things that haven't been finished, and I'm not af... ABBY WAMBACH We should educate all Party members and other working people to become genuine patriots who first lo... KIM JONG-UN This is the reason why mothers are more devoted to their children than fathers: it is that they suff... ARISTOTLE This is the reason why mothers are more devoted to their children than fathers: it is that they suf... ARISTOTLE This is the reason why mothers are more devoted to their children than fathers: it is that they suff... ARISTOTLE Sleep is so important. I think more important than we know. When I haven't slept, I'm not my... ELSA HOSK Parents in China are very strict with their children. They say you should do this, you shouldn't do ... ZHANG JIE Our officials want nothing more than to be at the top of their professional game and make the correc... DAVID STERN Democracy demands that judges confine themselves to a narrow sphere of influence - that is why the l... EDWIN MEESE It's expected of novels that they should explain the world and create the illusion that things a... DAMON GALGUT What I know now is that we're all interconnected and that's a really beautiful thing. We hav... JANE SEYMOUR Alas, I think I am becoming a god. TITUS Some men by ancestry are only the shadow of a mighty name. LUCAN I have a wife, I have sons: all of them hostages given to fate. LUCAN I live in southern Appalachia, so I'm surrounded by people who work very hard for barely a livin... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I think all kids think their parents are strict. My parents aren't superstrict, but they seem to... CODY LINLEY We have also always maintained an open, age-appropriate dialogue with our children, reinforcing to t... TSH OXENREIDER We have managed to acquire $13 trillion of debt on our balance sheet. In my view we have nothing to ... MICHAEL BENNETT Not that we didn't have close relationships with our parents - I'm very close to my mom - bu... CANDICE BERGEN Forget scientists. The next space launch we should send up painters, poets and musicians. I’d be m... JAMES ROZOFF I think all these pop cultural media often reflect conversations we're having in the real world ... G. WILLOW WILSON Entertainers are there to entertain. They aren't there to teach your children the lessons that y... WENTWORTH MILLER The closer children are to their parents, the more likely they are to internalize the values and nor... ASHLEY CROSSMAN The closer children are to their parents, the more likely they are to internalize the values and nor... ASHLEY FENZL CROSSMAN Girls grow up scarred by caution and enter adulthood eager to shake free of their parents' worst... NANCY GIBBS The imperialists see extremists everywhere. It's not that we are extremists. It's that the w... HUGO CHAVEZ Nigeria is like everywhere, really: there are some beautiful places that have been invested in and o... TINIE TEMPAH Here he tells us that the new birth is first of all 'not of blood'. You don't get it thr... E. STANLEY JONES The diversity of America is a strength of the country, and I don't think that we use that. We do... STEVE STOUTE You wouldn't go to a hospital, you wouldn't go to a law firm where the doctors and lawyers w... DAVID BOIES I have been definitely influenced more by Latin American writers than by any other type of writer. T... JESSICA HAGEDORN Often you hear stories about never working with children. I disagree because children still have tha... NICOLAS CAGE The mind controls so much of the body. We are much more than flesh and blood; we are complex systems... BEN CARSON Entrepreneurs do not try and create new types of smartphone technologies now because they know it... CHARLES DUHIGG We live in an age of generational turmoil. Baby-boom parents are accused of clinging on to jobs and ... JANE RIDLEY Millions of people acknowledge today that they do not know the meaning of life. JAMES C. DOBSON ...The life of the parents is the only thing that makes good children. Parents should be very patien... ELDER PORPHYRIOS Harry Reid and the Senate haven't passed a budget. Their pay should be reduced until they do. RON DESANTIS All over the world, children facing the challenges of poverty attend schools that aren't designe... WENDY KOPP We know from our own history that democratic institutions take decades to mature, and we know from p... JIM DEMINT The people who run record companies now wouldn't know a song if it flew up their nose and died. ... DAVID CROSBY I don't aspire to be a sex icon, I don't know why anyone would. It's an uncomfortable po... BILLY HOWLE
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VIRGINIA WOOLF A masterpiece is something said once and for all, stated, finished, so that it's there complete in t... VIRGINIA WOOLF One likes people much better when they're battered down by a prodigious siege of misfortune than whe... VIRGINIA WOOLF The poet gives us his essence, but prose takes the mold of the body and mind. VIRGINIA WOOLF Boredom is the legitimate kingdom of the philanthropic. VIRGINIA WOOLF It is the nature of the artist to mind excessively what is said about him. Literature is strewn with... VIRGINIA WOOLF To enjoy freedom we have to control ourselves. VIRGINIA WOOLF Henry James seems most entirely in his element, doing that is to say what everything favors his doin... VIRGINIA WOOLF No need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself. VIRGINIA WOOLF As long as she thinks of a man, nobody objects to a woman thinking. VIRGINIA WOOLF When I cannot see words curling like rings of smoke round me I am in darkness—I am nothing. VIRGINIA WOOLF If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people. VIRGINIA WOOLF I can only note that the past is beautiful because one never realises an emotion at the time. It exp... VIRGINIA WOOLF Books are the mirrors of the soul. VIRGINIA WOOLF I will not be "famous," "great." I will go on adventuring, changing, opening my mind and my eyes, re... VIRGINIA WOOLF To depend upon a profession is a less odious form of slavery than to depend upon a father. VIRGINIA WOOLF Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the... VIRGINIA WOOLF Orlando naturally loved solitary places, vast views, and to feel himself for ever and ever and ever ... VIRGINIA WOOLF Alone, I often fall down into nothingness. I must push my foot stealthily lest I should fall off the... VIRGINIA WOOLF Melancholy were the sounds on a winter's night. VIRGINIA WOOLF Women and fiction remain, so far as I am concerned, unsolved problems. VIRGINIA WOOLF The eyes of others our prisons; their thoughts our cages. VIRGINIA WOOLF Yet Byron never made tea as you do, who fill the pot so that when you put the lid on the tea spills ... VIRGINIA WOOLF Just in case you ever foolishly forget; I'm never not thinking of you. VIRGINIA WOOLF One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well. VIRGINIA WOOLF Women have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of... VIRGINIA WOOLF A woman knows very well that, though a wit sends her his poems, praises her judgment, solicits her c... VIRGINIA WOOLF The connection between dress and war is not far to seek; your finest clothes are those you wear as s... VIRGINIA WOOLF But it is just when opinions universally prevail and we have added lip service to their authority th... VIRGINIA WOOLF The man who is aware of himself is henceforward independent; and he is never bored, and life is only... VIRGINIA WOOLF Great bodies of people are never responsible for what they do. VIRGINIA WOOLF There can be no two opinions as to what a highbrow is. He is the man or woman of thoroughbred intell... VIRGINIA WOOLF I am to be broken. I am to be derided all my life. I am to be cast up and down among these men and w... VIRGINIA WOOLF I ransack public libraries, and find them full of sunk treasure. VIRGINIA WOOLF Thus when I come to shape here at this table between my hands the story of my life and set it before... VIRGINIA WOOLF