Education commences at the mother’s knee, and every word spoken within the hearing of little children tends toward the formation of character. Let parents bear this ever in mind.

Children learn far more from what is said near them than from what is said to them. The lessons a parent intends are a small part of it; the rest is tone, the way people are spoken about when they are not in the room, what gets laughed at, what gets ignored. None of that feels like teaching at the time, which is exactly why it works so thoroughly.

If there are young ones around you, listen to yourself for one ordinary evening as though they were writing it down. Change one habit of speech, not for their sake only, but because you would rather mean it.