Filial Quotes

“No, nothing in this world is as oppressive and debilitating as blood ties. Any other relationship – be it friend, lover, wife; be it obligatory or constraining or difficult – is something one has consciously entered into at some point. Only one's ties with parents and siblings are formed at birth and are unbreakable.”
― Kafū Nagai, Three Japanese Short Stories

“Being grateful to our parents is the foundation of being a decent person. We exist because of our parents. Our mothers suffered a great deal during pregnancy and while giving birth, much like the earth having to endure much ordeal as plants grow out of the ground.”
― Shih Cheng Yen, The Essence of Filial Piety: The First Lesson to a Happy Life

“A father who has a contentious son will not act in ways that lack ritual propriety. A well-bred man who has a contentious friend will not do what is not yi [just; correct]. Thus, if a son simply obeys his father, how would that son be filial? If a minister simply obeys his lord, how would the minister be exercising fidelity? To be careful about the cases in which one obeys another – this is called filial piety, this is called fidelity.

(Xunzi “The Way to be a Son,” Hutton p. 326).”
― Xunzi