Montesquieu

“ It must, however, be admitted that some legislators in their attention to one matter have shown sufficient wisdom; and that is, in giving fathers so much power over their children: nothing is a better lightener of the magistrate’s labours, nothing tends more to keep the courts of justice empty, in short, nothing is more conducive to tranquillity in a state, for morality always makes better citizens than law.
Of all the powers it is that which is least abused ”

“ They have often abolished needlessly those which were already established-that is to say, they have plunged nations into the confusion which always accompanies change.
It is true that, by reason of some extravagance springing rather from the nature than from the mind of man, it is sometimes necessary to change certain laws. ”

“ It has been noticed that families are best ruled in those countries where there is a large paternal discretion in matter of reward and punishment; fathers represent the Creator of the universe, who, although able to lead men by His love, does not refrain from binding them to Himself still more closely by motives of hope and fear. ”