Grandson Quotes From Grandparents: 11 Lines From Gorky, Tolstoy, Jefferson's Letters and the Bible
Words My Family Quotes Editors
A small boy wakes up in the cabin of a Volga steamer. His father has just been buried, and the woman combing out her enormous black hair beside him is a grandmother he has only just met. Maxim Gorky opens his memoir My Childhood with that journey, and a page later he writes that until she came he "seemed to have been asleep." Almost everything people want from grandson quotes is in those pages: a grandparent who arrives at the right moment, a boy who is no saint, and a love that is mostly practical.
Below are 11 grandson quotes from grandparents and grandsons, each checked word for word in its original text: four from Gorky's memoir (two about his grandmother, two about his much harder grandfather), two from a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to his 16-year-old grandson, a grandson's birthday poem from Tolstoy, two from Little Lord Fauntleroy, and two verses from the King James Bible that name the grandson outright: "thy son's son." The first table tells you which line suits which card, and further down there are four sample notes you can adapt. For more lines about grandparents in general, browse our grandparent quotes collection.
The 11 lines at a glance
| Line | Who says it, to whom | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| "the being nearest my heart, the dearest and best known of all" | Gorky, about his grandmother | A grandson's card to his grandma; her birthday |
| "you live by a child's conscience" | Gorky's grandmother to the boy | A young grandson who means well |
| "It is like a horse's memory" | Gorky's grandfather | A funny note when he learns to read |
| "make the best of things for yourself" | Gorky's grandfather | A grandson starting something on his own |
| "What would Dr. Small, Mr. Wythe, Peyton Randolph, do" | Jefferson to his grandson | Graduation, first job, leaving home |
| "politeness is artificial good humor" | Jefferson to his grandson | A teenage grandson, with a wink |
| "We love you like our Mother dear" | Tolstoy's narrator, to his grandmother | A grandson's birthday verse for grandma |
| "Do you think I shall make a good companion?" | The Earl and his grandson Cedric | A grandpa and grandson who are best friends |
| "he is the best earl you ever new" | Cedric, writing about his grandfather | A funny card from a small grandson to grandpa |
| "thy son, and of thy son's son" | Exodus 10:2 | A new grandson; a family story handed down |
| "the mouth of thy seed's seed" | Isaiah 59:21 | A baptism, dedication or blessing |
A grandmother on the Volga: Gorky and Akulina
Gorky (born Alexei Peshkov in 1868) was brought up largely by his maternal grandmother. My Childhood, the first part of his autobiographical trilogy, was published in English in New York in 1915, and the grandmother in it, Akulina, is the heart of the book. Just after the boat scene, Gorky sums up what she did for him:
"Connecting all my impressions by a single thread, she wove them into a pattern of many colors, thus making herself my friend for life, the being nearest my heart, the dearest and best known of all; while her disinterested love for all creation enriched me, and built up the strength needful for a hard life."
— Maxim Gorky, My Childhood, chapter I (English edition, The Century Co., New York, 1915, p. 15)
Notice the order. Before any talk of love, she makes sense of things for him: she connects his scattered impressions into one pattern. That is a fair description of what a grandmother often does for a grandson whose parents are struggling, and it gives a grown grandson a way to thank her that is more specific than "you mean the world to me." The phrase "the being nearest my heart" is short enough for a card or a photo caption.
When the grandson tries to protect her
Gorky was no model grandson. In chapter VII the innkeeper's wife throws a carrot at his grandmother, so he waits until she goes down to her cellar, shuts the trapdoor on her, dances a jig on it and throws the key onto the roof. His grandmother slaps him, makes him fetch the key, lets her neighbour out, and the two women laugh about it together. That night, before her prayers, she sits on his bed:
"Now, Lenka, my darling, you must keep yourself from meddling with the doings of grown-up persons. Grown-up people are given responsibilities and they have to answer for them to God; but it is not so with you yet; you live by a child's conscience."
— Gorky's grandmother, My Childhood, chapter VII (1915 English edition)
She goes on to say that judging who is to blame belongs to God, and then, after a pinch of snuff, adds with one eye half closed: "Why, God Himself does not always know where the fault lies." For a grandmother writing to a fiercely loyal grandson, the line works in two ways. It thanks him for being on her side, and it releases him from carrying the adults' quarrels. Families going through a divorce or a feud may find it the most useful line on this page.
The grandfather who scolds, and then teaches
Gorky's grandfather is hot-tempered and sometimes violent, and Gorky does not hide it. He is also the person who teaches the boy to read. In chapter VI he drills him on the alphabet from bed, and when the boy gets it, the old man turns to his wife, delighted:
"He has a memory, thank God! It is like a horse's memory. Get on with it, snub-nose!"
— Gorky's grandfather, My Childhood, chapter VI (1915 English edition)
He then promises five kopecks if the boy can say the whole alphabet without a mistake the next day. It is the gruffest compliment in this collection and probably the most realistic: plenty of grandfathers show pride by teasing. For a grandson's first report card or first book read alone, "a horse's memory" makes a funny caption that only the two of you will fully get.
Near the end of the book the boy's mother drives away again, and his grandfather takes him by the shoulder and tells him that his lot is to live with him. After that the two of them spend their days in the garden. The boy builds himself a shelter out of a burnt beam and dried grass, and his grandfather watches:
"It is very useful," said grandfather, "for you to learn how to make the best of things for yourself."
— My Childhood, chapter XII (1915 English edition)
Gorky adds: "I attached great importance to his words." That is the line for a grandson who is starting out on his own, moving into a first apartment or building something from almost nothing. It is not sentimental, which is why it reads as sincere.
"What would they do in this situation?": Jefferson's advice to a 16-year-old grandson
On 24 November 1808, in the last months of his presidency, Thomas Jefferson wrote a long letter from Washington to his eldest grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph, then 16 and studying in Philadelphia. Jefferson's own father had died when he was 14, and he tells the boy how he managed without anyone to guide him. He had picked a few older men he admired (his teacher William Small, the lawyer George Wythe and Peyton Randolph) and asked himself what they would do:
"Under temptations and difficulties, I would ask myself--What would Dr. Small, Mr. Wythe, Peyton Randolph, do in this situation? What course in it will insure me their approbation?"
— Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Jefferson Randolph, 24 November 1808 (in Sarah N. Randolph, The Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson, 1871)
It is the most usable piece of advice in this collection, and it works as a graduation quote because it doesn't tell a grandson what to do. It tells him how to decide. A grandparent can add one sentence of their own to it: who were your Dr. Small and Mr. Wythe? Later in the same letter Jefferson warns him about arguments and talks about good temper, with a line a teenage grandson might actually enjoy:
"In truth, politeness is artificial good humor, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by rendering habitual a substitute nearly equivalent to the real virtue."
— Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Jefferson Randolph, 24 November 1808
In plain words: if you aren't naturally cheerful, be polite anyway, and after a while it becomes real. That is good advice from a grandfather to a grumpy 16-year-old, and it sounds better coming from a president than from you. The full letter is published by the National Archives on Founders Online.
A grandson's birthday poem that went slightly wrong: Tolstoy
Tolstoy's first book, Childhood (1852), has a chapter every grandparent who has received a homemade card will recognize. Its narrator, ten-year-old Nikolenka, decides to give his grandmother a poem for her name-day. After two couplets he gets stuck, borrows a model from his tutor's papers, and finishes a twelve-couplet ode that ends:
"Endeavouring you to please and cheer, / We love you like our Mother dear."
— Leo Tolstoy, Childhood, chapter XVI, "Verses" (1852; translated by C. J. Hogarth)
Then the doubts start. His mother is not there, so why mention her? And isn't it a lie, since he loves and respects his grandmother but "she is not quite the same"? He stuffs the poem under his pillow, is too shy to hand it over, and his grandmother finds it anyway. It is a funny, accurate picture of a grandson trying to say something grown-up. Quote the couplet in a birthday card to a grandmother who has, in fact, been like a mother, and it is no longer a lie at all.
The earl and the boy from New York: Little Lord Fauntleroy
Frances Hodgson Burnett's novel was serialized in St. Nicholas magazine from November 1885 and published as a book in October 1886. A bitter old English earl, who despises America and was bitterly disappointed when his youngest son married an American, sends for the grandson he has never met: a small boy from a plain New York street who is now heir to the title. The story is about the boy changing the old man, and it starts early in their first days together, when they talk about how lonely a huge house can be:
"Do you think I shall make a good companion?" inquired the Earl. "Yes," replied Cedric, "I think you will."
— Frances Hodgson Burnett, Little Lord Fauntleroy, chapter V (1886)
That exchange makes a lovely card from a grandfather to a young grandson, especially one who has just moved in with or near him. The old man asks the question; the child gives the answer, kindly and without fuss. A few chapters later Cedric writes to his friend Mr. Hobbs, the New York grocer, and Burnett prints the letter with his spelling intact:
"he is the best earl you ever new … i love him more every day becaus no one could help loving an earl like that who is kind to every one in this world"
— Cedric's letter to Mr. Hobbs, Little Lord Fauntleroy, chapter VIII (1886)
Swap "earl" for "grandpa" and it is exactly what a small grandson writes in his first card. If you are helping a young child write to his grandfather, read him this first: it shows that spelling is the least important part. (This page uses different lines from the novel than our grandparents love quotes, which quote the narrator on the boy and his grandfather.)
"Thy son's son": the grandson in the King James Bible
The King James Bible usually says "son's son" or "children's children" where modern English says grandson or grandchildren. Two verses mention the grandson outright and suit a grandparent's card. In the first, God tells Moses why the plagues are being recorded at all:
"And that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son's son, what things I have wrought in Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them; that ye may know how that I am the LORD."
— Exodus 10:2 (King James Version, 1611)
It is the Bible's own case for family storytelling: what happened is told to the son, and then to the son's son. For a new grandson, or for a grandfather writing down family history for one, the first half of the verse is enough: "tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son's son."
The second verse is a promise that goes one generation further, which is why it is often read at baptisms and dedications:
"My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever."
— Isaiah 59:21 (King James Version)
"Seed's seed" is the grandchild. Grandmothers often ask for the verse about Lois, Timothy's grandmother, whose faith Paul says passed down to him (2 Timothy 1:5). We explain that one, with the other grandparent verses, in Bible verses about grandparents.
From a line to a card: four sample notes
A quote works best as the middle of a note, not the whole of it. Start with something only you know about this grandson, put the line in, and end with something to look forward to. These four examples were written by our editors to show the pattern; they are not quotes.
- New grandson, from his grandmother: "Welcome, little one. The Bible tells parents to 'tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son's son' what they have seen. I intend to tell you everything. Love, Grandma."
- Birthday, from a grandson to his grandma: "Tolstoy's boy wrote his grandmother a poem and then worried it was too much. It isn't, in my case: 'We love you like our Mother dear.' Happy birthday."
- Graduation, from his grandfather: "When I didn't know what to do, I asked myself what the people I most admired would do. Jefferson gave his grandson the same advice. I hope you find your own Dr. Small. Proud of you."
- Just because, from a young grandson to grandpa (help him write it): "You are the best grandpa you ever new." Let him spell it his way.
If you want shorter lines for a grandfather's card, our short grandpa quotes page is built for that. If a grandson is on the way, see grandma to be quotes.
Popular grandson sayings we could not trace
The lines that fill image searches for grandson quotes, such as "My grandson is a limited edition," come without an author, a book or a date, and we found no source for them. There is nothing wrong with putting one on a mug. Just don't attribute it to anyone, and if you want a line with a real voice behind it, the 11 above have one.
Questions grandparents ask
What do I write to my grandson on his birthday?
Name one thing he did or learned this year, add one line you mean, and end with a plan ("pancakes on Saturday"). For a teenager, Jefferson's "What would Dr. Small, Mr. Wythe, Peyton Randolph, do in this situation?" is a good centre; for a little boy, Cedric's "the best earl you ever new" turned round to "the best boy" makes him laugh.
What is a short quote for a grandson from his grandma?
Gorky's "the being nearest my heart, the dearest and best known of all" is short enough for a card and written by a grandson about his grandmother, so it reads naturally either way. For something gentler and funnier, use his grandmother's "you live by a child's conscience."
Is there a Bible verse about a grandson?
Yes. Exodus 10:2 speaks of telling things "in the ears of thy son, and of thy son's son," and Isaiah 59:21 promises God's words will not depart "out of the mouth of thy seed's seed." Both are quoted in full above with their context.
How do I congratulate grandparents on a new grandson?
Keep it short and about them: "Congratulations on your new grandson. Now you get to tell him all the stories." If they are churchgoers, add the first half of Exodus 10:2. Avoid lines that suggest the new baby replaces anyone; they will already be thinking of the people who aren't there to meet him.
Every line on this page comes from a text you can read for free: Gorky's 1915 English edition on archive.org, Jefferson's letter on Founders Online, Tolstoy and Burnett on Project Gutenberg, and the King James Bible anywhere. If you know a real letter from a grandparent to a grandson that deserves a place here, tell us. We would rather add one checked line than ten anonymous ones. For lines a grandchild can say back, see our thankful for grandparents quotes.