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Quotations about Mothers

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No language can express the power, and beauty, and heroism, and majesty of a mother's love. It shrinks not where man cowers, and grows stronger where man faints, and over wastes of worldly fortunes sends the radiance of its quenchless fidelity like a star. ~Edwin Hubbell Chapin (1814–1880)





One warm mother-kiss dried the little wet eyes and stilled the little troubled heart. ~Jay Benson Hamilton, "How Santa Claus Made One Dollar Hold Out," 1891





Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs in the world, since the payment is pure love. ~Mildred B. Vermont





Any suburban mother can state her role sardonically enough in a sentence: it is to deliver children — obstetrically once and by car forever after. ~Peter De Vries, in LIFE, 1956





Suburban life is merely motherhood on wheels. ~Peter De Vries, in LIFE, 1956





The phrase "working mother" is redundant. ~Jane Sellman





And when a child is born,

we miss one point completely —

the moment a child is born,

the mother is also born.

She never existed before.

The woman existed, but the mother, never.

A mother is something absolutely new.

~Osho, The Way of the White Cloud, 1975





If the whole world were put into one scale, and my mother in the other, the whole world would kick the beam. ~Henry Bickersteth, Baron Langdale





"Oh, mother, mother, mother," the boy groaned, and he longed, as if his heart was breaking, to lay his head on her knee, and look up for comfort to her face, as he had often done in his childish troubles. "Dear, dear mother!" and the tears came at last, raining through his fingers, and taking away that dull stupor of pain from his heart. ~Cousin Alice, "All's Not Gold that Glitters;" or, The Young Californian, 1858 [Emily Alice Bradley Neal Haven (1827–1863) —tεᖇᖇ¡·g]





If you have a mom, there is nowhere you are likely to go where a prayer has not already been. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com





A Freudian slip is when you say one thing but mean your mother. ~Author unknown, quoted from The American Legion, 2002





Sweater, n.: garment worn by a child when its mother is feeling chilly. ~Author unknown





Women's Liberation is just a lot of foolishness. It's the men who are discriminated against. They can't bear children. And no one's likely to do anything about that. ~Golda Meir, 1972





Besides, the real religion of the world comes from women much more than from men, — from mothers most of all, who carry the key of our souls in their bosoms. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809–1894)





All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That’s his. ~Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People, 1895





One primary effect, however, of such devotion to one's own mother should be the making of all motherhood everywhere infinitely sacred. He is a poor son whose sonship does not make him desire to serve all men's mothers. ~Harry Emerson Fosdick, The Meaning of Service, 1920





An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy. ~Spanish proverb





Thou art thy mother's glass, and she in thee

Calls back the lovely April of her prime...

~William Shakespeare





When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child. ~Sophia Loren





What is it about being at your mom's house that lets you completely relax? ~The Middle, "Mother's Day," 2010, written by Jana & Mitch Hunter [S1, E22, Frankie Heck]





Women are aristocrats, and it is always the mother who makes us feel that we belong to the better sort. ~J. L. Spalding, Things of the Mind, 1895





I had to take time out to have a baby. I just couldn't have balanced it all physically. Motherhood has a very humanizing effect. Everything gets reduced to essentials. ~Meryl Streep, in The Ladies' Home Journal, 1984





...The sweetest sounds to mortals given

Are heard in Mother, Home, and Heaven...

~William Goldsmith Brown





What are Raphael's Madonnas but the shadow of a mother's love, fixed in permanent outline forever? ~Thomas Wentworth Higginson, "A Shadow," 1870





Mothers are the vital warmth of sun — and they are the comforting coolness of shade. ~Terri Guillemets





The formative period for building character for eternity is in the nursery. The mother is queen of that realm and sways a scepter more potent than that of kings and priests. ~M. H. H., quoted in Our Mothers, compiled by Mary Allette Ayer, 1916





[A] mother is one to whom you hurry when you are troubled. ~Emily Dickinson, 1870, to Thomas Wentworth Higginson





A mother is the truest friend we have; when trials heavy and sudden fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends, who rejoiced with us in our sunshine, desert us when troubles thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts. ~Author unknown, c. 1875





Any mother could perform the jobs of several air traffic controllers with ease. ~Lisa Alther, Other Women, 1984





Don't ever tell the mother of a newborn that her baby's smile is just gas. ~Jill Woodhull





I, that still pray at morning and at eve,

Loving those roots that feed us from the past,

And prizing more than Plato things I learned

At that best academe, a mother's knee...

~James Russell Lowell, "The Cathedral"





She was sleeping with the absolute confidence peculiar to her age; a mother's arms are made of tenderness, and children sleep soundly in them. ~Victor Hugo, "Two Mothers Meet," Les Misérables, translated by Lascelles Wraxall, 1862





Grown don't mean nothing to a mother. A child is a child. They get bigger, older, but grown? What's that supposed to mean? In my heart it don't mean a thing. ~Toni Morrison, Beloved, 1987





A mom accepts love in whatever currency it's offered and returns it always in gold coin. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com, 2019





Who fed me from her gentle breast,

And hush'd me in her arms to rest,

And on my cheek sweet kisses prest?

My Mother.

~Ann Taylor (1782–1866)





When sleep forsook my open eye,

Who was it sung sweet lullaby,

And rock'd me that I should not cry?

My Mother.

~Ann Taylor (1782–1866)





Who sat and watched my infant head,

When sleeping on my cradle bed,

And tears of sweet affection shed?

My Mother.

~Ann Taylor (1782–1866)





Who ran to help me when I fell,

And would some pretty story tell,

Or kiss the place to make it well?

My Mother.

~Ann Taylor (1782–1866)





When thou art feeble, old, and grey,

My healthy arm shall be thy stay,

And I will soothe thy pains away,

My Mother.

~Ann Taylor (1782–1866)





The only mothers it is safe to forget on Mother's Day are the good ones. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960





There is an instinct in a woman to love most her own child — and an instinct to make any child who needs her love, her own. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com





Mommies are just big little girls. ~Author unknown





A mom's hug lasts long after she lets go. ~Author unknown





Hundreds of stars in the pretty sky;

Hundreds of shells on the shore together;

Hundreds of birds that go singing by;

Hundreds of bees in the sunny weather.

Hundreds of dew-drops to greet the dawn;

Hundreds of lambs in the purple clover;

Hundreds of butterflies on the lawn;

But only one mother the wide world over!

~George Cooper





A mom forgives us all our faults, not to mention one or two we don't even have. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com





A mother is a mother still,

The holiest thing alive...

~Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "The Three Graves," 1798





You can fool some of the people some of the time... But you can't fool Mom! ~Our Gang, 1935





There's nothing like a mama-hug. ~Terri Guillemets





The Mother's smile was the light of the World. Her voice was the song of a summer rain, cool and soft and sweet. Her laughter was the lilt of a meadowlark's song. ~Jennifer Roberson, "The Court of the Summer King," 1987 [a little altered —tg]





What is a mom but the sunshine of our days and the north star of our nights. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com





I go a little further in your house and I find the mother's chair. It is very apt to be a rocking chair. She had so many cares and troubles to soothe that it must have rockers. I remember it well; it was an old chair, and the rockers were almost worn out, for I was the youngest, and the chair had rocked the whole family. It made a creaking noise as it moved; but there was music in the sound. It was just high enough to allow us children to put our heads into her lap. That was the bank where we deposited all our hurts and worries. Ah! what a chair that was... The chair knew all the old lullabies and all those wordless songs which mothers sing to their sick children — songs in which all pity and compassion and sympathetic influence are combined... That old chair has stopped rocking for a good many years. It may be set up in the loft or the garret, but it holds a queenly power yet. ~Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage





My mother held the ladder for me to climb to the stars. ~Monte Durham





Mothers are the gardeners of the human race. ~Anna A. Rogers, "Why American Mothers Fail," The Atlantic Monthly, March 1908





Mother is a name held sacred

By most mortals of the earth;

It means great love and sacrifice

From the very day of birth,

A love that's so full of beauty,

So tender, so very true!

Something, seemingly, from Heaven

That has come to me and you.

There's no love so understanding

And so faithful to the end

As a Mother's love—God bless her!—

That to us our Lord did send.

~Gertrude Tooley Buckingham, "Mother," 1940s





Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children... ~William Makepeace Thackeray





A daughter is a mother's gender partner, her closest ally in the family confederacy, an extension of her self. And mothers are their daughters' role model, their biological and emotional road map, the arbiter of all their relationships. ~Victoria Secunda, Women and Their Fathers, 1992





...mother's love grows by giving... ~Charles Lamb





I miss thee, my mother! Thy image is still

The deepest impress'd on my heart...

~Eliza Cook, "I Miss Thee, My Mother!," Melaia; and Other Poems, 1833





Most mothers are instinctive philosophers. ~Harriet Beecher Stowe, The Minister's Wooing, 1859





Nothin' ever seems the same

When Mother goes away!

The sun don't shine so brightly;

The day seems long and gray!

The dishes all get dirty;

There's no one who is gay

And full of fun and laughter

When Mother is away!

~Gertrude Tooley Buckingham, "When Mother Goes Away," 1940s





A little girl, when asked where her home was, replied, "Where Mother is." ~Keith L. Brooks





For mother's kiss — sweeter this

Than any other thing.

~William Allingham, "Wishing"





A mother's kiss lovingly forgives the past, present, and future. ~Terri Guillemets





Youth fades; love droops; the leaves of friendship fall;

A mother's secret hope outlives them all.

~Oliver Wendell Holmes, "A Mother's Secret"





Mom — the person most likely to write an autobiography and never mention herself. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com





Mothers hold their children's hands for a short while but their hearts forever. ~Author unknown





My mom is a lifelong smile in my heart, her voice a comfort to my soul, her hugs my ladder to the stars. ~Terri Guillemets, "Every day," 1998





If I were hanged on the highest hill,

Mother o' mine, O mother o' mine!

I know whose love would follow me still,

Mother o' mine, O mother o' mine!

If I were drowned in the deepest sea,

Mother o' mine, O mother o' mine!

I know whose tears would come down to me,

Mother o' mine, O mother o' mine!

If I were damned of body and soul,

I know whose prayers would make me whole,

Mother o' mine, O mother o' mine!

~Rudyard Kipling, The Light that Failed, "Dedication"





[S]he beamed upon them with such maternal tenderness and pride that her homely face grew beautiful...~Louisa May Alcott, "Through the Mist," Work: A Story of Experience, 1873





Whatever else is unsure in this stinking dunghill of a world a mother's love is not. ~James Joyce





She had a slender, small body, but a large heart — a heart so large that everybody's grief and everybody's joys found welcome in it, and hospitable accommodation. ~Mark Twain





My Mother's hands, so thin and work-worn,

Were loved by me as jewels, rare,

For they had rocked me in my cradle,

And, lovingly, they'd stroked my hair.

They worked for me, both night and morning;

They helped to smooth away my fears,

For never were these dear hands idle;

I think of them with love and tears!

My Mother's hands to me were precious:

I thought their beauty was sublime;

I felt no harm on earth could touch me

If they were near me all the time!

~Gertrude Tooley Buckingham, "My Mother's Hands," 1940s





My mom is a neverending song in my heart of comfort, happiness, and being. I may sometimes forget the words, but I always remember the tune. ~Terri Guillemets





The mother's heart is the child's school-room. ~Henry Ward Beecher





...Women know

The way to rear up children, (to be just,)

They know a simple, merry, tender knack

Of tying sashes, fitting baby-shoes,

And stringing pretty words that make no sense,

And kissing full sense into empty words...

~Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh, 1856





I love my mother as the trees love water and sunshine — she helps me grow, prosper, and reach great heights. ~Terri Guillemets





Mother, the ribbons of your love are woven around my heart. ~Author unknown





There is only one pretty child in the world, and every mother has it. ~Author unknown





Every beetle is a gazelle in the eyes of its mother. ~Moorish proverb





God could not be everywhere, so he created mothers. ~Jewish proverb





Perhaps we are given a mom that we might take into death the memory of a lullaby. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com





All mothers are working mothers. ~Author unknown





Mamas everywhere — don't worry so much about being a "hot mom." A child needs a role model, not a supermodel. You will always shine by simply being your best, doing your best, and radiating the magical love that only a mama can. ~Terri Guillemets, 2005





Because I feel that, in the Heavens above,

The angels, whispering to one another,

Can find, among their burning terms of love,

None so devotional as that of "Mother,"

Therefore by that dear name I long have called you —

You who are more than mother unto me...

~Edgar Allan Poe, "To My Mother," 1849





A man loves his sweetheart the most, his wife the best, but his mother the longest. ~Irish proverb



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