A lady is smarter than a gentleman, maybe, she can sew a fine seam, she can have a baby, she can use her intuition instead of her brain, but she can’t fold a paper in a crowded train.
—Phyllis McGinley (1905–78) American Children’s Books Writer, Poet, Writer of Children’s Books
Babies are necessary to grown-ups. A new baby is like the beginning of all things—wonder, hope, a dream of possibilities. In a world that is cutting down its trees to build highways, losing its earth to concrete… babies are almost the only remaining link with nature, with the natural world of living things from which we spring.
—Eda LeShan (1922–2002) American TV Personality, Playwright, Educator, Writer
Hot water is my native element. I was in it as a baby, and I have never seemed to get out of it ever since.
—Edith Sitwell (1887–1964) British Poet, Literary Critic
The man who thinks his wife, his baby, his house, his horse, his dog, and himself severely unequalled, is almost sure to be a good-humored person.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
A soiled baby, with a neglected nose, cannot be conscientiously regarded as a thing of beauty.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
A baby is sunshine and moonbeams and more brightening your world as never before.
—Unknown
A monkey never thinks her baby’s ugly.
—Haitian Proverb
Don’t forget that compared to a grownup person every baby is a genius.
—May Sarton (1912–95) American Children’s Books Writer, Poet, Novelist
A baby sitter is someone who watches your TV set While your kids cry themselves to sleep.
—Anonymous
Having a child is surely the most beautifully irrational act that two people in love can commit.
—Bill Cosby (b.1937) American Actor, Comedian, Activist, Producer, Author
To see helpless infancy stretching out her hands, and pouring out her cries in testimony of dependence, without any powers to alarm jealousy, or any guilt to alienate affection, must surely awaken tenderness in every human mind; and tenderness once excited will be hourly increased by the natural contagion of felicity, by the repercussion of communicated pleasure, by the consciousness of dignity of benefaction.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Nothing more strongly arouses our disgust than cannibalism, yet we make the same impression on Buddhists and vegetarians, for we feed on babies, though not our own
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist
A baby is an angel whose wings decrease as his legs increase.
—Indian Proverb
No one who has seen a baby sinking back satiated from the breast and falling asleep with flushed cheeks and a blissful smile can escape the reflection that this picture persists as a prototype of the expression of sexual satisfaction in later life.
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian Psychiatrist, Psychoanalytic
A baby is born with a need to be loved – and never outgrows it.
—Frank A. Clark
Since people are going to be living longer and getting older, they’ll just have to learn how to be babies longer.
—Andy Warhol (1928–87) American Painter, Printmaker, Film Personality
Diaper backward spells repaid. Think about it.
—Marshall Mcluhan (1911–80) Canadian Writer, Thinker, Educator
From the moment of birth, when the stone-age baby confronts the twentieth-century mother, the baby is subjected to these forces of violence, called love, as its mother and father have been, and their parents and their parents before them. These forces are mainly concerned with destroying most of its potentialities. This enterprise is on the whole successful.
—R. D. Laing (1927–89) Scottish Psychiatrist
Moving between the legs of tables and of chairs, rising or falling, grasping at kisses and toys, advancing boldly, sudden to take alarm, retreating to the corner of arm and knee, eager to be reassured, taking pleasure in the fragrant brilliance of the Christmas tree.
—T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) American-born British Poet, Dramatist, Literary Critic
Babies are such a nice way to start people
—Don Herold (1889–1966) American Humorist, Writer, Illustrator, Cartoonist
I don’t dislike babies, though I think very young ones rather disgusting.
—Queen Victoria (1819–1901) British Royal
Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.
—Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American Head of State
The tiny madman in his padded cell.
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) Russian-born American Novelist
I have no name: I am but two days old. What shall I call thee? I happy am, Joy is my name. Sweet joy befall thee!
—William Blake (1757–1827) English Poet, Painter, Printmaker
Mark the babe not long accustomed to this breathing world; One that hath barely learned to shape a smile, though yet irrational of soul, to grasp with tiny finger—to let fall a tear; And, as the heavy cloud of sleep dissolves, To stretch his limbs, becoming, as might seem. The outward functions of intelligent man.
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Poet
Cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
For babies grow up, we’ve learned to our sorrow
So quiet down, cobwebs
Dust, go to sleep
I’m rocking my baby, and babies don’t keep.
—Anonymous
A baby is an inestimable blessing and bother.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
The newborn baby yells; you die in silence.
—Russian Proverb
A baby usually wakes up in the wee-wee hours of the morning.
—Indian Proverb
It was the tiniest thing I ever decided to put my whole life into.
—Terri Guillemets