Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality
All that I am my mother made me.
—John Quincy Adams (1767–1848) Sixth President of the USA
What reaches the mother’s heart will only reach the father’s knees.
—Polish Proverb
Unhappy is the man for whom his own mother has not made all other mothers venerable.
—Jean Paul (1763–1825) German Novelist, Humorist
Heaven is at the feet of mothers.
—Persian Proverb
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 the wastes of worldly fortune sends the radiance of its quenchless fidelity like a star in heaven.
—Edwin Hubbell Chapin (1814–80) American Preacher, Poet
A man loves his sweetheart the most, his wife the best, but his mother the longest.
—Irish Proverb
A mother’s arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
Who kisses the feet of his mother, kisses the step of Paradise.
—Turkish Proverb
That best academy, a mother’s knee.
—James Russell Lowell (1819–91) American Poet, Critic
Say to mothers, what a holy charge is theirs; with what a kingly power their love might rule the fountains of the newborn mind.
—Lydia H. Sigourney (1791–1865) American Poetaster, Author
The loss of a mother is always severely felt: even though her health may incapacitate her from taking any active part in the care of her family, still she is a sweet rallying point, around which affection and obedience, and a thousand tender endeavors to please, concentrate; and dreary is the blank when such a point is withdrawn.
—Alphonse de Lamartine (1790–1869) French Poet, Politician, Historian
Happy he with such a mother! faith in womankind beats with his blood, and trust in all things high comes easy to him, and though he trip and fall, he shall not blind his soul with clay.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–92) British Poet
Let France have good mothers, and she will have good sons.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children.
—William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–63) English Novelist
A mother’s heart is always with her children.
—Common Proverb
Stories first heard at a mother’s knee are never wholly forgotten,—a little spring that never quite dries up in our journey through scorching years.
—Giovanni Ruffini (1807–81) Italian Writer, Patriot
All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother. I remember my mother’s prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
A man never sees all that his mother has been to him till it’s too late to let her know that he sees it.
—William Dean Howells (1837–1920) American Novelist, Critic
Few are like father, no one is like mother.
—Icelandic Proverb
Nature, time and patience are the three great physicians.
—Common Proverb
One good mother is worth a hundred schoolmasters.
—George Herbert (1593–1633) Welsh Anglican Poet, Orator, Clergyman
A rich child often sits in a poor mother’s lap.
—Danish Proverb
Where there is a mother in the home, matters go well.
—Amos Bronson Alcott (1799–1888) American Teacher, Writer, Philosopher
Some are kissing mothers and some are scolding mothers, but it is love just the same—and most mothers kiss and scold together.
—Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American Novelist, Human Rights Activist
If you would reform the world from its errors and vices, begin by enlisting the mothers.
—Charles Simmons (1924–2017) American Editor, Novelist
The future destiny of the child is always the work of the mother.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
There is no mother like your own mother.
—African Proverb
God could not be everywhere, and therefore He made mothers.
—Hebrew Proverb
Who takes a child by the hand takes the mother by the heart.
—Danish Proverb