Life is magic, the way nature works seems to be quite magical
—Jonas Salk (1914–95) American Microbiologist
Somewhere on this globe, every ten seconds, there is a woman giving birth to a child. She must be found and stopped
—Sam Levenson (1911–80) American Humorist, Writer, TV Personality, Journalist
Over the last decade or so ‘wars’ have been proclaimed, in turn, on teen pregnancy, dropping out, drugs, and most recently violence. The trouble with such campaigns, though, is that they come too late, after the targeted problem has reached epidemic proportions and taken firm root in the lives of the young. They are crisis intervention, the equivalent of solving a problem by sending an ambulance to the rescue rather than giving an inoculation that would ward off the disease in the first place. Instead of more such ‘wars,’ what we need is to follow the logic of prevention, offering our children the skills for facing life that will increase their chances of avoiding any and all of these fates
—Daniel Goleman (b.1946) American Psychologist, Author, Science Journalist
Most of a modest woman’s life was spent, after all, in denying what, in one day at least of every year, was made obvious.
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English Novelist
The canvas glow’d beyond ev’n Nature warm, The pregnant quarry teem’d with human form.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
Every woman while she would be ready to die of shame if surprised in the act of generation, nonetheless carries her pregnancy without a trace of shame and indeed with a kind of pride. The reason is that pregnancy is in a certain sense a cancellation of the guilt incurred by coitus; thus coitus bears all the shame and disgrace of the affair, while pregnancy, which is so intimately associated with it, stays pure and innocent and is indeed to some extent sacred.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
Everything grows rounder and wider and weirder, and I sit here in the middle of it all and wonder who in the world you will turn out to be.
—Carrie Fisher (1956–2016) American Actress, Author
These wretched babies don’t come until they are ready.
—Queen Elizabeth II (1926–2022) Queen of United Kingdom
If men were equally at risk from this condition—if they knew their bellies might swell as if they were suffering from end-stage cirrhosis, that they would have to go nearly a year without a stiff drink, a cigarette, or even an aspirin, that they would be subject to fainting spells and unable to fight their way onto commuter trains—then I am sure that pregnancy would be classified as a sexually transmitted disease and abortions would be no more controversial than emergency appendectomies.
—Barbara Ehrenreich (1941–2022) American Social Critic, Essayist
If men were equally at risk from this condition – if they knew their bellies might swell as if they were suffering from end-stage cirrhosis, that they would have to go nearly a year without a stiff drink, a cigarette, or even an aspirin, that they would be subject to fainting spells and unable to fight their way onto commuter trains – then I am sure that pregnancy would be classified as a sexually transmitted disease and abortions would be no more controversial than emergency appendectomies
—Barbara Ehrenreich (1941–2022) American Social Critic, Essayist
Back in the days when men were hunters and chest beaters and women spent their whole lives worrying about pregnancy or dying in childbirth, they often had to be taken against their will. Men complained that women were cold, unresponsive, frigid. They wanted their women wanton. They wanted their women wild. Now women were finally learning to be wanton and wild—and what happened?. The men wilted.
—Erica Jong (b.1942) American Novelist, Feminist
A mother’s joy begins when new life is stirring inside… when a tiny heartbeat is heard for the very first time, and a playful kick reminds her that she is never alone
—Unknown
There’s only one pretty child in the world, and every mother has it.
—Common Proverb
By far the most common craving of pregnant women is not to be pregnant.
—Phyllis Diller (b.1917) American Actor, Comedian
Pregnancy seemed like a tremendous abdication of control. Something growing inside you which would eventually usurp your life.
—Erica Jong (b.1942) American Novelist, Feminist
Everything in woman hath a solution. It is called pregnancy.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
A ship under sail and a big-bellied woman, Are the handsomest two things that can be seen common
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Life is always a rich and steady time when you are waiting for something to happen or to hatch
—E. B. White (1985–99) American Essayist, Humorist
A grand adventure is about to begin
—A. A. Milne (1882–1956) British Humorist, Playwright, Children’s Writer
It is now quite lawful for a Catholic woman to avoid pregnancy by a resort to mathematics, though she is still forbidden to resort to physics and chemistry.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
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 woman has two smiles that an angel might envy—the smile that accepts a lover before words are uttered, and the smile that lights on the first-born babe, and assures it of a mother’s love.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton (1796–1865) Canadian Author, Humorist, Businessperson, Judge
Being a mother means that your heart is no longer yours; it wanders wherever your children do
—Indian Proverb
Telegram to a friend who had just become a mother after a prolonged pregnancy: Good work, Mary. We all knew you had it in you
—Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American Humorist, Journalist
With every rising of the sun, Think of your life as just begun. The past has shrived and buried deep All yesterdays; there let them sleep. Concern yourself with but today, Woo it, and teach it to obey Your will and wish. Since time began Today has been the friend of man; But in his blindness and his sorrow, He looks to yesterday and tomorrow. You, and today! a soul sublime, And the great pregnant hour of time, With God himself to bind the twain! Go forth, I say-attain, attain! With God himself to bind the twain!
—Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850–1919) American Poet, Journalist
Everything about woman is a riddle, and everything about woman has a single solution: that is, pregnancy
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
Being pregnant is an occupational hazard of being a wife.
—Queen Victoria (1819–1901) British Royal
Because they’ve either conveniently forgotten with time or they’re trying to be supportive, most mothers won’t tell you how hard pregnancy (and then childbirth) can be. Let me tell you, it is. It’s brutal sometimes! But, if I did it, ANYONE can do it. I mean, I always knew I was meant to do something really BIG in life, and now I know that this was it. Screw winning an Academy Award someday … I GAVE BIRTH
—Jenny McCarthy (b.1972) American Actor, Comedian, Model, Author, Activist
If Nature had arranged that husbands and wives should have children alternately, there would never be more than three in a family.
—Laurence Housman (1865–1959) English Novelist, Dramatist, Illustrator
I begin to love this creature,
and to anticipate her birth
as a fresh twist to a knot,
which I do not wish to untie
—Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–97) English Writer, Feminist