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
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
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
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
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
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 God’s opinion that life should go on.
—Carl Sandburg (1878–1967) American Biographer, Novelist, Socialist
Children are a handful sometimes, A heartfull all the time…
—Indian Proverb
The baby has not been born yet, and yet you assert that his nose is like his grandfather’s!
—Indian Proverb
The newborn baby yells; you die in silence.
—Russian Proverb
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
As surely as God is good, so surely there is no such thing as necessary evil.
—Robert South (1634–1716) English Theologian, Preacher
A baby is an inestimable blessing and bother.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
A soiled baby, with a neglected nose, cannot be conscientiously regarded as a thing of beauty.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Babies don’t need a vacation but I still see them at the beach. I’ll go over to them and say, ‘What are you doing here, you’ve never worked a day in your life!’.
—Steven Wright (b.1955) American Comedian, Actor, Writer
I actually remember feeling delight, at two o’clock in the morning, when the baby woke for his feed, because I so longed to have another look at him.
—Margaret Drabble (b.1939) English Novelist, Biographer, Critic, Short Story 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
A conscience is like a baby. It has to go to sleep before you can.
—Unknown
A baby is born with a need to be loved – and never outgrows it.
—Frank A. Clark
A baby is sunshine and moonbeams and more brightening your world as never before.
—Unknown
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
It was the tiniest thing I ever decided to put my whole life into.
—Terri Guillemets
The tiny madman in his padded cell.
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) Russian-born American Novelist
It is the nature of babies to be in bliss.
—Deepak Chopra (b.1946) Indian-born American Physician, Public Speaker, Writer
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
Everyone knows that by far the happiest and universally enjoyable age of man is the first. What is there about babies which makes us hug and kiss and fondle them, so that even an enemy would give them help at that age?
—Desiderius Erasmus (c.1469–1536) Dutch Humanist, Scholar
Infancy conforms to nobody: all conform to it, so that one babe commonly makes four or five out of the adults who prattle and play to it.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Love is like a baby: it needs to be treated tenderly.
—African Proverb
When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies. And now when every new baby is born its first laugh becomes a fairy. So there ought to be one fairy for every boy or girl.
—J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) Scottish Novelist, Dramatist
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