What do girls do who haven’t any mothers to help them through their troubles?
—Louisa May Alcott (1832–88) American Novelist
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
He that would the daughter win must with the mother first begin.
—English Proverb
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 (1806–61) English Poet
The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.
—Honore de Balzac (1799–1850) French Novelist
Most mothers are instinctive philosophers.
—Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–96) American Abolitionist, Author
Men never think, at least seldom think, what a hard task it is for us women to go through this very often. God’s will be done, and if He decrees that we are to have a great number of children why we must try to bring them up as useful and exemplary members of society.
—Queen Victoria (1819–1901) British Royal
The mother’s yearning, that completest type of the life in another life which is the essence of real human love, feels the presence of the cherished child even in the base, degraded man.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
God could not be everywhere, and therefore He made mothers.
—Hebrew Proverb
Motherhood is the strangest thing, it can be like being one’s own Trojan horse.
—Rebecca West (1892–1983) English Author, Journalist, Literary Critic
If I was damned of body and soul,
I know whose prayers would make me whole,
Mother o’ mine, O mother o’mine.
—Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) British Writer, Poet, Novelist, Short Story Author
I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift would be curiosity.
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American First Lady, Diplomat, Humanitarian
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 (b.1934) Italian Actor
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 (1898–1978) Israeli Head of State
All mothers are physically handicapped. They have only two hands.
—Anonymous
How simple a thing it seems to me that to know ourselves as we are, we must know our mothers names.
—Alice Walker (b.1944) American Novelist, Activist
All mothers are working mothers.
—Unknown
The sweetest sounds to mortals given are heard in Mother, Home, and Heaven.
—Frank John William Goldsmith (1902–82) American Author
Sweater, n.: garment worn by child when its mother is feeling chilly.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
A mother’s heart is always with her children.
—Common Proverb
For that’s what a woman, a mother wants—to teach her children to take an interest in life. She knows it’s safer for them to be interested in other people’s happiness than to believe in their own.
—Marguerite Duras (1914–96) French Novelist, Playwright
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.
—Sri Rajneesh (Osho) (1931–90) Indian Spiritual Teacher
A mother’s arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
I think it must somewhere be written that the virtues of mothers shall be visited on their children, as well as the sins of their fathers.
—Charles Dickens (1812–70) English Novelist
An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy.
—Spanish Proverb
Mother’s love grows by giving.
—Charles Lamb (1775–1834) British Essayist, Poet
A mother understands what a child does not say.
—Hebrew Proverb
If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands?
—Milton Berle (1908–2002) American Comedian, Actor
One good mother is worth a hundred schoolmasters.
—George Herbert (1593–1633) Welsh Anglican Poet, Orator, Clergyman
Women who miscalculate are called mothers.
—Pauline Phillips (Abigail van Buren) (1918–2013) American Advice Columnist, Radio Personality
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