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Mother Quotes

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Mother Quotes

“I think of myself as Rebecca Wells from Lodi Plantation, in Central Louisiana, a girl who was lucky enough to be born into a family that encouraged creativity and didn't call me lazy or nuts when I dressed up in my mother's peignoirs and played the piano, having painted a small sign decorated in glitter that read 'The Piano Fairy Girl.”

ThinkingWellsEnoughMotherGirlBornCreativityLuckyPianoFairyLazyCall MeNutsGlitterDressed UpLouisianaPlantationsRebecca
Author:Rebecca Wells
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“I cannot forget my mother. [S]he is my bridge. When I needed to get across, she steadied herself long enough for me to run across safely.”

LongEnoughRunningMotherForgetFamilyMomNeededMy MomBridgesBeing A MomYour MomMotheringMother LoveMother's LoveYour MumMother ProverbsLove For My MotherMother And Daughter RelationshipI Love My Mother
Book:I Asked for Intimacy: Stories of Blessings, Betrayals, and Birthings
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“I was blessed enough to meet Pope John Paul when I was about 19 or 20 years old in the Vatican; I had that privilege, .. My mother took me to visit him and I remember distinctly his incredible charisma and personal charm and his warmth and compassion. You felt it immediately the minute you met him, and that spirit I came away with, having met the man, is something that I've been constantly working on to infuse the character with, so that we can have his spirit and his love and his compassion, because that's really the essence of the man.”

MenYearsEnoughCharacterRememberSpiritMotherFeltCompassionMinutesHe ManMetsEssenceBlessedIncrediblesPrivilegeCharmWarmthPopeHis LoveCharismaJohn PaulPope John Paul
Author:Cary Elwes
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“No one worries about you like your mother, and when she is gone, the world seems unsafe, things that happen unwieldy. You cannot turn to her anymore, and it changes your life forever. There is no one on earth who knew you from the day you were born; who knew why you cried, or when you'd had enough food; who knew exactly what to say when you were hurting; and who encouraged you to grow a good heart. When that layer goes, whatever is left of your childhood goes with her.”

WorldHeartEnoughSeemsHappensEarthMotherTurnsLeftGrowsBornHurtWorryGoneForeverChildhoodLike YouYour ChildrenLayersCriedChanging Your LifeHad EnoughGood HeartUnsafeGood Happy Mothers DayMothers Day MessagesBeing A Good Mother
Book:Big Stone Gap: A Novel
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“I sat day after day in my little room, waiting for inspiration to visit me, trying to invent a pseudonym that would express, in a combination of noble and striking sounds, our dream of artistic achievement, a pen name grand enough to compensate for my own feeling of insecurity and helplessness at the idea of everything my mother expected from me.”

TryingLittlesIdeasEnoughFeelingsDreamInspirationMotherNamesWaitingSoundMy OwnRoomsAchievementNobleExpectedArtisticCombinationSatInsecurityPensOur DreamsHelplessnessPseudonyms
Book:Promise at Dawn
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“I've got evil in me as much as anyone, some desires that scare me. Even if I don't give in to them, just having them scares the living bejesus out of me sometimes. I'm no saint, the way you kid about. But I've always walked the line, walked that goddamned line. It's a mean mother of a line, straight and narrow, sharp as a razor, cuts right into you when you walk it long enough. You're always bleeding on that line, and sometimes you wonder why you don't just step off and walk in the cool grass.”

IfsWayGivingMeanLongSometimesEnoughKidsMotherDesireEvilLinesWalksWonderStepsCuttingSaintGrassScareBleedingRazors
Book:Dark Rivers of the Heart: A Novel
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“I am too sick to work and haven't money enough to last 2 months and pay income tax. I want to keep going but do not see quite how, and there is no alternative - rather than justify my mother's 25-year dread of my "coming back on her, sick," I must kill myself. If she has to pay funeral costs, at least she will cut them to the bone and I will not be here to endure her martyrdom and prolong it by living.”

IfsWantYearsEnoughLastsMotherPayCuttingHavensMonthsCostTaxesSickEndureBonesIncomeAlternativesJustifyKeep GoingFuneralDreadComing BackIncome TaxMartyrdom
Author:Rose Wilder Lane
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“Moms are, in my opinion, the wonders of the universe. They can leap tall buildings in a single bound, they can go where no person has gone before, and they can somehow get toddlers to eat. The problem is that mothers are also some of the most stressed people on the planet. There's just so much to do and not enough of them.”

PeoplePersonsEnoughProblemMotherUniverseWonderOpinionGoneBuildingPlanetsMomBoundsLeapTallStressedToddlerTall Buildings
Book:What a Difference a Mom Makes: The Indelible Imprint a Mom Leaves on Her Son's Life
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“I appreciate your giving my book -- and in no small way, me -- a chance. To thank you, I really wanted to acknowledge all of you in the book. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough room for each name. So I've put in a code name that stands for all of you reading this book. The name is 'Mom.' It will be our little secret. So when you see 'Mom' in the acknowledgments, you'll know I'm really talking about you. And don't let my mother try to tell you otherwise.”

KnowsWayGivingTryingLittlesBookEnoughWantedMotherReadingNamesChanceRoomsSecretTalkingMomAppreciateCodeAcknowledgeAcknowledgmentAppreciate You
Author:Ellen DeGeneres
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“As for bread, I count that for nothin'. We always have bread and potatoes enough; but I hold a family to be in a desperate way when the mother can see the bottom of the pork barrel. Give me children that's raised on good sound pork afore all the game in the country. Game's good as a relish and so's bread; but pork is the staff of life... My children I calkerlate to bring up on pork with just as much bread and butter as they want.”

WayWantGivingChildrenCountryEnoughMotherGamesSoundFoodGive MeCookingRaisedBottomBreadMy ChildrenDesperateCulinaryStaffPotatoesBarrelsRelishPorkBread And ButterPork Barrel
Author:James F. Cooper
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“all daughters, even when most aggravated by their mothers, have a secret respect for them. They believe perhaps that they can do everything better than their mothers can, and many things they can do better, but they have not yet lived long enough to be sure how successfully they will meet the major emergencies of life, which lie, sometimes quite creditably, behind their mothers.”

BelieveLongSometimesEnoughLyingMotherCan DoSecretBehindsMajorsDaughterEmergenciesAggravated
Author:Phyllis Bottome
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“It is well for us that we are born babies in intellect. Could we understand half what mothers say and do to their infants, we should be filled with a conceit of our own importance, which would render us insupportable through life. Happy the boy whose mother is tired of talking nonsense to him before he is old enough to know the sense of it.”

KnowsShouldWellsEnoughMotherBornHalfTalkingBoysBabyImportanceFilledTiredIntellectNonsenseHappy LifeInfantConceitTalking Nonsense
Author:Augustus William Hare
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“Motherhood, to be sure, receives a great deal of sentimental adulation, but only if it is committed in accordance with rules which have been prescribed by a predominantly masculine society. Per se it is accorded no respect whatever. When it results from a sexual relationship which has been duly sanctioned by organized society, it is holy, no matter how much it may transgress the rules of decency, health, or common sense. Otherwise it is a sin meriting social ostracism for the mother and obloquy for the child - an ostracism and obloquy, significantly enough, in which the father does not share.”

IfsMayChildrenDoeHas BeensMatterEnoughMotherFatherSocialSinResultsDealsCommonShareHolyCommittedMotherhoodCommon SenseOrganizedSentimentalMasculineDecencyNo RespectAdulationOstracismSocial Ostracism
Author:Suzanne La Follette
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“I got a flash of ... what it means, now, 'you can't be too rich or too thin.' How well it works, will keep on working, because the vast majority of women will never be thin. Thin enough. How well the hope of class mobility keeps every mother dieting, and handing the diets down to her daughter, hoping the daughter may do even better. When you combine this with the fact that many non-white peoples tend to be heavier than white folks, dieting becomes a tool not only in enforcing class but in encouraging assimilation.”

WellsMayMeanEnoughFactsMotherWomenWhiteClassRichDaughterToolsWeightMajorityFolksDietsFlashAssimilationDietingMobility
Author:Elana Dykewomon
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“metaphors for God drawn from human experience can easily be literalized. While we are immediately aware that the personal God is not really a rock or a mother eagle, it is easy enough to imagine that God is really a king or a father.”

HumansEnoughGodMotherReligionFatherEasyImagineRocksKingsMetaphorImagine ThatHuman ExperienceEagles
Book:Women and the Word: The Gender of God in the New Testament and the Spirituality of Women
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“You must be the greatest mother in the world, but you must also, simultaneously, withdraw from your children's lives. You don't want to be the major force in their whole lives. You need to do the job adequately and as best you can, and then provide them with independence from you. You have to give them enough so that they won't need you anymore.”

WorldWantNeedsGivingChildrenEnoughWholeJobsMotherForceMajorsIndependenceWhole LifeYour ChildrenNeed You
Author:Josephine Humphreys
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“When our laws tell people that what lies behind the thin wall of a women's abdomen during pregnancy is not a human being and that the destiny of a preborn child lies with the private conscience of the mother, we are essentially telling society that life itself is not important enough to be called an inalienable right. If life itself is not the most fundamental of all rights, then what is?”

PeopleIfsHumansChildrenImportantEnoughLawLyingMotherHuman BeingsBehindsDestinyRightsWallConscienceFundamentalsPregnancyAbdomen
Author:Bob Dornan
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“I have always felt that too much time was given before the birth, which is spent learning things like how to breathe in and out with your husband (I had my baby when they gave you a shot in the hip and you didn't wake up until the kid was ready to start school), and not enough time given to how to mother after the baby is born.”

EnoughKidsSchoolMotherGivenFeltBornToo MuchReadyBabyBirthHusbandShotsWake UpBreatheHipsEnough TimeMy BabyYour HusbandNot Enough Time
Book:The Erma Bombeck Collection: If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits?, Motherhood, and The Grass Is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank
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“The all American work ethic, destructive enough by itself, also packs a gender double standard that strip-mines the natural resources of both parents. It has taught us that as their earnings and success increase, men become "more manly," while women become "less feminine." This perverse cultural dynamic gives fathers an incentive to stay away from their families and kill themselves at work, while coercing mothers to limit their career commitment, which in turn limits their wages and shortchanges their families.”

MenGivingEnoughMotherTurnsFatherParentWomenNaturalCareersMinesTaughtLimitsStandardsEthicsCommitmentResourcesIncreaseGenderDestructiveFemininePacksEarningWagesWork EthicIncentivesNatural ResourcesManlyTaught UsDouble Standard
Author:Letty Cottin Pogrebin
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“Other people--grandparents, sisters and brothers, the mother's best friend, the next-door neighbor--get to be familiar to the baby. If the mother communicates her trust in these people, the baby will regard them as delicious novelties. Anybody the mother trusts whom the baby sees often enough partakes a bit of the presence of the mother.”

PeopleIfsEnoughMotherNextBitsDoorsBrotherBabyRegardCommunicateNeighborFamiliarGrandparentBrothers And SistersDeliciousNoveltyNext Door Neighbors
Book:Oneness and separateness: from infant to individual
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“Fathers have a special excitement about them that babies find intriguing. At this time in his life an infant counts on his motherfor rootedness and anchoring. He can count on his father to be just different enough from a mother. Fathers embody a delicious mixture of familiarity and novelty. They are novel without being strange or frightening.”

DifferentEnoughMotherFatherNovelSpecialStrangeBabyExcitementFrighteningDeliciousInfantMixturesNoveltyFamiliarityIntriguingBeing A FatherRootedness
Book:Oneness and separateness: from infant to individual
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“Our ability to fall in love requires enough comfort with our masculinity to join it with someone's femininity and feel enhanced. .. . If our mother made us feel secure and proud in our masculinity, then we want to find that again in our wife. If we are really comfortable with our mother, we can even marry a woman who is a friend rather than an adversary, and form a true partnership.”

IfsWantFeelsMadeEnoughFormMotherFallAbilityWifeProudComfortComfortableFalling In LoveSecurePartnershipMasculinityFemininityAdversaries
Author:Frank Pittman
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“A real man doesn't have to run from his mother, and may even have to face the reality that no great deed is going to be great enough for him to ransom himself completely, and he may always be in his mother's debt. If he understands that . . . he won't have to feel guilty, and he won't have to please her completely. He can go ahead and be nice to her and let her be part of his life.”

IfsMenFeelsMayRealEnoughRealityRunningFacesMotherNicePleaseDeedsDebtGuiltyBeing NiceReal MenRansom
Author:Frank Pittman
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“The good enough mother, owing to her deep empathy with her infant, reflects in her face his feelings; this is why he sees himselfin her face as if in a mirror and finds himself as he sees himself in her. The not good enough mother fails to reflect the infant's feelings in her face because she is too preoccupied with her own concerns, such as her worries over whether she is doing right by her child, her anxiety that she might fail him.”

IfsChildrenEnoughFeelingsMightFacesMotherWorryFailingAnxietyEmpathyConcernMirrorsGood EnoughInfantNot Good EnoughOwingDoing Right
Author:Bruno Bettelheim
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“Mothers have not always had the most important role in their children's upbringing, when they had other economic roles to play. Inpast centuries, fathers were the key parent in the upbringing of the next generation, because moral training, not emotional sensitivity, was thought to be central to successful child-rearing. Mothers were thought to corrupt their little ones with too much affection and not enough stern training.”

ChildrenLittlesImportantEnoughPlayMotherNextFatherParentMoralRolesSuccessfulToo MuchGenerationsEconomicCenturyEmotionalKeysTrainingAffectionSensitivityNext GenerationUpbringingChild Rearing
Author:Sandra Scarr
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“In the early forties and fifties almost everybody "had about enough to live on," and young ladies dressed well on a hundred dollars a year. The daughters of the richest man in Boston were dressed with scrupulous plainness, and the wife and mother owned one brocade, which did service for several years. Display was considered vulgar. Now, alas! only Queen Victoria dares to go shabby.”

MenYearsWellsEnoughYoungMotherWealthWifeFashionDaughterHundredDollarsDareQueensFortyDisplayVulgarAlasBostonVictoriaYoung LadiesShabbyWives And MothersPlainness
Author:M. E. W. Sherwood
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“Life with a daughter of nine through twelve is a special experience for parents, particularly mothers. In a daughter's looks, actions, attitudes, passions, loves, and hates, in her fears and her foibles, a mother will see herself at the same age. You are far enough away to have some perspective on what your daughter is going through. Still, you are close enough, if reminded, to feel it all again.”

IfsFeelsLooksStillsEnoughAgeActionMotherHatePassionParentAttitudeSpecialPerspectiveDaughterNineTwelveLove And HateOur DaughterYour DaughterLove PassionFoibles
Book:Daughters: from infancy to independence
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