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Mother Quotes

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Mother Quotes

“With smoking axle hot with speed, with steeds of fire and steam, Wide-waked To-day leaves Yesterday behind him like a dream. Still, from the hurrying train of Life, fly backward far and fast The milestones of the fathers, the landmarks of the past. But human hearts remain unchanged: the sorrow and the sin, The loves and hopes and fears of old, are to our own akin; And if, in tales our fathers told, the songs our mothers sung, Tradition wears a snowy beard, Romance is always young.”

Source: Narrative and Legendary Poems, Complete Volume I., the Works of Whittier

“Perhaps the profession of doing good may be full, but every body should be kind at least to himself. Take a course of good water and air, and in the eternal youth of Nature you may renew your own. Go quietly, alone; no harm will befall you. Some have strange, morbid fears as soon as they find themselves with Nature, even in the kindest and wildest of her solitudes, like very sick children afraid of their mother-as if God were dead and the devil were king.”

Source: STEEP TRAILS: California - Utah - Nevada - Washington - Oregon - The Grand Canyon: Adventure Memoirs, Travel Sketches, Nature Essays and Wilderness Studies from the author of The Yosemite, Our National Parks, A Thousand-mile Walk to the Gulf & Picturesque California

“Would anybody be offended if we gave a $150 million bonus to Gandhi? How about a $250 million bonus to Mother Teresa? Do we have an issue with that? None at all. None at all. Great leaders would never sacrifice the people to save the numbers. They would sooner sacrifice the numbers to save the people.”

People Ifs Motivational Mother Numbers Leader Millions Issues Sacrifice Offended Great Leader Bonus Teresa

Author:Simon Sinek

“If there's an award for best mother-in-law in the universe, in the future, when my son gets married, I will win that award.”

Ifs Law Mother Universe Winning Women Son Married My Son Awards In-laws Mother In Law Best Mother I Will Win

Author:Laura Schlessinger

“If I don't have a mother, I'll let music be my mother.”

Ifs Mother Music Is

Author:Quincy Jones

“Like birds of passage, the instincts drift the soul adventurously beyond the horizon of sensible things, as if intent on convoying it to the mother country from whence it had flown.”

Ifs Soul Country Mother Bird Instinct Horizon Passages Sensible Mother Country Beyond The Horizon

Author:Amos Bronson Alcott

“I hope every woman out there who wants to be a mother and is suffering with infertility, will explore all the options and know that if you choose the science route, it is okay.”

Ifs Knows Want Mother Suffering Okay You Choose Routes Infertility

Author:Cindy Margolis

“I was so well loved by my mother that if people have any expectations of me I really don't notice because I'm hardest on myself.”

People Ifs Wells Mother Expectations Hardest

Author:Hilton Als

“I know that if I feel any deprivation or fear [about money], the solution is to give. The solution is to go find some mothers on the streets of San Raphael and give them tens and twenties and mail off another $50 to Doctors Without Borders to use for the refugees in Kosovo. Because I know that giving is the way we can feel abundant. Giving is the way that we fill ourselves up.... For me the way to fill up is through service and sharing and getting myself to give more than I feel comfortable giving.”

Ifs Knows Way Giving Feels Use Mother Streets Comfortable Solutions Doctors Twenties Borders Mail Refugee Deprivation Raphael Kosovo Doctors Without Borders

Author:Anne Lamott

“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.”

Ifs Way Giving Mean Long Sometimes Enough Kids Mother Desire Evil Lines Walks Wonder Steps Cutting Saint Grass Scare Bleeding Razors

Book:Dark Rivers of the Heart: A Novel

Source: Dark Rivers of the Heart: A Novel

“There are various methods by which you may achieve ignominy and shame. By murdering a large and respected family in cold blood and afterward depositing their bodies in the water companies' reservoir, you will gain much unpopularity in the neighborhood of your crime, and even robbing a church will get you cordially disliked, especially by the vicar. But if you desire to drain to the dregs the fullest cup of scorn and hatred that a fellow human creature can pour out for you, let a young mother hear you call dear baby "it.”

Source: Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow

“We could almost believe that we are destined by Providence to an unsettled position on the globe, so invariably is a love of change implanted in the young. It seems as if the eternal Lawgiver intended that, at a certain age, man should leave father, mother, and the dwelling of his infancy, to seek his fortunes over the wide world.”

Ifs Men World Should Believe Seems Age Young Mother Certain Father Position Eternal Fortune Wide Providence Globes Destined Dwelling Infancy Father Mother

Book:Lodore

Source: Lodore

“If we're ever going to get the world back on a natural footing, back in tune with natural rhythyms, if we're going to nurture the Earth and protect it and have fun with it and learn from it - which is what mothers do with their children - then we've got to put technology (an aggressive masculine system) in its proper place, which is that of a tool to be used sparingly, joyfully, gently and only in the fullest cooperation with nature. Nature must govern technology, not the other way around.”

Ifs World Way Children Earth Used Mother Fun Natural Technology Protect Tools Having Fun Tunes Cooperation Aggressive Nurture Masculine Cowgirls

Author:Tom Robbins

“It takes a heap o' children to make a home that's true,And home can be a palace grand, or just a plain, old shoe;But if it has a mother dear, and a good old dad or two,Why, that's the sort of good old home for good old me and you.”

Ifs Children Two Home Mother Dad Shoes Dear Palaces Old Shoes

Author:Louis Untermeyer

“If ever there was a cause, if ever there can be a cause, worthy to be upheld by all of toil or sacrifice that the human heart can endure, it is the cause of Education. It has intrinsic and indestructible merits. It holds the welfare of mankind in its embrace, as the protecting arms of a mother hold her infant to her bosom. The very ignorance and selfishness which obstructs its path are the strongest arguments for its promotion, for it furnishes the only adequate means for their removal.”

Source: Thoughts

“There I was out in the barn playing midwife to a pregnant mare. I remember sitting there, spinning yarn in the light of a little oil lamp, a city girl who knew nothing about farming, sitting on the deel beside that mother in pain, already beginning the birthing process. All around me there was darkness and perfect silence, except for the mother's pain. It was as if the war didn't exist in those hours.”

Ifs Littles War Light Pain Remember Mother Girl Process Hours Perfect Cities Silence Darkness Sitting Oil Pregnant Lamps Farming Spinning Barns Midwife Yarn Birthing Mares City Girl

Author:Diet Eman

“My books are based on the "what if" principle. "What if you became invisible?" or "What if you did change into your mother for one day?" I then take it from there. Each book takes several months in the long process of writing, rewriting, writing, rewriting, and each has its own set of problems. The one thing I dislike about the writing process is the sometimes-loneliness of it all. Readers only get to see the glamour part of a bound book, not some of the agonizing moments one has while constructing it.”

“"You sound as if you question the authority and the decision of the Oracle, who said he should die." "I do not. Why should I? But the Oracle did not ask me to carry out its decision." [...] "The Earth cannot punish me for obeying her mesenger," Okonkwo said. "A child's fingers are not scalded by a piece of hot yam which its mother puts into its palm."”

Ifs Should Children Said Earth Mother Dies Asks Sound Decision Pieces Authority Hot Fingers Ask Me Should I Palms Obeying Oracles Things Fall Apart Okonkwo Yams Okonkwo

Author:Chinua Achebe

“Thanks to the scientific method, most people in "developed" countries have an outlook of mild deism. We assume things like weather and disease operate according to fixed natural laws. Every so often, though, problems impinge on us so directly that we stretch beyond that mildly deistic stance and ask God to intervene. When a drought drags on too long, we pray for rain. When a young mother gets a diagnosis of cervical cancer, we solicit prayers for her healing. We beseech God as if trying to talk God into something God otherwise might not want to do.”

“When I'm on stage, I'm not me playing me. I'm somebody else doing me. I could never go on stage and be like, "Hey, I'm Mike Tyson. My mother and father was in the sex industry." That's the politically correct way to say it, but I would really say, "My mother and father were pimps and whores. This is my life." I could never do that as Mike Tyson. Because I'd feel sorry for myself. But if I could be objective about it and be somebody else, portraying Mike Tyson, saying this story, then it's easy sailing.”

Ifs Way Feels Stories Mother Father Sex Easy Stage Goes On Industry Sorry Objectives Hey If I Could Sailing Mike Mother And Father Politically Correct Tyson Portraying Doing Me Pimp

Author:Mike Tyson

“In fact if you're a mother or a father, you're filled with oxytocin when you have a child. It makes you love the baby, even though they look like a lizard .You'll think it's the beautiful thing in the world.”

Ifs Thinking World Looks Children Facts Beautiful Mother Father Baby Filled Beautiful Things Lizards Oxytocin

Author:Tony Robbins

“So if you don't like your life, change it. How would you change it? You decide. There's no action without first decision. Decision is the mother or the father of action, and action is what changes your life.”

Ifs Firsts Action Mother Father Decision Like You Life Changing Changing Your Life

Author:Tony Robbins

“I think my dad would make an incredible president, and it would be great if he'd run again. But personally, for our family, part of me is glad that he didn't. We lost our mother recently, and we need to focus on ourselves.”

Ifs Thinking Needs Would Be Running Mother Lost President Focus Dad Incredibles My Dad Glad Our Family

Author:Alexandra Kerry

“I was speechless. Rare for me, but if anyone was capable of shocking me to silence, it was my mother.”

Ifs Mother Silence Capable Shocking Speechless

Author:Robyn

“Honor thy Father and thy Mother was once said, but then someone said: What if I don't know your Father? A still voice said: Does that makes him the devil? He is still someone's Father, his name has been changed, but his story is the same. Why hate when we should Celebrate. In this world of two's, you got the Mourning Son, and the Daughter of the Night. They both equal light once you make it through the night. Now, wake the funk up!”

Ifs Knows World Should Doe Has Beens Said Stills Two Stories Light Mother Night Hate Father Names Voice This World Changed Son Honor Equal Daughter Devil Celebrate Mourning What If Funk

Author:Bootsy Collins

“My mother raised us to think that if we worked hard, and if we put our end of the bargain in, it would work out OK for us.”

Ifs Thinking Ends Hard Mother Raised Work Out Bargains

Author:Ursula Burns

“What has God given you? Moses had a stick, David had a slingshot, and Paul had a pen. Mother Teresa possessed a love for the poor; Billy Graham, a gift for preaching; and Joni Eareckson Tada, a disability. What did they have in common? A willingness to let God use whatever they had, even when it didn't seem very useful. If you will assess what you have to offer in terms of your time, your treasure, and your talents, you will have a better understanding of how you might uniquely serve.”

Source: The Hole in Our Gospel: What does God expect of Us? The Answer that Changed my Life and Might Just Change the World

“When I was born, my father wanted to drown me, but my mother persuaded him to let me live in disguise, to see if I could bring any wealth to the household.”

Ifs Wanted Mother Father Born Wealth Let Me If I Could Household Disguise

Author:Jeanette Winterson

“My mother bore me in the southern wild, And I am black, but O! my soul is white; White as an angel is the English child, But I am black as if bereaved of light.”

Ifs Children Soul Light Mother Black White Angel My Soul Southern Bores

Author:William Blake

“Oh! I know this truth, if I know no other, That passionate Love is Pain's own mother.”

Ifs Knows Love Pain Mother Love Is Passionate Passionate Love Love Is Pain

Book:Complete Poetical Works of Ella Wheeler Wilcox (Delphi Classics)

Source: Complete Poetical Works of Ella Wheeler Wilcox (Delphi Classics)

“All I know is that if God loves me only half as much as my mother does, he will not send me to Hell.”

Ifs Knows Doe Mother Half Hell God Love God Loves Me

Book:The Importance of Living

Source: The Importance of Living

“My mother made it seem perfectly normal for thousands of people to be cheering me, as if there was nothing special going on. I thought all children must live as I did.”

People Ifs Children Made Seems Mother Special Normal Made It Cheer Perfectly Normal

Author:Shirley Temple

“[Among the Arapeh... both father and mother are held responsible for child care by the entire community...] If one comments upon a middle-aged man as good-looking, the people answer: 'Good-looking? Ye-e-e-s? But you should have seen him before he bore all those children'.”

People Ifs Men Should Children Care Mother Father Community Answers Middle Should Have Responsible Comment Bores Looking Good Middle Aged Child Care

Author:Margaret Mead

“It's a myth that if you're liked by only four people it must be good. It might also be very bad: they might be your mother, your brother, your uncle and your aunt.”

People Ifs Might Mother Four Brother Myth Be Good Uncles Aunt Your Brother

Author:David Hockney

“Women themselves condition their daughters to serve the system of male primacy. If a daughter challenges it, the mother will generally defend the system rather than her daughter. These mothers, victims themselves, have unwittingly become wounded wounders. Women need to attack culture's oppression of women, for there truly is a godlike socializing power that induces women to "buy in" or collude, but we also need to confront our own part in accepting male dominance and take responsibility where appropriate.”

“So you play your albums and you smoke your pot And you meet your girlfriend in the parking lot Oh, but still you're aching for the things you haven't got, What went wrong? And if you can't understand why your world is so dead And why you've got to keep in style and feed your head Well, you're twenty one and still you mother makes your bed And that's too long.”

Ifs World Wells Long Stills Play Mother Style Havens Bed Twenties Albums Smoke Girlfriend Pot Twenty One Parking Parking Lot Your Girlfriend

Author:Billy Joel

“God reveals Himself to a devotee who feels drawn to Him by the combined force of these three attractions: the attraction of worldly possessions for the worldly man, the child's attraction for its mother, and the husband's attraction for the chaste wife. If one feels drawn to Him by the combined force of these three attractions, then through it one can attain Him.”

Ifs Men Feels Children Mother Three Force Wife Husband Possession Attraction Worldly Chaste Devotee Worldly Possessions

Book:The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

Source: The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

“Little children play with dolls in the outer room just as they like, without any care of fear or restraint; but as soon as their mother comes in, they throw aside their dolls and run to her crying, "Mamma, mamma." You too, are now playing in this material world, infatuated with the dolls of wealth, honour, fame, etc., If however, you once see your Divine Mother, you will not afterwards find pleasure in all these. Throwing them all aside, you will run to her.”

Source: Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna: The Most Exhaustive Collection of Them, Their Number Being 1120

“Rock and roll is a music, and why should a music contribute to ... juvenile delinquency? If people are going to be juvenile delinquents, they're going to be delinquents if they hear ... Mother Goose rhymes.”

People Ifs Should Mother Rocks Rock And Roll Rhyme Geese Juvenile Delinquents Delinquency Juvenile Delinquency Mother Goose

Author:Elvis Presley

“If you're lucky enough to be able to have therapy -- because I know it's very privileged -- it gets rid of so much garbage and enables you to focus on what's important. When I first went into analysis, my mother was absolutely horrified. She thought I'd be a loony!”

Ifs Knows Firsts Important Enough Able Mother Focus Lucky Analysis Therapy Privileged Garbage What's Important

Author:Julie Andrews

“On a deeper level, if our sons are learning they are obscene, disgusting, and untrustworthy, is this the best preparation for fatherhood? And is it the best preparation for becoming a mother - to feel this way about her son?”

Ifs Way Feels Mother Levels Son Becoming Deeper Preparation Disgusting Fatherhood Obscene Untrustworthy Becoming A Mother

Author:Warren Farrell

“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.”

Ifs Want Years Enough Lasts Mother Pay Cutting Havens Months Cost Taxes Sick Endure Bones Income Alternatives Justify Keep Going Funeral Dread Coming Back Income Tax Martyrdom

Author:Rose Wilder Lane

“Being a working mother is not easy, but I think it helps you choose what's important in your life. If I think about starting a new project - whether it be music, a movie or a fragrance - I always stop and think: Is this something I feel really passionate about? That way, if I'm not at home at least it's for something I really love, and my son can look up to that.”

Ifs Thinking Way Feels Looks Important Helping Home Mother Easy Son Projects Starting Passionate Look Up My Son You Choose Fragrance What's Important New Projects

Author:Christina Aguilera

“If you believe in the maternal instinct and fail at mother love, you fail as a woman. It is a controlling idea that holds us in an iron grip.”

Ifs Believe Ideas Mother Failing Love You Instinct Iron If You Believe Mother Love Maternal Instinct

Author:Nancy Friday

“My mother had heard all about miniskirts but had never seen one so I took her for lunch at Alvaro's [in Chelsea]. We walked down the King's Road and waited 10 seconds for our first miniskirt and a girl came along with her skirt tucked round her arse. I said: 'What do you think, ma?' And she said: 'If it's not for sale, you shouldn't put it in the window!'”

Ifs Thinking Firsts Said Mother Girl Heard Kings Window Rounds Seconds Lunch Skirts Chelsea Arses

Author:Michael Caine

“I know that me personally I'm different than anyone else, just like our mothers all tell us we're all very special and unique and we are, and I think if an actor can stick to trying to make the character resemble something from their own spirit it will automatically be unique.”

Ifs Thinking Knows Trying Different Character Spirit Mother Actors Special Unique Sticks

Author:Chris Pratt

“My mother often says that she could never have done it if I had been the youngest, if she had other small children she had to cart around New York City for my auditions and go-sees (modeling auditions) and stuff.”

Ifs Children Done Mother Stuff Cities New York New York City Auditions Modeling Small Child Carts

Author:Katherine Heigl

“My mother used to tell me: "You gotta smile more. Because if you don't smile, the way you look at people, they'll think you're mad at them."”

People Ifs Thinking Way Looks Used Mother Mad Smile More

Author:Denzel Washington

“I'm working at trying to be a Christian and that's serious business. It's like trying to be a good Jew, a good Muslim, a good Buddhist, a good Shintoist, a good Zoroastrian, a good friend, a good lover, a good mother, a good buddyit's serious business. It's not something where you think, Oh, I've got it done. I did it all day, hotdiggety. The truth is, all day long you try to do it, try to be it, and then in the evening if you're honest and have a little courage you look at yourself and say, Hmm. I only blew it eighty-six times. Not bad.”

“My father died when I was two years old. But my mother was quite capable. She raised three children with his war pension which was peanuts. Yet we did not want for anything. We grew up with a certain parsimony, which is a nice thing. Then if life gives you more good, otherwise you get used to. I'm still thrifty.”