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Mothers Quotes

Browse 786 quotes about Mothers.

Mothers Quotes

“Maternal love is an instinctive and natural impulse, and animals possess it in a degree as high as that of human beings. This alone is enough to show that it is not true love, that it is not of moral origin ; for all morality proceeds from the intelligible character which animals, having no free will, do not possess. The ethical imperative can be heard only by a rational creature ; there is no such thing as natural morality, for all morality must be self-conscious.”

FamilyBloodMothersKinshipMaternal LoveHigher LovePlatonism
Book:Sex and Character: An Investigation of Fundamental Principles
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“When people thought of mothers, they smelled cookies baking and chocolate melting. But actual mothers got shit for giving their kids too much sugar. When people thought of mothers, they thought soft and warm and cuddly. But actual mothers went to great lengths to eradicate their soft warm cuddly bits. When people thought of mothers, they thought of mama bears and cheerleaders–fierce love and unconditional support–but actual mothers were accused of coddling and helicoptering.”

FamilyMothersFamily RelationshipsMothers Day
Book:Family Family
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“But can I say, now that she is dead, long dead that I only half believed in her. I wanted, I needed her to revolt. I know, revolutions take vast energy like volcanic eruptions. I know. And the sick must husband their resources even as they are resourceful for their husbands. But I couldn't help wanting for her, couldn't help the feeling that she'd given in, that she had measured out with coffee spoons what it was that she might ask of life and having found it lacking, tragically, gapingly lacking, had decided none-the-less to accept her modest share. I wanted her ignoble, irresponsible, unreasonable, petty, grasping, fucking greedy for the lot of it, jostling and spitting and clawing for every grain of life.”

AcceptanceAngerMothersDaughtersWomen S Roles
Book:The Woman Upstairs
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“Let us also acknowledge that the hearts which suffer the most from our wars are those of mothers. Their vital voices have been left out of the political equation for too long. An Iraqi or American mother cries the same as an Israeli or Afghan mother. The eyes of a mother who has suffered the loss of a child can destroy the soul of anyone who gazes upon them. More souls become casualties of war than physical bodies.”

WarTearsMothersSoulsCasualtiesSuzy KassemBodiesCasualties Of War
Book:Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem
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“It is the custom of every good mother after her children are asleep to rummage in their minds and put things straight for next morning, repacking into their proper places the many articles that have wandered during the day. If you could keep awake (but of course you can’t) you would see your own mother doing this, and you would find it very interesting to watch her. It is quite like tidying up drawers. You would see her on her knees, I expect, lingering humorously over some of your contents, wondering where on earth you had picked this thing up, making discoveries sweet and not so sweet, pressing this to her cheek as if it were as nice as a kitten, and hurriedly stowing that out of sight. When you wake in the morning, the naughtinesses and evil passions with which you went to bed have been folded up small and placed at the bottom of your mind; and on the top, beautifully aired, are spread out prettier thoughts, ready for you to put on.”

ChildrenThoughtsMothers
Author:J.M. Barrie
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“Some of us were brought into this troubled world primarily or only to increase our fathers’ chances of not being left by our mothers, or vice versa.”

WorldHumorFunnyMotherQuotesFatherRelationshipsBornMarriageWifeRelationshipTroubleHumourMomBirthHusbandMarriedHumorousQuoteProfoundPhilosopherDivorceQuote Of The DaySelfishSelfishnessGirlfriendBreakupThoughtfulSatireThought ProvokingDeepInsightfulMothersAphorismSouth AfricaQuotationsFatherhoodAfricaExesMaximsSayingsAdagesBoyfriendSingleProverbsAphorismsMake You ThinkBreakupsAxiomsFathersAdageBachelorsProverbSatiricalSayingEpigramsAfricanQuotationGnomeSatiristMaximEpigramGnomesProvoke ThoughtMade Me ThinkAxiomDictumDictumsWivesHusbandsGirlfriendsSouth AfricanMomsBoyfriendsExChildfreeSatiristsChildlessDivorcesTroubledBachelor
Book:The Use and Misuse of Children
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“Years might pass and they might change, both of them, but she was sure she would still know her own child, just as she would know herself, no matter how long it had been. She was certain of this. She would spend months, years, the rest of her life looking for her daughter, searching the face of every young woman she meet for as long as it took, searching for a spark of familiarity in the faces of strangers.”

LongingMothersEstrangement
Book:Little Fires Everywhere
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“Now you can all have a wish -- the Moomin family first!" Moominmamma hesitated a bit. "Should it be something you can see?" she asked, "or an idea? If you know what I mean, Mr. Hobgoblin?" "Oh, yes!" said the Hobgoblin. "Things are easier of course, but it will work with an idea too." "Then I want to wish that Moomintroll will stop missing Snufkin," said Moominmamma. "Oh, dear!" said Moomintroll going pink, "I didn't know it was so obvious!" But the Hobgoblin waved his cloak once, and immediately the sadness flew out of Moomintroll's heart. His longing just became an expectancy, and that felt much better.”

FriendshipLongingGenerosityMothersWishes Fulfilled
Book:Finn Family Moomintroll
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“My beloved has arrived, but rather than greeting him, All I can do is bite the corner of my apron with a blank expression- What an awkward woman am I. My heart has longed for him as hugely and openly as a full moon But instead I narrow my eyes, and my glance to him Is sharp and narrow as the crescent moon. But then, I'm not the only one who behaves this way. My mother and my mother's mother were as silly and stumbling as I am when they were girls... Still, the love from my heart is overflowing, As bright and crimson as the heated metal in a blacksmith's forge.”

LovePoetryLongingMothersAwkwardMothers And Daughters
Book:The Color of Earth
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“Because she did not look behind, September did not see the smoky-glass casket close itself primly up again. She did not see it bend in half until it cracked, and Death hop up again, quite well, quite awake, and quite small once more. She certainly did not see Death stand on her tiptoes and blow a kiss after her, a kiss that rushed through all the frosted leaves of the autumnal forest, but could not quite catch a child running as fast as she could. As all mothers know, children travel faster than kisses. The speed of kisses is, in fact, what Doctor Fallow would call a cosmic constant. The speed of children has no limits.”

ChildrenMothersKisses
Book:The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
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“It was Sunday, and Mumma had gone next door with Lena and the little ones. Under the pepper tree in the yard Pa was sorting, counting, the empty bottles he would sell back: the bottles going clink clink as Pa stuck them in the sack. The fowls were fluffing in the dust and sun: that crook-neck white pullet Mumma said she would hit on the head if only she had the courage to; but she hadn't.”

ChildrenBottlesMothersTreesFathersRecyclingSundaysFowls
Book:The Vivisector
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“Did Abel used to threaten you and Dad with El Cuco?" Her uncle nodded. "Did she ever say what he looked like?" He shook his head. "That used to scare me more, not knowing what he was. Childhood imaginations are powerful things." "Not as powerful as a mother's threat." Javier heard his voice like it was coming from someone else. He had planned to stay quiet. Now the light beam was on him again. "Nothing is more powerful than that, son.”

ChildrenHorrorYoung AdultMothersMonsterImaginations
Book:Five Midnights
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“You don't know, Javier, you can't know what it's like to see your baby, your only baby, slipping away. You have all these hopes when you hold this perfect swaddled creature in your arms, you imagine academic awards, nice little friends, Ivy League colleges, marriage to a girl from a good family, grandchildren. And then one day, you realize you have no control, that any control you thought yo had was an illusion. You realize you don't know how to save them as they teeter on the edge. We were all feeling that, all of the mothers. And then I found you with all those...drugs." She shuddered. "That night, we would've tried anything to get you all back. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that he came. In order to see you, I would've sold my soul to el diablo if he were there that night. I guess he was" She looked at the floor and started to cry. "We just wanted to scare you. He was a fairy-tale monster. Never, never in a million years did we expect him to come, for him to...”

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Book:Five Midnights
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“From there my friendship with Sandy grew. It wasn't just that we were both studying for advanced degrees, and it wasn't just that we both had less than ideal marriages that eventually ended in complicated divorce cases. For me it was that, unlike so many other people, Sandy didn't try to swoop in and make things all better like a hero, and she didn't run when my children died. It's extremely lonely being the mother of dying children. You can't share any of the normal milestones, the normal sense of community with other mothers. And people either want to solve the problem, which they can't or they want to leave when the situation becomes too difficult. It's not out of callousness. It's out of pain; watching children die is hard. But Sandy tried to neither fix nor flee; she just wanted to be my friend. And she helped in very real ways.”

ChildrenDeathMothersFriend
Book:Messenger: The Legacy of Mattie J.T. Stepanek and Heartsongs
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“In Veksh," said Trishka, "our mothers teach us that there's a type of story called zejhasa, the braided path: a new tale that starts before the old tale has ended, and which could not exist alone. Every life is zejhasa. Before we are born, our mothers live their own stories, and when we are young, our existence is twined with theirs - small threads in a wider pattern. But as we grow, these threads begin to separate, forming new strands, new lives, new purposes. Our mothers' stories go on, enriched; but ours will always begin before theirs have ended.”

ChildrenStoriesMothers
Book:An Accident of Stars
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“Not a few millions of parents strongly hope that their own children will step in by instantly becoming their own parents’ foster parents, if and when the parents reach their second childhood.”

ChildrenHumorFunnyMotherQuotesHopeFatherParentChildhoodHumourHumorousQuoteProfoundPhilosopherQuote Of The DayMotherhoodParentsThoughtfulSatireThought ProvokingDeepInsightfulParenthoodMothersChildAphorismSouth AfricaQuotationsFatherhoodAfricaMaximsSayingsAdagesProverbsAphorismsMake You ThinkAxiomsFathersAdageProverbSatiricalSayingEpigramsAfricanQuotationGnomeSatiristMaximEpigramGnomesProvoke ThoughtMade Me ThinkAxiomCaregiversDictumDictumsSouth AfricanChildfreeSatiristsCaregiverChildlessFoster ParentSelfish SelfishnessOld Age HomesFoster ParentsOld Age HomeSecond Childhood
Book:The Use and Misuse of Children
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“For the first time in my life, I feel like I am being strong for the two of us, like I have broken free from those chains of lipstick and perfect hair and can take pride in my worn feet and the hair around my nipples. And I know that one day we will go shopping together and she will finally be proud of this body we both used to hate so much. I'm sure of it, because recently I have found it in my heart to forgive her. And because all of this is so very lonely sometimes, I have started to wear some of her old clothes, her cardigans and scarves--I was always too fat for everything else--and I think that's a sign that I have started to miss her in that place where I should have loved so long ago. And I admire nothing more than people who have found a way to love their mothers; I think it's the biggest challenge in life, the one thing that would make the world a better place.”

ParentsSelf AcceptanceMothersWomanhoodMothers And DaughtersEstrangement
Book:The Appointment
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