And so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than not anonymously, handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped to see — or like a sealed letter they could not plainly read.

—Alice Walker

Motherhood is the strangest thing, it can be like being one’s own Trojan horse.

—Rebecca West

There is only one pretty child in the world, and every mother has it.

—Chinese Proverb

I know how to do anything — I’m a mom.

—Roseanne Barr

When I stopped seeing my mother with the eyes of a child, I saw the woman who helped me give birth to myself.

—Nancy Friday

A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials, heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine, desert us when troubles thicken around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.

—Washington Irving

Few misfortunes can befall a boy which bring worse consequences than to have a really affectionate mother.

—W. Somerset Maugham

An ounce of mother is worth a pound of priests.

—Spanish Proverb

Children are the anchors that hold a mother to life.

—Sophocles

The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.

—Honoré de Balzac

All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That is his.

 —Oscar Wilde

The precursor of the mirror is the mother’s face.

— D.W. Winnicott

Thou art thy mother’s glass, and she in thee calls back the lovely April of her prime.

 —William Shakespeare