Mother Quotes

“I wish again that I could talk to my mom about this. I want to ask her why I get breathless when I think of him. I want to share my giddiness with her. I want to tell her all the funny things Olly says. I want to tell her how I can’t make myself stop thinking about him even though I try. I want to ask her if this is the way she felt about Dad at the beginning.”

“We don’t have the luxury of thinking ... Some people make all the decisions for us.”

“We should never have let the Fury come to dinner.”

“I don’t care what she is. Grown don’t mean nothing to a mother. A child is a child. They get bigger, older, but grown? What’s that supposed to mean? In my heart it don’t mean a thing.”

“I guess if you’re going to be born with an illness that requires constant care, then it’s good to have your mom as your doctor.”

“What am I going to regret? My mind cycles through visions: my mom alone in my white room wondering where everyone she’s ever loved went. My mom alone in a green field staring down at my grave and my dad’s grave and my brother’s grave. My mom dying all alone in that house.”

“Any astronomer can predict with absolute accuracy just where every star in the universe will be at 11.30 tonight. He can make no such prediction about his teenage daughter.”

″ ‘You be as angry as you need to be,’ she said. ‘Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Not your grandma, not your dad, no one. And if you need to break things, then by God, you break them good and hard.’ ”

“Someone gave little Davy Hutchinson a few pebbles.”

“Over the years, she told me the same story, except for the ending, which grew darker, casting long shadows into her life, and eventually into mine.”

“Oh, and she inexplicably mails me a cactus every Valentine’s Day. And I’m like, ‘Thanks a heap, Coyote Ugly. This cactus-gram stings even worse than your abandonment.‘”

“My mother is so full of joy and life. I am her child, and that is better than being the child of anyone else.

“Love liberates... she liberated me to life.”

“I remember my mother when she was dyin’, looked all shrunk up and gray. I asked her if she was afraid. She just shook her head. I was afraid to touch the death I seen in her. I couldn’t find nothin’ beautiful or uplifting about her goin’ back to God. I heard of people talk about immortality, but I ain’t seen it....I wondered how it’d be like when I died, what it’d be like to know this breath now was the last one you was ever gonna draw. I just hope I can meet it the same way she did, with the same... calm. ‘Cause that’s where it’s hidden - the immortality I hadn’t seen.”

“That was the key to my grandmother’s jewel box, that she got from Florence. It was made of red leather and it fell to bits at last, but she kept the key and gave it to me. She was most terribly poor when she died, poor old sweetie, and kept crying because she had nothing to leave me, so in the end I said I’d rather have this little key than all the jewels in the world.”

‘In a house far away, right at the end of a long dusty road deep in the bush at the back of Palm Beach, lived three sisters with their mother, their father, and sometimes their Uncle Paul. The three sisters were called Elizabeth, Frances and Matilda.’

“Once there was a little bunny who wanted to run away. So he said to his mother, ‘I am running away.’ ‘If you run away,’ said his mother, ‘I’ll run after you. For you are my little bunny.’ ”

″ ‘If you run after me,’ said the little bunny, ‘I will become a fish in a trout stream and I will swim away from you.’ ‘If you become a fish in a trout stream,’ said his mother, ‘I will become a fisherman and I will fish for you.’ ”

″ ‘If you become a rock on the mountain high above me,’ said his mother, ‘I will be a mountain climber, and I will climb to where you are.’ ”

″ ‘If you are a gardener and find me,’ said the little bunny, ‘I will be a bird and fly away from you.’ ”

″ ‘If you become a sailboat and sail away from me,’ said his mother, ‘I will become the wind and blow you where I want you to go.’ ”

″ ‘If you become the wind and blow me,’ said the little bunny, ‘I will join a circus and fly away on a flying trapeze.’ ”

″ ‘If you become a little boy and run into a house,’ said the mother bunny, ‘I will become your mother and catch you in my arms and hug you.’ ”

″ ‘Shucks’, said the bunny, ‘I might just as well stay where I am and be your little bunny.’ ”

″ ‘If you become a bird and fly away from me,’ said his mother, ‘I will be a tree that you come home to.’ ”

″ ‘If you become a fisherman,’ said the little bunny, ‘I will become a rock on the mountain, high above you.’ ”

“Silly child, how can you imagine that this wooden doll from Nuremberg is really alive and capable of moving about?”

“Lord Lundy from his earliest years Was far to freely moved to Tears. For instance if his Mother said, ‘Lundy! It’s time to go to Bed!’ He bellowed like a Little Turk. Or if his father Lord Dunquerque Said ‘Hi!’ in a Commanding Tone, ‘Hi, Lundy! Leave the Cat alone!’ ”

“ ‘I’m shrinking. Getting smaller,’ said Treehorn. ‘If you want to pretend you’re shrinking, that’s all right,’ said Treehorn’s mother, ‘as long as you don’t do it at the table.’ “

“ ‘What’s the matter with Leo?’ asked Leo’s father. ‘Nothing,’ said Leo’s mother. ‘Leo is just a late bloomer.’ ‘Better late than never,’ thought Leo’s father.”

“ ‘Are you sure Leo’s a bloomer?’ asked Leo’s father. ‘Patience,’ said Leo’s mother. ‘A watched bloomer doesn’t bloom.’ “

“Her mother went back to her picking, but Little Sal, because her feet were tired of standing and walking, sat down in the middle of a large clump of bushes and ate blueberries.”

“She hadn’t gone very far before she heard a kuplunk! Kuplunk! Kuplunk! She knew just what made that kind of noise!”

“Little Bear’s mother turned around to see what on earth could make a noise like kuplunk! ‘Garumpf!’ she cried, choking on a mouthful of berries, ‘This is not my child! Where is Little Bear?’ She took one good look and backed away. (She was old enough to she shy of people, even a very small person like Little Sal.) Then she turned around and walked off very fast to hunt for Little Bear.”

“Little Bear and Little Sal’s mother and Little Sal and Little Bear’s mother were all mixed up with each other among the blueberries on Blueberry Hill.”

“Little Bear padded up and peeked into her pail. Of course, he only wanted to taste a few of what was inside, but there were so many and they were so close together, that he tasted a Tremendous Mouthful by mistake. ‘Now, Sal,’ said Little Sal’s mother without turning around, ‘you run along and pick your own berries. Mother wants to can these for next winter.’ Little Bear tasted another Tremendous Mouthful, and almost spilled the entire pail of blueberries.”

“On the other side of Blueberry Hill, Little Bear came with his mother to eat blueberries. ‘Little Bear,’ she said, ‘eat lots of berries and grow big and fat. We must store up food for the long, cold winter’. “

“Little Sal brought along her small tin pail and her mother brought her large tin pail to put berries in. ‘We will take our berries home and can them’, said her mother. ‘Then we will have food for the winter’. “

“her mother walked slowly through the bushes, picking blueberries as she went and putting them in her pail. Little Sal struggled along behind, picking blueberries and eating every single one.”

“My mother is pretty strict with me. My grandmother tries to put her two cents’ worth in as well, but Mama hates her butting in. The two of them are forever as loggerheads with each other. Like whenever school camp comes along, it’s fights galore. My grandmother thinks that if a member of our family isn’t looking after me I’ll get raped or murdered. She accuses my mother of being a bad mother for not caring enough and letting me go.”

“Life outside school, though, was a different story. The reaction of the Italian mothers to my mother being unmarried drove my crazy at times. There is nothing terrible romantic about my mother’s supposed fall from grace. She slept with the boy next door when they were sixteen and before anything could be decided his family moved to Adelaide. Although he new she was pregnant he never bothered to contact her again.”

“I used to hear my illegitimacy mentioned during the first years at St. Martha’s, but nobody has spoken about it for ages. Still I wish someone else at school had a Bohemian mother who believed in free love back then. It’s an embarrassing contradiction when your mother’s get pregnant out of wedlock because her Catholic upbringing prohibits contraception. Even though the girls at St. Martha’s don’t mention it. I bet you they’re talking about me behind my back.”

“Then the monster went indoors. ‘ROAR,’ went the monster behind Bernard’s mother. ‘Not now, Bernard,’ said Bernard’s mother.”

“ ‘There’s a monster in the garden and it’s going to eat me,’ said Bernard. ‘Not now, Bernard,’ said his mother.”

“Your dinner’s ready,’ said Bernard’s mother. She put the dinner in front of the television.”

“ ‘Go to bed. I’ve taken up your milk,’ called Bernard’s mother. The monster went upstairs.”

“But I’m a monster,’ said the monster. ‘Not now, Bernard,’ said Bernard’s mother.”

“Nobody wanted Morris’s bear. ‘Come,’ said Morris’s mother, ‘let’s make a hat for your bear.’ ”

“On Saturdays Claudia emptied the wastebaskets, a task she despised. There were so many of them. Everyone in her family had his own bedroom and wastebasket except her mother and father who shared both—with each other.”

″ ‘What a lovely egg,’ said Father. ‘If there is one thing I am fond of for breakfast, it is a soft-boiled egg.’ ‘Yes’, said Mother, spooning up egg for the baby, ‘it is just the thing to start the day off right’. ”

″ ‘Aren’t you worried that maybe I will get sick and all my teeth fall out from eating so much bread and jam?’ asked Frances. ‘I don’t think that will happen for quite a while’, said Mother, ‘So eat it all up and enjoy it.’ ”

“She jumped out of bed and went to tell Mother and Father. When she got to their door, she thought about it some more and decided not to tell them. She went back to her room.”

″ ‘There is a tiger in my room,’ said Frances. ‘Did it bite you?’ said Father. ‘No’, said Frances. ‘Dd he scratch you?’ said Mother. ‘No,’ said Frances. ‘Then he is a friendly tiger’, said Father. ‘He will not hurt you. Go back to sleep.’ ”

“Rock-a-bye baby, thy cradle is green; Father’s a nobleman, Mother’s a queen. And Betty’s a lady, And wears a gold ring; And Johnny’s a drummer, And drums for the king.”

“It says, ‘Good night, God keep you all the night!’ -- Just what she used to say when we were together. Every night she used to say that to me, and every morning she said, ‘God bless you all the day!’ So you see I am quite safe all the time.”

“I think you must be the best person in the world...you are always doing good, aren’t you? -- and thinking about other people. Dearest says that is the best kind of goodness; not to think about yourself, but to think about other people. That is just the way you are, isn’t it?”

“But Dearest, my mother, was with me and I wasn’t lonely. Of course you are never lonely if your mother is with you; and the ship was beautiful.”

“Yes, I know, but one day you’ll know how much it hurts to be a mother.”

“Whatever can that be?′ said Little Spook. Very slowly Little Spook pushed open the door and they peeped round. But inside the room there were only Mother and Father spook”

″ ‘But you mustn’t tell anybody your wish, or it won’t come true,’ cautioned her mother. ‘It’s supposed to be a secret wish.’ ”

“But when your tooth does come out, you put it under your pillow and make a wish, and your wish is supposed to come true.”

“That means that today you’ve become a big girl. Everybody’s baby teeth get loose and come out when they grow up. A nice new bigger and better tooth will grow in when this one comes out.”

“But that was long, long ago. Mother had been dead for five years, and I, Kepler Masterman, son of Moon Governor, was actually going to Earth myself. Already I was over the first hurdle, the wearisome three day journey on the old beat-up Moon ferry to the space station.”

“No one is born evil. As Winnicott put it, “A baby cannot hate the mother, without the mother first hating the baby.”

“Ralph, my dearest child, always remember in the hour of danger to look to your Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He alone is both able and willing to save your body and your soul.”

“Bulbo had carried a rose in his mouth all the time of the dismal ceremony. It was a fairy rose, and he was told by his mother that he ought never to part with it. So he had kept it between his teeth, even when he laid his poor head upon the block, hoping vaguely that some chance would turn up in his favour.”

“I really saw clearly, and for the first time, why a mother is really important. Not just because she feeds and also loves and cuddles and even mollycoddles a child, but because in an interesting and maybe an eerie and unworldly way, she stands in the gap. She stands between the unknown and the known.”

“I will look after you and I will look after anybody you say needs to be looked after, any way you say. I am here. I brought my whole self to you. I am your mother.”

“You see, baby, you have to protect yourself. If you don’t protect yourself, you look like a fool asking somebody else to protect you.” I thought about that for a second. She was right. A woman needs to support herself before she asks anyone else to support her.”

“My mother’s gifts of courage to me were both large and small. The latter are woven so subtly into the fabric of my psyche that I can hardly distinguish where she stops and I begin.”

“This is the role of the mother. And in that visit I really saw clearly, for the first time, why a mother is really important. Not just because she feeds and also loves and also cuddles... but because in an interesting and and maybe an eerie and other worldly way, she stands in the gap. She stands between the unknown and the known.”

“A mother’s heart is a vast and glorious thing. My mother’s heart was expansive, having been enlarged by suffering and years of clinging to Jesus while being misunderstood, dismissed, and judged by those she loved most. Me included. It had cost her to love, had cost her much to mother. It always does. But she would tell you that it’s worth it, that there is no other way.”