#mother

A mother has far greater influence on her children than anyone else, and she must realize that every word she speaks, every act, every response, her attitude, even her appearance and manner of dress affect the lives of her children and the whole family. It is while the child is in the home that he gains from his mother the attitudes, hopes, and beliefs that will determine the kind of life he will live and the contribution he will make to society. ↗

— N. Eldon Tanner

#attitude

Whatever life brings, we'll share," she says, and "I can do no more than the best I can. ↗

— Carol Emshwiller

#motherhood #attitude

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. ↗

— Catherynne M. Valente

#kisses #mothers #death

If I – as a beneficiary of that exact formula – will concede that my own life was indeed enriched by that precise familial structure, will the social conservatives please (for once!) concede that this arrangement has always put a disproportionately cumbersome burden on women? Such a system demands that mothers become selfless to the point of near invisibility in order to construct these exemplary encironments for their families. And might those same social conservatives – instead of just praising mothers as “sacred” and “noble” – be willing to someday join a larger conversation about how we might work together as a society to construct a world where healthy children can be raised and healthy families can prosper without women have to scrape bare the walls of their own souls to do so? ↗

— Elizabeth Gilbert

#sacrifice #family

Once upon a time there was a widow who had two daughters. The elder was so much like her, both in looks and character, that whoever saw the daughter saw the mother. ↗

— Charles Perrault

#character #daughter #daughters #elder #had

But my mother's life was a never-ending round of maintenance. Not one single thing did she ever achieve but that it had to be done all over again, one day or one week or one season later. Oh, the monotony. ↗

— Jacqueline Kelly

#life

Here is the real domino theory - gay man to gay man, bisexual man to straight woman, addict mother to newborn baby, they all fall down and someday it will come to you. ↗

— Anna Quindlen

#baby #bisexual #come #domino #down

I was brought up by an Episcopalian father and Presbyterian mother in nondenominational Army chapels all over the world and never really had much religious experience. ↗

— Sally Quinn

#brought #episcopalian #experience #father #had

I actually got a nice surprise about being a mother because I expected it to be harder and to have to make more adaptations. ↗

— Paula Radcliffe

#actually #because #being #expected #got

My mother wanted me to be a concert pianist. ↗

— Bernie Worrell

#concert pianist #me #mother #pianist #wanted