#mother

I can't let my mother's death have been in vain. Democracy is the best revenge, and we will have it. ↗

— Bilawal Bhutto Zardari

#best #death #democracy #i #mother

- You look fine. - Right. I look fine. Except I don't, said Zora, tugging sadly at her man's nightshirt. This was why Kiki had dreaded having girls: she knew she wouldn't be able to protect them from self-disgust. ↗

— Zadie Smith

#mother #women #beauty

Mother seemed happiest when making and tending home, the sewing machine whistling and the Mixmaster whirling. Her deepest impulse was to nurture, to simply dwell; it had nothing to do with ambition and achievement in the world...How had I come to believe that my world of questing and writing was more valuable than her dwelling and domestic artistry?...I wanted to go out and do things--write books, speak out. I've been driven by that. I don't know how to rest in myself very well, how to be content staying put. But Mother knows how to BE at home--and really, to be in herself. It's actually very beautiful what she does...I think part of me just longs for the way Mother experiences home. ↗

— Sue Monk Kidd

#motherhood #beauty

I wondered if my smile was as big as hers. Maybe as big. But not as beautiful. ↗

— Benjamin Alire Sáenz

#mothers #mums #smile #smiles #beauty

To see her, amid all of it. To see that contentment and beauty were not unattainable things. ↗

— Khaled Hosseini

#beauty

A first child is your own best foot forward, and how you do cheer those little feet as they strike out. You examine every turn of flesh for precocity, and crow it to the world. But the last one: the baby who trails her scent like a flag of surrender through your life when there will be no more coming after--oh, that' s love by a different name. ↗

— Barbara Kingsolver

#children #love #motherhood #life

God know that a mother need fortitude and courage and tolerance and flexibility and patience and firmness and nearly every other brave aspect of the human soul. ↗

— Phyllis McGinley

#courage

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. ↗

— Patrick White

#children #fathers #fowls #mothers #recycling

You just stood up to your mother.... I should think now you could take on the world. ↗

— Elizabeth Strout

#mother #mothers #mothers-and-sons #standing-your-ground #courage

That’s the funny thing,” she said. “Men always want to die for something. For someone. I can see the appeal. You do it once and it’s done. No more worrying, not knowing, about tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. I know you all think it sounds brave, but I’ll tell you something even braver. To struggle and fight for the ones you love today. And then do it all over again the next day. Every day. For your whole life. It’s not as romantic, I admit. But it takes a lot of courage to live for someone, too. ↗

— Victor LaValle

#motherhood #courage