#motherhood

Man of an hard heart! Hear me, Proud, Stern, and Cruel! You could have saved me; you could have restored me to happiness and virtue, but would not! You are the destroyer of my Soul; You are my Murderer, and on you fall the curse of my death and my unborn Infant’s! Insolent in your yet-unshaken virtue, you disdained the prayers of a Penitent; But God will show mercy, though you show none. And where is the merit of your boasted virtue? What temptations have you vanquished? Coward! you have fled from it, not opposed seduction. But the day of Trial will arrive! Oh! then when you yield to impetuous passions! when you feel that Man is weak, and born to err; When shuddering you look back upon your crimes, and solicit with terror the mercy of your God, Oh! in that fearful moment think upon me! Think upon your Cruelty! Think upon Agnes, and despair of pardon! ↗

— Matthew Gregory Lewis

#arrogance #callousness #catholicism #cold-hearted-people #cruelty

And (cue music swell) motherhood turned out to be the most meaningful thing I've ever done with my life. Really. ↗

— Nia Vardalos

#done #ever #i #life #meaningful

Woman must have her freedom, the fundamental freedom of choosing whether or not she will be a mother and how many children she will have. Regardless of what man’s attitude may be, that problem is hers — and before it can be his, it is hers alone. She goes through the vale of death alone, each time a babe is born. As it is the right neither of man nor the state to coerce her into this ordeal, so it is her right to decide whether she will endure it. ↗

— Margaret Sanger

#equality #freedom #motherhood #women #women-s-rights

I think motherhood is the noblest task of all, because you cannot do it at your convenience, or tailor it to suit your preferences. You have to be ready to give up everything when you take on this task: your time, restful nights, your hobbies, your pursuit of physical fitness, any beauty you may have had, and all of the private little pleasures you might have counted as a right, from late dinners and long soaks in the tub to weekend excursions and cycling trips…I’m not saying you can’t have any of these things, but you have to be ready to let them all go if you’re going to have children and put them first. ↗

— Johann Christoph Arnold

#beauty

I value mothers and motherhood enormously. For every inattentive or abusive mother in my fiction I think you'll find a dozen or so who are neither. ↗

— William Trevor

#enormously #every #fiction #find #i

The balancing act of motherhood and a career, and being a wife, is something that I don't think I'll ever perfect, but I love the challenge of it. ↗

— Kerri Walsh

#balancing #being #career #challenge #ever

Morality and its victim, the mother - what a terrible picture! Is there indeed anything more terrible, more criminal, than our glorified sacred function of motherhood? ↗

— Emma Goldman

#anything #criminal #function #glorified #indeed

Motherhood has been an exercise in guilt. ↗

— Felicity Huffman

#exercise #guilt #motherhood

There's no doubt that motherhood is the best thing in my life. It's all that really matters. ↗

— Courteney Cox

#doubt #life #matters #motherhood #my life

I had three children while doing a show, as demanding as 'Good Morning America,' so this is - you know, it's almost like I'm less daunted about motherhood, and parenting at this point in time. And I think I'm just much more fit and healthy than I was 20-years-ago. ↗

— Joan Lunden

#almost #america #children #demanding #doing