My mother had a slender, small body,
but a large heart - a heart so large
that everybody's joys found welcome in it,
and hospitable accommodation.
~Mark Twain

As I was compiling a list of quotes for Mother’s Day I found this gem from Mark Twain and knowing Mark Twain wondered if perhaps any of his quote on his mother was tongue in cheek for any reason…why would I think that? Well maybe because we are aware of Mark Twain’s good humor or maybe because the last good quote I heard from my four year old daughter as I leaned over to search for juice in the fridge went something like “Mom, your butt is fluffy like a pillow.”

Without further adieu, here are some quotes to inspire and honor us as mothers.

You are loved for the little girl you were;
the special woman you are now;
and the precious Daughter you will always be. ~Unknown


Mothers and Daughters:

Thou art thy mother's glass, and she in thee
Calls back the lovely April of her prime.
~William Shakespeare

Beloved, you are my sister, you are my daughter, you are my face; you are me. ~Toni Morrison

Chance made you my daughter; love made you my friend. ~Unknown

A daughter is a mother's gender partner, her closest ally in the family confederacy, an extension of her self. And mothers are their daughters' role model, their biological and emotional road map, the arbiter of all their relationships. ~Victoria Secunda

All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his. ~Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, 1895

Mothers, look after your daughters, keep them near you, keep their confidence — that they may be true and faithful. ~Elmina S. Taylor

A son is a son till he takes him a wife, a daughter is a daughter all of her life. ~Irish Saying


Our Work:

A man's work is from sun to sun, but a mother's work is never done. ~Author Unknown

The phrase "working mother" is redundant. ~Jane Sellman

If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands? ~Milton Berle

Motherhood has a very humanizing effect. Everything gets reduced to essentials. ~Meryl Streep


Our Lessons:

While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about. ~Unknown

Some mothers are kissing mothers and some are scolding mothers,
but it is love just the same, and most mothers kiss and scold together. ~Pearl S. Buck

He who teaches children learns more than they do. German Proverb

An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy. ~Spanish Proverb

That best academy, a mother's knee. ~James Russell Lowell

Sweater, n.: garment worn by child when its mother is feeling chilly. ~Ambrose Bierce

Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother. ~Oprah Winfrey

When motherhood becomes the fruit of a deep yearning, not the result of ignorance or accident, its children will become the foundation of a new race. ~Margaret Sanger

Hundreds of dewdrops to greet the dawn,
Hundreds of bees in the purple clover,
Hundreds of butterflies on the lawn,
But only one mother the wide world over.
~George Cooper

My mother is a poem
I'll never be able to write,
though everything I write
is a poem to my mother.
~Sharon Doubiago