“But kids don’t stay with you if you do it right. It’s the one job where, the better you are, the more surely you won’t be needed in the long run.”

― Barbara Kingsolver, Pigs in Heaven

“Being a mother is an attitude, not a biological relation.”

― Robert A. Heinlein, Have Space Suit—Will Travel

“Perhaps it takes courage to raise children..”

― John Steinbeck, East of Eden

“I like it when my mother smiles. And I especially like it when I make her smile.”

― Adriana Trigiani, Viola in Reel Life

“. . . I do not tell you often enough, dear Mother, how very grateful I am that I am yours. It is a rare parent who would offer a child such latitude and understanding. It is an even rarer one who calls a daughter friend. I do love you, dear Mama.”

― Julia Quinn, To Sir Phillip, With Love

“My mother, she is beautiful, softened at the edges and tempered with a spine of steel. I want to grow old and be like her.” – Jodi Picoult

“An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy.” Rudyard Kipling