#Mothers

"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."

"I always wondered why God was supposed to be a father,"she whispers. Fathers always want you to measure up to something. Mothers are the ones who love you unconditionally, don't you think?"

"Fathers and mothers have lost the idea that the highest aspiration they might have for their children is for them to be wise... specialized competence and success are all that they can imagine."

"How do I know you'll keep your word?"asked Coraline."I swear it,"said the other mother. "I swear it on my own mother's grave.""Does she have a grave?"asked Coraline."Oh yes,"said the other mother. "I put her in there myself. And when I found her trying to crawl out, I put her back."

"Sweater, n. Garment worn by child when its mother is feeling chilly."

"But, based on my friendship with Evie as young mothers, I started going on freedom rides in 1966."

"You will like her,"he persisted. "Egad, she's after your own heart, maman! She shot me in the arm.""Voyons, do you think that is what I like?"

"A mother’s love: the sacred relationship of affording a nanny so as to be tolerated as a granny."

"I know enough to know that no woman should ever marry a man who hated his mother."

"I have seven children by six different mothers. Maybe success was too good to me."

"Madlen came to sit beside her on the bed. "Lady Queen,"she said with her own particular brand of rough gentleness. "It is not the job of the child to protect her mother. It's the mother's job to protect the child. By allowing your mother to protect you, you gave her a gift. Do you understand me?"

"The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found."

"When your mother asks, "Do you want a piece of advice?"it's a mere formality. It doesn't matter if you answer yes or no. You're going to get it anyway."

"Our mothers always remain the strangest, craziest people we've ever met."

"The best love in the world, is the love of a man. The love of a man who came from your womb, the love of your son! I don't have a daughter, but maybe the love of a daughter is the best, too. I am first and foremost me, but right after that, I am a mother. The best thing that I can ever be, is me. But the best gift that I will ever have, is being a mother."

"Beauty is not who you are on the outside, it is the wisdom and time you gave away to save another struggling soul, like you."

"Well then,"Roen said briskly, "are you sleeping?""Yes.""Come now. A mother can tell when her son lies. Are you eating?""No,"Brigan said gravely. "I've not eaten in two months. It's a hunger strike to protest the spring flooding in the south.""Gracious,"Roen said, reaching for the fruit bowl. "Have an apple, dear."

"Mothers were the only ones you could depend on to tell the whole, unvarnished truth."

"As mothers and daughters, we are connected with one another. My mother is the bones of my spine, keeping me straight and true. She is my blood, making sure it runs rich and strong. She is the beating of my heart. I cannot now imagine a life without her."

"Girls,"their mother interjected, "you must both stop being strange - it is unattractive. And don't forget your hats. It would be absolutely the end for me if you two came down with freckles at a time like this."