{ "type": "topic", "site": { "name": "Leafy Quotes", "language": "en", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com" }, "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.", "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother", "heading": "Quotes about mother", "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother.json", "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother.md", "quotes_count": 58, "authors_count": 41, "parent": { "name": "family", "slug": "family", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/family", "heading": "Quotes about family" }, "children": [], "quotes": [ { "id": "d09ce76f-2a7d-408d-bd41-f3e014e78e2a", "slug": "as-summer-neared", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-wright/black-boy/as-summer-neared", "text": "As summer neared, my mother suffered yet another stroke of paralysis and again I had to watch her suffer, listen to her groans, powerless to help. I used to lie awake nights and think back to the early days in Arkansas, tracing my mother’s life, reliving events, wondering why she had apparently been singled out for so much suffering, meaningless suffering, and I would feel more awe than I had ever felt in church. My mind could find no answer and I would feel rebellious against all life. But I never felt humble.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Richard Wright", "slug": "richard-wright", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-wright" }, "book": { "title": "Black Boy", "slug": "black-boy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-wright/black-boy" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "suffering", "slug": "suffering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering" }, { "name": "rebellion", "slug": "rebellion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/rebellion" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Wright#Black_Boy_(1945)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T14:30:04" }, { "id": "82523979-dfa4-4659-b922-488d439db467", "slug": "once-in-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-wright/black-boy/once-in-the", "text": "Once, in the night, my mother called me to her bed and told me that she could not endure the pain, that she wanted to die. I held her hand and begged her to be quiet. That night I ceased to react to my mother; my feelings were frozen. I merely waited upon her, knowing that she was suffering. She remained abed ten years, gradually growing better, but never completely recovering, relapsing periodically into her paralytic state. The family had stripped itself of money to fight my mother’s illness and there was no more forthcoming. Her illness gradually became an accepted thing in the house, something that could not be stopped or helped. My mother’s suffering grew into a symbol in my mind, gathering to itself all the poverty, the ignorance, the helplessness; the painful, baffling, hunger-ridden days and hours; the restless moving, the futile seeking, the uncertainty, the fear, the dread; the meaningless pain and the endless suffering. Her life set the emotional tone of my life, colored the men and women I was to meet in the future, conditioned my relation to events that had not yet happened, determined my attitude to situations and circumstances I had yet to face. A somberness of spirit that I was never to lose settled over me during the slow years of my mother’s unrelieved suffering, a somberness that was to make me stand apart and look upon excessive joy with suspicion, that was to make me self-conscious, that was to make me keep forever on the move, as though to escape a nameless fate seeking to overtake me. At the age of twelve, before I had had one full year of formal schooling, I had a conception of life that no experience would ever erase, a predilection for what was real that no argument could ever gainsay, a sense of the world that was mine and mine alone, a notion as to what life meant that no education could ever alter, a conviction that the meaning of living came only when one was struggling to wring a meaning out of meaningless suffering.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Richard Wright", "slug": "richard-wright", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-wright" }, "book": { "title": "Black Boy", "slug": "black-boy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-wright/black-boy" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "suffering", "slug": "suffering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering" }, { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Wright#Black_Boy_(1945)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T14:30:04" }, { "id": "0a20ac7b-3e97-4058-b0c9-1b3424690c5d", "slug": "i-cannot-bear", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/virgil/the-aeneid/i-cannot-bear", "text": "I cannot bear a mother's tears.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Virgil", "slug": "virgil", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/virgil" }, "book": { "title": "The Aeneid", "slug": "the-aeneid", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/virgil/the-aeneid" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Virgil#Book_IX", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T08:09:55" }, { "id": "df8e8ce4-41fc-4693-895f-f77cf9f639ef", "slug": "poor-mothers-he-thought", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/victor-hugo/les-miserables/poor-mothers-he-thought", "text": "Poor mothers, he thought. There is one thing sadder than to see their children die — to see them lead evil lives.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Victor Hugo", "slug": "victor-hugo", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/victor-hugo" }, "book": { "title": "Les Miserables", "slug": "les-miserables", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/victor-hugo/les-miserables" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 616, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "children", "slug": "children", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/children" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Les_Mis%C3%A9rables#Book_VIII_-_The_Noxious_Poor", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T08:09:49" }, { "id": "62d26b0b-e735-4d77-9a0e-b67912c199e3", "slug": "mothers-arms-are", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/victor-hugo/les-miserables/mothers-arms-are", "text": "Mothers' arms are made of tenderness, and sweet sleep blesses the child who lies therein.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Victor Hugo", "slug": "victor-hugo", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/victor-hugo" }, "book": { "title": "Les Miserables", "slug": "les-miserables", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/victor-hugo/les-miserables" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Les_Mis%C3%A9rables#Book_IV_-_To_Entrust_is_Sometimes_to_Abandon", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T08:09:47" }, { "id": "61c9be24-1e9f-4e31-9b34-169fab461bbf", "slug": "no-doubt-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/luisa-capetillo/a-nation-of-women/no-doubt-the", "text": "No doubt, the first and best school is the home. The best and most superior teacher for the child is an educated mother", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Luisa Capetillo", "slug": "luisa-capetillo", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/luisa-capetillo" }, "book": { "title": "A Nation of Women", "slug": "a-nation-of-women", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/luisa-capetillo/a-nation-of-women" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "education", "slug": "education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/education" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Luisa_Capetillo#A_Nation_of_Women_(1911)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:49:58" }, { "id": "a3d15133-a8a6-4f75-8688-392825c71761", "slug": "begin-baby-boy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/virgil/the-eclogues/begin-baby-boy", "text": "Begin, baby boy, to recognize your mother with a smile.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Virgil", "slug": "virgil", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/virgil" }, "book": { "title": "The Eclogues", "slug": "the-eclogues", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/virgil/the-eclogues" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "children", "slug": "children", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/children" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Virgil#Eclogues_(37_BC)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:49:23" }, { "id": "52820e7c-f4bf-49ea-96b2-1fd0ce64edfa", "slug": "mother-died-today", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-stranger/mother-died-today", "text": "Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday; I can't be sure.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Albert Camus", "slug": "albert-camus", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus" }, "book": { "title": "The Stranger", "slug": "the-stranger", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-stranger" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Camus#The_Stranger_(1942)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:49:03" }, { "id": "d400ecdb-ef14-4e50-a5d0-74f5198fd9d9", "slug": "when-the-child-must", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard/fear-and-trembling/when-the-child-must", "text": "When the child must be weaned, the mother too is not without sorrow at the thought that she and the child are separated more and more, that the child which first lay under her heart and later reposed upon her breast will be so near to her no more. So they mourn together for the brief period of mourning. Happy the person who has kept the child as near and needed not to sorrow any more!", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sören Kierkegaard", "slug": "soren-kierkegaard", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard" }, "book": { "title": "Fear and Trembling", "slug": "fear-and-trembling", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard/fear-and-trembling" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "children", "slug": "children", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/children" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fear_and_Trembling#Prelude", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:01:58" }, { "id": "27ed19ea-3966-4a0b-996a-b76f57f00b7d", "slug": "when-the-child", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard/fear-and-trembling/when-the-child", "text": "When the child must be weaned, the mother blackens her breast, it would indeed be a shame that the breast should look delicious when the child must not have it. So the child believes that the breast has changed, but the mother is the same, her glance is as loving and tender as ever. Happy the person who had no need of more dreadful expedients for weaning the child !", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sören Kierkegaard", "slug": "soren-kierkegaard", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard" }, "book": { "title": "Fear and Trembling", "slug": "fear-and-trembling", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard/fear-and-trembling" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "love", "slug": "love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fear_and_Trembling#Prelude", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:01:58" }, { "id": "292438bd-ec30-4ba7-b247-8c4cdb715b80", "slug": "even-though-i-felt", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-smiley/a-thousand-acres/even-though-i-felt", "text": "Even though I felt her presence, I also felt the habitual fruitlessness of thinking about her. Her images, partly memories of her, partly memories of photos I had seen of her, yielded no new answers to old mysteries.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jane Smiley", "slug": "jane-smiley", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-smiley" }, "book": { "title": "A Thousand Acres", "slug": "a-thousand-acres", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-smiley/a-thousand-acres" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jane_Smiley#A_Thousand_Acres_(1991)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:06:25" }, { "id": "a417735e-9490-4e4e-9149-5e820db41a35", "slug": "known-to-god", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-wells-brown/clotel/known-to-god", "text": "Known to God only is the amount of human agony and suffering which sends its cry from the slave markets and Negro pens, unheard and unheeded by man up to his ear; mothers weeping for their children, breaking the night-silence with the shrieks of their breaking hearts. (Chapter V)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Wells Brown", "slug": "william-wells-brown", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-wells-brown" }, "book": { "title": "Clotel", "slug": "clotel", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-wells-brown/clotel" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "suffering", "slug": "suffering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering" }, { "name": "slavery", "slug": "slavery", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/slavery" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Wells_Brown#Clotel:_or,_The_President's_Daughter:_a_narrative_of_slave_life_in_the_United_States_(1853)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:06:12" }, { "id": "0e2c351f-7bb9-4595-b5b8-3c9344308663", "slug": "he-believed-in-rational", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/nation/he-believed-in-rational", "text": "He believed in rational thinking and scientific inquiry, which was why he never won an argument with his mother, who believed in people doing what she told them, and believed it with a rock-hard certainty that dismissed all opposition.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Terry Pratchett", "slug": "terry-pratchett", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett" }, "book": { "title": "Nation", "slug": "nation", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/nation" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 77, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nation_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:06:10" }, { "id": "e98e8aac-d408-4236-9585-dc6f96c59f60", "slug": "mothers-sometimes-are", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-bloch/psycho/mothers-sometimes-are", "text": "Mothers sometimes are overly possessive, but not all children allow themselves to be possessed.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert Bloch", "slug": "robert-bloch", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-bloch" }, "book": { "title": "Psycho", "slug": "psycho", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-bloch/psycho" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Bloch#Psycho_(1959)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:06:09" }, { "id": "3c5395c2-93e7-4bdd-bcf3-5f8ca1f81e89", "slug": "mother-is-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-makepeace-thackeray/vanity-fair/mother-is-the", "text": "Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children; and here was one who was worshipping a stone!", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Makepeace Thackeray", "slug": "william-makepeace-thackeray", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-makepeace-thackeray" }, "book": { "title": "Vanity Fair", "slug": "vanity-fair", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-makepeace-thackeray/vanity-fair" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 372, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "children", "slug": "children", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/children" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Vanity_Fair_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:43" }, { "id": "296e4a97-e276-4d2d-9437-1754f5708e26", "slug": "it-was-during", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-london/white-fang/it-was-during", "text": "It was during this period that he might have hearkened to the memories of the lair and the stream and run back to the Wild. But the memory of his mother held him...So he remained in his bondage waiting for her.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jack London", "slug": "jack-london", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-london" }, "book": { "title": "White Fang", "slug": "white-fang", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-london/white-fang" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/White_Fang#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:30" }, { "id": "cb8bfc8a-4869-45bf-8e35-3518d523936a", "slug": "a-mother-must", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayobami-adebayo/stay-with-me/a-mother-must", "text": "A mother must be vigilant. She must be able and willing to wake up ten times during the night to feed her baby. After her intermittent vigil, she must see everything clearly the next morning so that she can notice any changes in her baby. A mother is not permitted to have blurry vision. She must notice if her baby’s wail is too loud or too low. She must know if the child’s temperature has risen or fallen. A mother must not miss any signs.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀", "slug": "ayobami-adebayo", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayobami-adebayo" }, "book": { "title": "Stay with Me", "slug": "stay-with-me", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayobami-adebayo/stay-with-me" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" }, { "name": "motherhood", "slug": "motherhood", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/motherhood" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ay%E1%BB%8D%CC%80b%C3%A1mi_Ad%C3%A9b%C3%A1y%E1%BB%8D%CC%80#Stay_with_Me_(2017)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:20" }, { "id": "aac42bd3-27ca-476c-8260-345a3ab6690d", "slug": "my-mother-had", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayobami-adebayo/stay-with-me/my-mother-had", "text": "“My mother had become a obsession for me, a religion, and the very thought of referring to another woman as Mother seems sacrilegious, a betrayal of the woman who had given up her life for me to live.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀", "slug": "ayobami-adebayo", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayobami-adebayo" }, "book": { "title": "Stay with Me", "slug": "stay-with-me", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayobami-adebayo/stay-with-me" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ay%E1%BB%8D%CC%80b%C3%A1mi_Ad%C3%A9b%C3%A1y%E1%BB%8D%CC%80#Stay_with_Me_(2017)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:20" }, { "id": "32c3281c-aa53-4fa3-85e7-3eb9b713bd4d", "slug": "there-is-no-god", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayobami-adebayo/stay-with-me/there-is-no-god", "text": "there is no god like a mother", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀", "slug": "ayobami-adebayo", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayobami-adebayo" }, "book": { "title": "Stay with Me", "slug": "stay-with-me", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayobami-adebayo/stay-with-me" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ay%E1%BB%8D%CC%80b%C3%A1mi_Ad%C3%A9b%C3%A1y%E1%BB%8D%CC%80#Stay_with_Me_(2017)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:20" }, { "id": "02b3b994-e182-4adf-b95e-98adac077726", "slug": "but-now-my-sister-mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sindiwe-magona/mother-to-mother/but-now-my-sister-mother", "text": "But now, my Sister-Mother, do I help him hide? Deliver him to the police? Get him a lawyer? Will that mean I do not feel your sorrow for your slain daughter? Am I your enemy? Are you mine? What wrong have I done you . . . or you me?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sindiwe Magona", "slug": "sindiwe-magona", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sindiwe-magona" }, "book": { "title": "Mother to Mother", "slug": "mother-to-mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sindiwe-magona/mother-to-mother" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 138, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "grief", "slug": "grief", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/grief" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sindiwe_Magona#Mother_to_Mother_(1998)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:19" }, { "id": "2303ead5-43c3-4dab-afa1-94a8aa2c1e76", "slug": "one-mother-could", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/leila-aboulela/bird-summons/one-mother-could", "text": "One mother could look after twelve children and decades later these twelve adults would fidget and struggle to look after that one mother.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Leila Aboulela", "slug": "leila-aboulela", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/leila-aboulela" }, "book": { "title": "Bird Summons", "slug": "bird-summons", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/leila-aboulela/bird-summons" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "old age", "slug": "old-age", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age" }, { "name": "children", "slug": "children", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/children" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Leila_Aboulela#Bird_Summons_(2019)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:08" }, { "id": "be8e5b0d-38d3-43d2-bd04-3aee2ec012ab", "slug": "when-i-sent", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-brokaw/a-long-way-from-home/when-i-sent", "text": "When I sent this book to my mother for her comments and corrections, she wrote back to say, \"In some parts your ego is showing, bu mostly it's fine.\" Forty years after I left home for the last time, she still has my number.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Tom Brokaw", "slug": "tom-brokaw", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-brokaw" }, "book": { "title": "A Long Way from Home", "slug": "a-long-way-from-home", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-brokaw/a-long-way-from-home" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tom_Brokaw#A_Long_Way_From_Home_(2002)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:01" }, { "id": "4b94cdf6-f517-4e62-a318-c99d0a33dc1b", "slug": "after-my-mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jeffrey-ford/the-drowned-life/after-my-mother", "text": "After my mother finally quit drinking, she entered a brief epoch of peace in her life. Gone were the paranoia, the accusations, the belittlements, the bitter rage of judgment, the look of fear. For years, nearly every day a lost weekend, she had been possessed by the dark amber ghast of gag-sweet Taylor Cream Sherry. Living with her back then had been like living with a vampire whose bite drained but never conferred immortality.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jeffrey Ford", "slug": "jeffrey-ford", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jeffrey-ford" }, "book": { "title": "The Drowned Life", "slug": "the-drowned-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jeffrey-ford/the-drowned-life" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 91, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "alcohol", "slug": "alcohol", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/alcohol" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" }, { "name": "addiction", "slug": "addiction-2", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/addiction-2" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Ford#The_Drowned_Life_(2008)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:58" }, { "id": "daaa88e1-1fb9-4e53-b6e3-274a1a977dba", "slug": "from-mama-we-learned", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dorit-rabinyan/strand-of-a-thousand-pearls/from-mama-we-learned", "text": "From Mama we learned what sort of people we should be, and we loved her as a confidante; but Papa's image was the mold of our dreams. (p52)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Dorit Rabinyan", "slug": "dorit-rabinyan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dorit-rabinyan" }, "book": { "title": "Strand of a Thousand Pearls", "slug": "strand-of-a-thousand-pearls", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dorit-rabinyan/strand-of-a-thousand-pearls" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "dreams and aspirations", "slug": "dreams-and-aspirations", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dreams-and-aspirations" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" }, { "name": "father", "slug": "father", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/father" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dorit_Rabinyan#Strand_of_a_Thousand_Pearls_(1999)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:57" }, { "id": "0e4ec8ee-cbfe-418b-88d2-fbbbb8a060f8", "slug": "to-address-a-person", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paula-gunn-allen/the-sacred-hoop/to-address-a-person", "text": "To address a person as “mother” is to pay the highest ritual respect.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Paula Gunn Allen", "slug": "paula-gunn-allen", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paula-gunn-allen" }, "book": { "title": "The Sacred Hoop", "slug": "the-sacred-hoop", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paula-gunn-allen/the-sacred-hoop" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "respect", "slug": "respect", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/respect" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paula_Gunn_Allen#Chapter_One", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:37" }, { "id": "f0ea5572-3edd-4b7f-9fc7-c86ca44bd1ec", "slug": "i-knew-it-with", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass/i-knew-it-with", "text": "I knew it with a certainty as warm and clear as the September sunshine. The land loves us back. She loves us with beans and tomatoes, with roasting ears and blackberries and birdsongs. By a shower of gifts and a heavy rain of lessons. She provides for us and teaches us to provide for ourselves. That's what good mothers do.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robin Wall Kimmerer", "slug": "robin-wall-kimmerer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer" }, "book": { "title": "Braiding Sweetgrass", "slug": "braiding-sweetgrass", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 122, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "nature", "slug": "nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robin_Wall_Kimmerer#Braiding_Sweetgrass_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:31" }, { "id": "7b7dab02-aa1a-4e29-86db-389f337c61b1", "slug": "this-is-really", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass/this-is-really", "text": "This is really why I made my daughters learn to garden—so they would always have a mother to love them, long after I am gone.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robin Wall Kimmerer", "slug": "robin-wall-kimmerer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer" }, "book": { "title": "Braiding Sweetgrass", "slug": "braiding-sweetgrass", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 122, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" }, { "name": "garden", "slug": "garden", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/garden" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robin_Wall_Kimmerer#Braiding_Sweetgrass_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:31" }, { "id": "df589a30-1587-4ae7-8f80-06a125f39f9b", "slug": "being-a-good-mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass/being-a-good-mother", "text": "Being a good mother doesn't end with creating a home where just my children can flourish. A good mother grows into a richly eutrophic old woman, knowing that her work doesn't end until she creates a home where all of life's beings can flourish.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robin Wall Kimmerer", "slug": "robin-wall-kimmerer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer" }, "book": { "title": "Braiding Sweetgrass", "slug": "braiding-sweetgrass", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 97, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "old age", "slug": "old-age", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robin_Wall_Kimmerer#Braiding_Sweetgrass_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:30" }, { "id": "959bdc4f-79a3-4e52-b8ac-63e00b467965", "slug": "being-a-good", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass/being-a-good", "text": "Being a good mother means teaching your children to care for the world.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robin Wall Kimmerer", "slug": "robin-wall-kimmerer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer" }, "book": { "title": "Braiding Sweetgrass", "slug": "braiding-sweetgrass", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 95, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "nature", "slug": "nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robin_Wall_Kimmerer#Braiding_Sweetgrass_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:30" }, { "id": "476d6f22-5ccd-4315-b622-511a7086053b", "slug": "all-moms-have", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass/all-moms-have", "text": "All moms have treasured ways to spend the few precious hours they have to themselves, curling up with a book or sewing, but I mostly went to the water, the birds and the wind and the quiet were what I needed.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robin Wall Kimmerer", "slug": "robin-wall-kimmerer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer" }, "book": { "title": "Braiding Sweetgrass", "slug": "braiding-sweetgrass", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 88, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "silence", "slug": "silence-2", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/silence-2" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robin_Wall_Kimmerer#Braiding_Sweetgrass_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:30" }, { "id": "612aa7e3-24a4-43cd-b2e9-21e0042cf393", "slug": "with-the-words", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sigrid-undset/the-cross/with-the-words", "text": "With the words Sira Eiliv had spoken the day before still in her mind, she suddenly realized that as fearful as she had been for her reckless sons and as sternly as she had often admonished them because she was tormented with anguish for their sakes, she would have been less content with her children if they have been meek and timid.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sigrid Undset", "slug": "sigrid-undset", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sigrid-undset" }, "book": { "title": "The Cross", "slug": "the-cross", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sigrid-undset/the-cross" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 399, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "courage", "slug": "courage", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/courage" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sigrid_Undset#The_Cross_(1922)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:26" }, { "id": "e5969290-bcef-47e1-b1e6-bc8fa15acf9e", "slug": "her-eyes-have", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sigrid-undset/the-cross/her-eyes-have", "text": "Her eyes have been opened to the fact that after the burdens and toil of a young mother comes a new kind of fear and concern for the aging mother.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sigrid Undset", "slug": "sigrid-undset", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sigrid-undset" }, "book": { "title": "The Cross", "slug": "the-cross", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sigrid-undset/the-cross" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 164, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "old age", "slug": "old-age", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sigrid_Undset#The_Cross_(1922)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:25" }, { "id": "7b664d97-6b74-405a-a83c-3248cd0a779f", "slug": "kristin-felt-as-if-she", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sigrid-undset/the-cross/kristin-felt-as-if-she", "text": "Kristin felt as if she were now an old woman. It seem to her that a woman was young as long as she had little children sleeping in her arms at night, playing around her during the day, and demanding her care at all times. When a mother’s children have grown away from her, then she becomes an old woman.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sigrid Undset", "slug": "sigrid-undset", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sigrid-undset" }, "book": { "title": "The Cross", "slug": "the-cross", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sigrid-undset/the-cross" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 291, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "old age", "slug": "old-age", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sigrid_Undset#The_Cross_(1922)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:25" }, { "id": "0c358d2c-a543-456c-99a4-42c029bc8167", "slug": "was-this-how", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sigrid-undset/the-cross/was-this-how", "text": "Was this how she would see her struggle end? Had she conceived in her womb a flock of restless fledgling hawks that simply lay in her nest, waiting impatiently for the hour when their wings were strong enough to carry them beyond the most distant blue peaks? And their father would clap his hands and laugh: Fly, fly, my young birds. They would take with them bloody threads from the roots of her heart when they flew off, and they wouldn’t even know it. She would be left behind alone, and all the heartstrings, which had once bound her to this old home of hers, she had already sundered. That was how it would end, and she would be neither alive nor dead.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sigrid Undset", "slug": "sigrid-undset", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sigrid-undset" }, "book": { "title": "The Cross", "slug": "the-cross", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sigrid-undset/the-cross" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 154, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "children", "slug": "children", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/children" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sigrid_Undset#The_Cross_(1922)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:25" }, { "id": "a23e86cb-bbd8-461d-9d23-12238285c098", "slug": "these-were-my-mothers", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/zitkala-sa/american-indian-stories/these-were-my-mothers", "text": "These were my mother's pride,-my wild freedom and overflowing spirits. She taught me no fear save that of intruding myself upon others. (\"Impressions of an Indian Childhood,\" chapter 1)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Zitkala-Sa", "slug": "zitkala-sa", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/zitkala-sa" }, "book": { "title": "American Indian Stories", "slug": "american-indian-stories", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/zitkala-sa/american-indian-stories" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "freedom", "slug": "freedom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Zitkala-%C5%A0a#American_Indian_Stories_(1921)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:17" }, { "id": "b365c26e-2200-4ca4-a85a-1d83957b5c6d", "slug": "some-parents-especially", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/buchi-emecheta/the-joys-of-motherhood/some-parents-especially", "text": "Some parents, especially those who have many children from different wives, may reject a bad son, a master may reject a wicked servant, a wife may go so far as to abandon a bad husband, but a mother can never, never reject her son. If he is convicted, she will be condemned alongside him.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Buchi Emecheta", "slug": "buchi-emecheta", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/buchi-emecheta" }, "book": { "title": "The Joys of Motherhood", "slug": "the-joys-of-motherhood", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/buchi-emecheta/the-joys-of-motherhood" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" }, { "name": "motherhood", "slug": "motherhood", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/motherhood" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Buchi_Emecheta#The_Joys_of_Motherhood_(1979)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:52" }, { "id": "32a7b575-8325-40b2-99a2-de989ab3f0ea", "slug": "you-were-my-child", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tara-westover/educated/you-were-my-child", "text": "You were my child. I should have protected you. I lived a lifetime in the moment I read those lines, a life that was not the one I had actually lived. I became a different person, who remembered a different childhood. I didn’t understand the magic of those words then, and I don’t understand it now. I know only this: that when my mother told me she had not been the mother to me that she wished she’d been, she became that mother for the first time.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Tara Westover", "slug": "tara-westover", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tara-westover" }, "book": { "title": "Educated", "slug": "educated", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tara-westover/educated" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 272, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "forgiveness", "slug": "forgiveness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/forgiveness" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tara_Westover#Educated_(2018)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:37" }, { "id": "2b595c15-4ac0-48ea-a732-3f8ca403ca15", "slug": "a-mothers-traditional", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/warren-farrell/women-cant-hear-what-men-dont-say/a-mothers-traditional", "text": "A mother’s traditional role prepared her to love her family by being with the family she loved.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Warren Farrell", "slug": "warren-farrell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/warren-farrell" }, "book": { "title": "Women Can't Hear What Men Don't Say", "slug": "women-cant-hear-what-men-dont-say", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/warren-farrell/women-cant-hear-what-men-dont-say" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "family", "slug": "family", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/family" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Warren_Farrell#Women_Can't_Hear_What_Men_Don't_Say_(2000)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:05" }, { "id": "15f2385a-b0dc-43ef-b511-71efa27f1f72", "slug": "i-watched-my-mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sarah-dessen/someone-like-you/i-watched-my-mother", "text": "I watched my mother do what she did best, and realized there would never be a way to cut myself from her entirely. No matter how strong or weak I was, she was a part of me, as crucial as my own heart. I would never be strong enough, in all my life, to do without her.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sarah Dessen", "slug": "sarah-dessen", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sarah-dessen" }, "book": { "title": "Someone Like You", "slug": "someone-like-you", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sarah-dessen/someone-like-you" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sarah_Dessen#Someone_Like_You_(1998)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:50" }, { "id": "ed2c3a38-ba53-4c5f-a759-f1c0d7e43596", "slug": "a-man-is-free", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anzia-yezierska/hungry-hearts/a-man-is-free", "text": "A man is free to go up as high as he can reach up to; but I, with all my style and pep, can't get a man my equal because a girl is always judged by her mother.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Anzia Yezierska", "slug": "anzia-yezierska", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anzia-yezierska" }, "book": { "title": "Hungry Hearts", "slug": "hungry-hearts", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anzia-yezierska/hungry-hearts" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "women", "slug": "women", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/women" }, { "name": "equality", "slug": "equality", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/equality" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anzia_Yezierska#%22The_Fat_of_the_Land%22", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:34" }, { "id": "680c0699-bf63-409f-82c8-c9bb2b946cf5", "slug": "every-son-raised", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/choke/every-son-raised", "text": "Every son raised by a single mom is pretty much born married", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Chuck Palahniuk", "slug": "chuck-palahniuk", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk" }, "book": { "title": "Choke", "slug": "choke", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/choke" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Choke_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:05" }, { "id": "5e35303f-d7f8-40fb-91a8-61b5bed96815", "slug": "whatever-else-is-unsure", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-joyce/a-portrait-of-the-artist-as-a-young-man/whatever-else-is-unsure", "text": "Whatever else is unsure in this stinking dunghill of a world a mother's love is not.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "James Joyce", "slug": "james-joyce", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-joyce" }, "book": { "title": "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man", "slug": "a-portrait-of-the-artist-as-a-young-man", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-joyce/a-portrait-of-the-artist-as-a-young-man" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "love", "slug": "love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Portrait_of_the_Artist_as_a_Young_Man#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:54" }, { "id": "2478b22d-1728-497a-b5d1-5b6265f671e3", "slug": "when-you-have", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dick-gregory/nigger/when-you-have", "text": "When you have a good mother and no father, God kind of sits in. It's not enough, but it helps.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Dick Gregory", "slug": "dick-gregory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dick-gregory" }, "book": { "title": "Nigger", "slug": "nigger", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dick-gregory/nigger" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "god", "slug": "god", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" }, { "name": "father", "slug": "father", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/father" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dick_Gregory#Nigger:_An_Autobiography_(1964)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:10" }, { "id": "9406dea2-4da2-4752-82b2-55a387a2b5c7", "slug": "in-a-sane", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/germaine-greer/the-whole-woman/in-a-sane", "text": "In a sane society no woman would be left to struggle on her own with the huge transformation that is motherhood, when a single individual finds herself joined by an invisible umbilical cord to another person from whom she will never be separated, even by death.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Germaine Greer", "slug": "germaine-greer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/germaine-greer" }, "book": { "title": "The Whole Woman", "slug": "the-whole-woman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/germaine-greer/the-whole-woman" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 209, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Germaine_Greer#The_Whole_Woman_(1999)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:33" }, { "id": "b515b4d4-55eb-4fa0-a36b-fe11fd00d34c", "slug": "you-north-american", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-deptford-trilogy/you-north-american", "text": "You North American men are especially guilty of casting your mothers in a cramping, minor role.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robertson Davies", "slug": "robertson-davies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies" }, "book": { "title": "The Deptford Trilogy", "slug": "the-deptford-trilogy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-deptford-trilogy" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Deptford_Trilogy#(1972)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:13" }, { "id": "2a4c50b4-6c2c-4c58-b0f0-c7f8a1d00d0a", "slug": "i-knew-she", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-deptford-trilogy/i-knew-she", "text": "I knew she had eaten my father, and I was glad I did not have to fight any longer to keep her from eating me. Oh, these good, ignorant, confident women! How one grows to hate them!", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robertson Davies", "slug": "robertson-davies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies" }, "book": { "title": "The Deptford Trilogy", "slug": "the-deptford-trilogy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-deptford-trilogy" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Deptford_Trilogy#(1970)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:13" }, { "id": "223b9391-0c58-4fab-aae7-62cdabe3df28", "slug": "only-in-america", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-roth/portnoys-complaint/only-in-america", "text": "Only in America, Rabbi Golden, do these peasants, our mothers, get their hair dyed platinum at the age of sixty, and walk up and down Collins Avenue in Florida in pedalpushers and mink stoles — and with opinions on every subject under the sun. It isn’t their fault they were given a gift like speech — look, if cows could talk, they would say things just as idiotic.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Philip Roth", "slug": "philip-roth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-roth" }, "book": { "title": "Portnoy's Complaint", "slug": "portnoys-complaint", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-roth/portnoys-complaint" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_Roth#Portnoy's_Complaint_(1969)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:07" }, { "id": "0051b391-99fc-4d7b-9d74-6ca6c5037fd0", "slug": "fortunately-for-those", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-austen/sense-and-sensibility/fortunately-for-those", "text": "Fortunately for those who pay their court through such foibles, a fond mother, though, in pursuit of praise for her children, the most rapacious of human beings, is likewise the most credulous; her demands are exorbitant; but she will swallow any thing...", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jane Austen", "slug": "jane-austen", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-austen" }, "book": { "title": "Sense and Sensibility", "slug": "sense-and-sensibility", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-austen/sense-and-sensibility" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sense_and_Sensibility#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:03" }, { "id": "f880405d-e224-4e2e-a67b-4e31b3885733", "slug": "without-a-mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hermann-hesse/narcissus-and-goldmund/without-a-mother", "text": "Without a mother, one cannot love. Without a mother, one cannot die.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Hermann Hesse", "slug": "hermann-hesse", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hermann-hesse" }, "book": { "title": "Narcissus and Goldmund", "slug": "narcissus-and-goldmund", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hermann-hesse/narcissus-and-goldmund" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "love", "slug": "love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love" }, { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hermann_Hesse#Narcissus_and_Goldmund_(1930)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:48" }, { "id": "6a1994a8-bd12-40cb-b808-5eb0936b55ee", "slug": "my-mother-had", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-p-feynman/what-do-you-care-what-other-people-think/my-mother-had", "text": "My mother ... had a wonderful sense of humor, and I learned from her that the highest forms of understanding we can achieve are laughter and human compassion.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Richard P. Feynman", "slug": "richard-p-feynman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-p-feynman" }, "book": { "title": "'What Do You Care What Other People Think?'", "slug": "what-do-you-care-what-other-people-think", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-p-feynman/what-do-you-care-what-other-people-think" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 19, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" }, { "name": "laughter", "slug": "laughter", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/laughter" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman#What_Do_You_Care_What_Other_People_Think%3F_(1988)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:00" }, { "id": "9b6e80ed-cce7-4861-9d1e-867cb42d19e0", "slug": "mama-exhorted-her", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/zora-neale-hurston/dust-tracks-on-a-road/mama-exhorted-her", "text": "Mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to \"jump at de sun.\" We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Zora Neale Hurston", "slug": "zora-neale-hurston", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/zora-neale-hurston" }, "book": { "title": "Dust Tracks On A Road", "slug": "dust-tracks-on-a-road", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/zora-neale-hurston/dust-tracks-on-a-road" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 13, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "ambition", "slug": "ambition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ambition" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Zora_Neale_Hurston#Dust_Tracks_on_a_Road_(1942)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:17" }, { "id": "e5d5d405-bdec-4483-8670-bae25283ac91", "slug": "what-did-trishs", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-sedaris/barrel-fever/what-did-trishs", "text": "What did Trish's mother say when her daughter, heartbroken over her breakup with Randy, came to her in search of love and understanding? 'If you're looking for sympathy you can find it between shit and syphilis in the dictionary.'", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "David Sedaris", "slug": "david-sedaris", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-sedaris" }, "book": { "title": "Barrel Fever", "slug": "barrel-fever", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-sedaris/barrel-fever" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 23, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Sedaris#Barrel_Fever_(1994)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:57" }, { "id": "12629aaf-c8ff-4d6e-b215-d9e1445afce6", "slug": "over-christmas-we-looked", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-sedaris/barrel-fever/over-christmas-we-looked", "text": "Over Christmas we looked through boxes of family pictures and played a game we call 'Find Mom, find Mom's cigarettes.' There's one in every picture. We've got photos of her pregnant, leaning toward a lit match, and others of her posing with her newborn babies, the smoke forming a halo above our heads. These pictures gave us a warm feeling. She smoked in the bathtub, where we'd find her drowned butts lined up in a neat row beside the shampoo bottle. She smoked through meals, and often used her half-empty plate as an ashtray. Mom's theory was that if you cooked the meal and did the dishes, you were allowed to use your plate however you liked.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "David Sedaris", "slug": "david-sedaris", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-sedaris" }, "book": { "title": "Barrel Fever", "slug": "barrel-fever", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-sedaris/barrel-fever" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 191, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" }, { "name": "addiction", "slug": "addiction", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/addiction" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Sedaris#Barrel_Fever_(1994)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:57" }, { "id": "e952b212-1489-4b80-93e5-f7357c2555a8", "slug": "the-mothers-yearning", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/daniel-deronda/the-mothers-yearning", "text": "The mother's yearning, that completest type of the life in another life which is the essence of real human love, feels the presence of the cherished child even in the debased, degraded man.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George Eliot", "slug": "george-eliot", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot" }, "book": { "title": "Daniel Deronda", "slug": "daniel-deronda", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/daniel-deronda" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "love", "slug": "love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Eliot#Daniel_Deronda_(1876)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:52" }, { "id": "f1d63d62-f789-4ba8-997c-c01a490a9168", "slug": "ambition-avarice-tyranny", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/ambition-avarice-tyranny", "text": "Ambition, avarice, tyranny, the mistaken foresight of fathers, their neglect, their harshness, are a hundredfold more harmful to the child than the blind affection of the mother.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jean Jacques Rousseau", "slug": "jean-jacques-rousseau", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau" }, "book": { "title": "Emile; or On Education", "slug": "emile-or-on-education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "upbringing", "slug": "upbringing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/upbringing" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" }, { "name": "father", "slug": "father", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/father" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emile,_or_On_Education#Book_I", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:31" }, { "id": "b89fcba7-f856-4631-9c5d-a1462c146288", "slug": "how-emphatically-would", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/how-emphatically-would", "text": "How emphatically would I speak if it were not so hopeless to keep struggling in vain on behalf of a real reform. More depends on this than you realise. Would you restore all men to their primal duties, begin with the mothers; the results will surprise you. Every evil follows in the train of this first sin; the whole moral order is disturbed, nature is quenched in every breast, the home becomes gloomy, the spectacle of a young family no longer stirs the husband's love and the stranger's reverence. The mother whose children are out of sight wins scanty esteem; there is no home life, the ties of nature are not strengthened by those of habit; fathers, mothers, children, brothers, and sisters cease to exist. They are almost strangers; how should they love one another? Each thinks of himself first. When the home is a gloomy solitude pleasure will be sought elsewhere. The charms of home are the best antidote to vice. The noisy play of children, which we thought so trying, becomes a delight; mother and father rely more on each other and grow dearer to one another; the marriage tie is strengthened. In the cheerful home life the mother finds her sweetest duties and the father his pleasantest recreation. Thus the cure of this one evil would work a wide-spread reformation; nature would regain her rights. When women become good mothers, men will be good husbands and fathers.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jean Jacques Rousseau", "slug": "jean-jacques-rousseau", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau" }, "book": { "title": "Emile; or On Education", "slug": "emile-or-on-education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "family", "slug": "family", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/family" }, { "name": "home", "slug": "home", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/home" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emile,_or_On_Education#Book_I", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:31" }, { "id": "3d7b8c05-5b1d-4933-95d3-edace2e94b10", "slug": "and-this-affection", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/and-this-affection", "text": "And this affection when developed has its drawbacks, which should make any feeling woman afraid to put her child out to nurse. Is she prepared to divide her mother's rights, or rather to abdicate them in favour of a stranger; to see her child loving another more than herself; to feel that the affection he retains for his own mother is a favour, while his love for his foster-mother is a duty; for is not some affection due where there has been a mother's care? To remove this difficulty, children are taught to look down on their nurses, to treat them as mere servants. When their task is completed the child is withdrawn or the nurse is dismissed. Her visits to her foster-child are discouraged by a cold reception. After a few years the child never sees her again. The mother expects to take her place, and to repair by her cruelty the results of her own neglect. But she is greatly mistaken; she is making an ungrateful foster-child, not an affectionate son; she is teaching him ingratitude, and she is preparing him to despise at a later day the mother who bore him, as he now despises his nurse.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jean Jacques Rousseau", "slug": "jean-jacques-rousseau", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau" }, "book": { "title": "Emile; or On Education", "slug": "emile-or-on-education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "upbringing", "slug": "upbringing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/upbringing" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emile,_or_On_Education#Book_I", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:31" }, { "id": "bb1ad10a-dc8e-4a33-a269-51e7dca7c111", "slug": "few-misfortunes-can", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/a-writers-notebook/few-misfortunes-can", "text": "Few misfortunes can befall a boy which bring worse consequences than to have a really affectionate mother.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Somerset Maugham", "slug": "william-somerset-maugham", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham" }, "book": { "title": "A Writer's Notebook", "slug": "a-writers-notebook", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/a-writers-notebook" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 28, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "upbringing", "slug": "upbringing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/upbringing" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/W._Somerset_Maugham#A_Writer's_Notebook_(1946)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:29" } ] }