75 Inspiring Quotes About Motherhood and Being a Mom

Looking for a nice motherhood quote, or simply want to reflect on the miraculous strength and wisdom of mothers? Read on for 75 inspiring motherhood quotes from actors, writers, singers and CEOs—many of whom know a thing or two about being moms.

Related: 100 Inspiring Quotes About Moms To Celebrate Your Mom on Mother's Day 

75 Motherhood Quotes

1. “Being a mom has made me so tired. And so happy.” —Tina Fey

2. “There is such a special sweetness in being able to participate in creation.” —Pamela S. Nadav

3. “Having kids—the responsibility of rearing good, kind, ethical, responsible human beings—is the biggest job anyone can embark on.” —Maria Shriver

4. “[Motherhood is] the biggest gamble in the world. It is the glorious life force. It’s huge and scary—it’s an act of infinite optimism.” —Gilda Radner

5. “In giving birth to our babies, we may find that we give birth to new possibilities within ourselves.” —Myla and Jon Kabat-Zinn

6. “There’s no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one.” —Jill Churchill

7. “When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child.”—Sophia Loren

8. “Grown don’t mean nothing to a mother. A child is a child. They get bigger, older, but grown. In my heart it don’t mean a thing.”—Toni Morrison

9. “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

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10. “The influence of a mother in the lives of her children is beyond calculation.”—James E. Faust

11. “Mother—that was the bank where we deposited all our hurts and worries.” —T. DeWitt Talmage

12. “No language can express the power and beauty and heroism of a mother’s love.” —Edwin Chapin

13. “A mother understands what a child does not say.” —Jewish Proverb

14. “Motherhood: all love begins and ends there." —Robert Browning

15. “Motherhood has a very humanizing effect. Everything gets reduced to essentials.” —Meryl Streep

16. “The natural state of motherhood is unselfishness. When you become a mother, you are no longer the center of your own universe. You relinquish that position to your children.” —Jessica Lange

17. “Motherhood has relaxed me in many ways. You learn to deal with crisis. I've become a juggler, I suppose. It's all a big circus, and nobody who knows me believes I can manage, but sometimes I do.” —Jane Seymour

18. “Motherhood is wonderful, but it's also hard work. It's the logistics more than anything. You discover you have reserves of energy you didn't know you had.” —Deborah Mailman

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19. “Motherhood is tough. If you just want a wonderful little creature to love, you can get a puppy.” —Barbara Walters

20. “Motherhood was the great equalizer for me; I started to identify with everybody.” —Annie Lennox

21. "Most mothers are instinctive philosophers." —Harriet Beecher Stowe

22. "Mother is a verb. It’s something you do. Not just who you are." — Cheryl Lacey Donovan

23. "The art of mothering is to teach the art of living to children." —Elaine Heffner

24. "Mothers and their children are in a category all their own. There's no bond so strong in the entire world. No love so instantaneous and forgiving." —Gail Tsukiyama

25. "A mother's love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity, it dates all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path." ―Agatha Christie

26. “If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands?” —Milton Berle

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27. “A mother’s arms are more comforting than anyone else’s.” —Princess Diana

28. “Mothers can forgive anything! Tell me all, and be sure that I will never let you go, though the whole world should turn from you.” —Louisa May Alcott

29. “A mother's happiness is like a beacon, lighting up the future but reflected also on the past in the guise of fond memories.” —Honoré de Balzac

Related: 50 Funny Mother's Day Memes to Help Mom Feel Seen

30.“There was never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him to sleep.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

31. “Sweater, n.: garment worn by child when its mother is feeling chilly.” —Ambrose Bierce

32. “A mother is not a person to lean on, but a person to make leaning unnecessary.” —Dorothy Canfield Fisher

33. “A mother's arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them.” —Victor Hugo

34. “A mother's love liberates.” —Maya Angelou

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35. “I know how to do anything—I'm a mom.” —Roseanne Barr

36. “Mother love is the fuel that enables a normal human being to do the impossible.” —Marion C. Garretty

37. “Mother's love grows by giving.” —Charles Lamb

38. “Motherhood is not for the faint-hearted. Frogs, skinned knees, and the insults of teenage girls are not meant for the wimpy.” —Danielle Steel

39. “One good mother is worth a hundred schoolmasters.” —George Herbert

40. “She never quite leaves her children at home, even when she doesn't take them along.” —Margaret Culkin Banning

41. “Women do not have to sacrifice personhood if they are mothers. They do not have to sacrifice motherhood in order to be persons. Liberation was meant to expand women's opportunities, not to limit them. The self-esteem that has been found in new pursuits can also be found in mothering.” —Elaine Heffner

42. "Having children just puts the whole world into perspective. Everything else just disappears." —Kate Winslet

43. "There is nothing as sincere as a mother's kiss." —Saleem Sharma

44. “The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.” —W.R. Wallace

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45. “Mother’s love is peace. It need not be acquired, it need not be deserved.” — Erich Fromm

46. "No matter how old a mother is, she watches her middle-aged children for signs of improvement.” —Florida Scott-Maxwell

47. “Making a decision to have a child—it’s momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.” —Elizabeth Stone

48. “A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.” —Tenneva Jordan

49. “A man loves his sweetheart the most, his wife the best, but his mother the longest.” —Irish proverb

50. “If Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.” —Ferrell Sims

51. “There are so many times you will feel you have failed, but in the eyes, heart and mind of your child, you are supermom.” —Stephanie Precourt

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52. The only love that I really believe in is a mother’s love for her children.” —Karl Lagerfeld

53. “In a child’s eyes, a mother is a goddess. She can be glorious or terrible, benevolent or filled with wrath, but she commands love either way. I am convinced that this is the greatest power in the universe.” —N.K. Jemisin

54. “He didn’t realize that love as powerful as your mother’s for you leaves its own mark.” —J.K. Rowling

55. “Heaven is at the feet of Mothers.” —Arabic proverb

56. “A mother’s love endures through all.” —Washington Irving

57. “It may be possible to gild pure gold, but who can make his mother more beautiful?” —Mahatma Gandhi

58. “We are born of love; love is our mother.” —Rumi

59. “For when a child is born the mother also is born again.” —Gilbert Parker

60. “There is nothing in the world of art like the songs Mother used to sing.” —Billy Sunday

61. “The fastest way to break the cycle of perfectionism and become a fearless mother is to give up the idea of doing it perfectly—indeed to embrace uncertainty and imperfection.” —Arianna Huffington

62. “My mom smiled at me. Her smile kind of hugged me.” —R.J. Palacio

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63. “The best place to cry is on a mother’s arms.” —Jodi Picoult

64. “I realized when you look at your mother, you are looking at the purest love you will ever know.” —Mitch Albom

65. “Compassion is like mother giving love to her children. Mother’s ways are higher than others, even when everyone rejects, mother accepts with her arms open and wide.” —Amit Ray

66. “I think in a lot of ways unconditional love is a myth. My mom's the only reason I know it's a real thing.” —Conor Oberst

67. “Successful mothers are not the ones that have never struggled. They are the ones that never give up, despite the struggles.” —Sharon Jaynes

68. “Motherhood is a choice you make every day, to put someone else’s happiness and well-being ahead of your own, to teach the hard lessons, to do the right thing even when you’re not sure what the right thing is...and to forgive yourself, over and over again, for doing everything wrong.” —Donna Ball

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69. “In the end...I am the only one who can give my children a happy mother who loves life.” —Janene Wolsey Baadsgaard

70. “I want my children to have all the things I couldn't afford. Then I want to move in with them.” —Phyllis Diller

71. “"The hand that rocks the cradle usually is attached to someone who isn't getting enough sleep." —John Fiebig

72. “I'd like to be the ideal mother, but I'm too busy raising my kids." —Anonymous

73. “Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother.” —Oprah Winfrey

74. “A mother is one to whom you hurry when you are troubled.” —Emily Dickinson

75. “Call your mother. Tell her you love her. Remember, you're the only person who knows what her heart sounds like from the inside.” —Rachel Wolchin

Here are the most beautiful Mother’s Day cards through the years!