How simple a thing it seems to me that to know ourselves as we are, we must know our mothers' names. 

Alice Walker (1944 - ), O Magazine, May 2003 

The world is full of women blindsided by the unceasing demands of motherhood, still flabbergasted by how a job can be terrific and torturous. 

Anna Quindlen (1953 - ), O Magazine, May 2003 

Sometimes the laughter in mothering is the recognition of the ironies and absurdities. Sometime, though, it's just pure, unthinking delight. 

Barbara Schapiro, O Magazine, May 2003 

Sooner or later we all quote our mothers. 

Bern Williams 

The place of the father in the modern suburban family is a very small one, particularly if he plays golf. 

Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970) 

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. 

Calvin Trillin (1935 - ) 

My parents only had one argument in forty-five years. It lasted forty-three years. 

Cathy Ladman 

By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he's wrong. 

Charles Wadsworth 

The first half of our lives is ruined by our parents, and the second half by our children. 

Clarence Darrow (1857 - 1938) 

If your parents never had children, chances are you won't, either. 

Dick Cavett (1936 - ) 

A mother is not a person to lean on but a person to make leaning unnecessary. 

Dorothy C. Fisher (1879 - 1958), quoted in O Magazine, May 2003 

The art of mothering is to teach the art of living to children. 

Elain Heffner, O Magazine, May 2003 

The central struggle of parenthood is to let our hopes for our children outweigh our fears. 

Ellen Goodman (1941 - ) 

T

he gods visit the sins of the fathers upon the children. 

Euripides (484 BC - 406 BC), Phrixus 

There is…nothing to suggest that mothering cannot be shared by several people. 

H. R. Schaffer, O Magazine, May 2003 

This is part of the essence of motherhood, watching your kid grow into her own person and not being able to do anything about it. Otherwise children would be nothing more than pets. 

Heather Armstrong, Dooce, 11-15-05 

For rarely are sons similar to their fathers: most are worse, and a few are better than their fathers. 

Homer (800 BC - 700 BC), The Odyssey 

The most important thing she'd learned over the years was that there was no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one. 

Jill Churchill, O Magazine, May 2003 

The thing that impresses me the most about America is the way parents obey their children. 

King Edward VIII (1894 - 1972) 

Some men just aren't cut out for paternity. Better they should realize it before and not after they become responsible for a son. 

Lois McMaster Bujold, Ethan of Athos, 1986 

My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it. 

Mark Twain (1835 - 1910) 

Parents were invented to make children happy by giving them something to ignore. 

Ogden Nash (1902 - 1971) 

Some are kissing mothers and some are scolding mothers, but it is love just the same. 

Pearl Buck (1892 - 1973), quoted in O Magazine, May 2003 

My father hated radio and could not wait for television to be invented so he could hate that too. 

Peter De Vries 

Most turkeys taste better the day after; my mother's tasted better the day before. 

Rita Rudner 

Neurotics build castles in the air, psychotics live in them. My mother cleans them. 

Rita Rudner 

The reason grandparents and grandchildren get along so well is that they have a common enemy. 

Sam Levenson (1911 - 1980) 

What children take from us, they give…We become people who feel more deeply, question more deeply, hurt more deeply, and love more deeply. 

Sonia Taitz, O Magazine, May 2003 

It is a wise father that knows his own child. 

William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), "The Merchant of Venice", Act 2 scene 2