Lisa Kleypas quote: “They (mothers-in-law) never leave when they say they will. When my mother-in-law visits, the mice throw themselves at t…”

“Conscience is a mother-in-law whose visit never ends.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

1940s–present, A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)

“"Why are you filming this?"
"When the cat is away, the mice will play… Always good to remind the mice that in this case, when the cat is away, the mice will all be eaten by demons. I'm going to send this video file to everyone one of our Downworlder contacts around the world. Just a reminder that there are demons we need Shadowhunters to destroy. That's why they exist."”

Cassandra Clare The Mortal Instruments

Maia Roberts and Lily, the vampire, pg. 505-506
The Mortal Instruments, City of Heavenly Fire (2014)

“A mother-in-law dies only when another devil is needed in hell.”

Francois Rabelais (1494–1553) major French Renaissance writer

“…a bride who is bullied by her mother-in-law will herself become a bad mother-in-law.”

Shin'ichirō Tomonaga (1906–1979) Japanese physicist

about Ralph Kronig's criticism on Samuel Goudsmit's proposal of a self-rotating electron, inflicting the same reaction to Goudsmit as Kronig had been incurred from Wolfgang Pauli [Tomonaga, Sin-Itiro, translated by Takeshi Oka, The Story of Spin, University of Chicago Press, 1997, 0-226-80794-0, 217]

“The mother of a trophy wife is not automatically a trophy mother-in-law.”

John Grisham book The Appeal

Source: The Appeal

“5572. When the Cat's gone, the Mice grow sawcy.”

Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual

Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)
Variant: 6131. When the Cat is away,
The Mice may play.

“It's the story of a place called Mouseland. Mouseland was a place where all the little mice lived and played, were born and died. And they lived much the same as you and I do. They even had a Parliament. And every four years they had an election. Used to walk to the polls and cast their ballots. Some of them even got a ride to the polls. And got a ride for the next four years afterwards too. Just like you and me. And every time on election day all the little mice used to go to the ballot box and they used to elect a government. A government made up of big, fat, black cats. Now if you think it strange that mice should elect a government made up of cats, you just look at the history of Canada for last 90 years and maybe you'll see that they weren't any stupider than we are. Now I'm not saying anything against the cats. They were nice fellows. They conducted their government with dignity. They passed good laws--that is, laws that were good for cats. But the laws that were good for cats weren't very good for mice. One of the laws said that mouseholes had to be big enough so a cat could get his paw in. Another law said that mice could only travel at certain speeds--so that a cat could get his breakfast without too much physical effort. All the laws were good laws. For cats. But, oh, they were hard on the mice. And life was getting harder and harder. And when the mice couldn't put up with it any more, they decided something had to be done about it. So they went en masse to the polls. They voted the black cats out. They put in the white cats. Now the white cats had put up a terrific campaign. They said: "All that Mouseland needs is more vision." They said:"The trouble with Mouseland is those round mouseholes we got. If you put us in we'll establish square mouseholes." And they did. And the square mouseholes were twice as big as the round mouseholes, and now the cat could get both his paws in. And life was tougher than ever. And when they couldn't take that anymore, they voted the white cats out and put the black ones in again. Then they went back to the white cats. Then to the black cats. They even tried half black cats and half white cats. And they called that coalition. They even got one government made up of cats with spots on them: they were cats that tried to make a noise like a mouse but ate like a cat. You see, my friends, the trouble wasn't with the colour of the cat. The trouble was that they were cats. And because they were cats, they naturally looked after cats instead of mice. Presently there came along one little mouse who had an idea. My friends, watch out for the little fellow with an idea. And he said to the other mice, "Look fellows, why do we keep on electing a government made up of cats? Why don't we elect a government made up of mice?" "Oh," they said, "he's a Bolshevik. Lock him up!"”

Tommy Douglas (1904–1986) Scottish-born Canadian politician

So they put him in jail. But I want to remind you: that you can lock up a mouse or a man but you can't lock up an idea!
http://www.cbc.ca/player/Digital+Archives/Politics/Parties+and+Leaders/Tommy+Douglas/ID/1409090169/?sort=MostPopular

“Everything has its drawbacks, as the man said when his mother-in-law died, and they came down upon him for the funeral expenses.”

Jerome K. Jerome book Three Men in a Boat

Source: Three Men in a Boat

“When Reginald Iolanthe Perrin set out for work on the Thursday morning, he had no intention of calling his mother-in-law a hippopotamus.”

David Nobbs (1935–2015) British author and scriptwriter

Opening sentence, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin

“Yet you would not drive a car with your mouth unless you are my mother-in-law.”

Jean-Louis Gassée (1944) French businessman

NetWorker, November/December 1996
Commenting on the gestures vs. speech debate in computing.

“They (mothers-in-law) never leave when they say they will. When my mother-in-law visits, the mice throw themselves at the cat, begging to be eaten.”

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