Quotes about mother
page 13

Kunti photo

“Kunti and Draupadi are two women who shape the entire course of dynastic destiny in the Mahabharata. Kunti chooses the scion of Hastinapura, Pandu, to wed, and becomes the mother of the epic’s protagonists: the Pandavas.”

Kunti character from Indian epic Mahabharata

Five Holy Virgins, Five Sacred MythsOf Kunti and Satyawati Sexually Assertive Women of the Mahabharata

Anna Akhmatova photo

“A choir of angels glorified the hour,
the vault of heaven was dissolved in fire.
"Father, why hast Thou forsaken me?
Mother, I beg you, do not weep for me…"”

Anna Akhmatova (1889–1966) Russian modernist poet

This greatest hour was hallowed and thundered
By angel's choirs; fire melted sky.
He asked his Father:"Why am I abandoned...?"
And told his Mother: "Mother, do not cry..."
Translated by Tanya Karshtedt (1996) http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/akhmatova/akhmatova_ind.html
Requiem; 1935-1940 (1963; 1987), Crucifixion

George V of the United Kingdom photo

“My father was frightened of his mother. I was frightened of my father and I am damned well going to see to it that my children are frightened of me.”

George V of the United Kingdom (1865–1936) King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India

Attributed in Randolph Churchill's Lord Derby (1959), but said by Kenneth Rose https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Rose in King George V (1983) to be almost certainly apocryphal.
Attributed

Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa photo
C. N. R. Rao photo
Rousas John Rushdoony photo

“Let us examine therefore, in summary fashion, the laws whereby a woman in Israel might obtain a divorce by death and re-marry. The laws calling for the death penalty against the man. To list these without taking time to give all the references, the Biblical references, which can be given although we dealt with many of them:
1. Adultery, 2. Rape, 3. Incest, 4. Homosexuality or sodomy, 5. Bestiality, 6. Premeditated Murder, 7. Smiting Father or Mother, 8. Death of a woman from miscarriage due to assault and battery, 9. Sacrificing children to Molech, 10. Cursing Father or Mother, 11. Kidnapping, 12. Being a wizard, 13. Being a false prophet or dreamer, 14. Apostacy, 15. Sacrificing to other Gods, 16. Refusing to follow the decision of judges, 17. Blasphemy, 18. Transgressing the Covenant.
In other words, for all these offenses, a woman gained a divorce by death. On the other hand, a divorce by death was obtainable by men because of the following death penalties cited for women: 1. Unchastity before marriage, 2. Adultery after marriage, 3. Prostituion by a priests daughter, 4. Bestiality, 5. Being a witch or a sorceress, 6. Transgressing the covenant, and 7. Incest.
Now it is obvious that that the list for men is more than twice as long. And it is obvious that some of the death penalties for men would also apply to women, as for example murder. But many of the crimes that are cited for men such as rape and kidnapping, while it is conceivable that the woman would be guilty of those it is not very likely. Those are primarily masculine offenses.”

Rousas John Rushdoony (1916–2001) American theologian

Audio lectures, The Law of Divorce (n.d.)

Warren Farrell photo
Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson photo
Théodore Guérin photo
Peter Greenaway photo

“I can -- your mother's dead.”

Peter Greenaway (1942) British film director

Storey and Philip
8 1/2 Women

Donovan photo
Zora Neale Hurston photo
Edwin Abbott Abbott photo

“I remember one clear example of the problem of communicating what is to be learned. You may have heard of or gone through a similar experience with a student or your child. Years ago, the child of a friend whom I was visiting arrived home from his day at school, all excited about something he had learned. He was in the first grade and his teacher had started the class on reading lessons. The child, Gary, announced that he had learned a new word. "That's great, Gary," his mother said. "What is it?" He thought for a moment, then said, "I'll write it down for you." On a little chalkboard the child carefully printed, HOUSE. "That's fine, Gary," his mother said. "What does it say?" He looked at the word, then at his mother and said matter-of-factly, "I don't know."The child apparently had learned what the word looked like — he had learned the visual shape of the word perfectly. The teacher, however, was teaching another aspect of reading — what words mean, what words stand for or symbolize. As often happens, what the teacher had taught and what Gary had learned were strangely incongruent.As it turned out, my friend's son always learned visual material best and fastest, a mode of learning consistently preferred by a number of students. Unfortunately, the school world is mainly a verbal, symbolic world, and learners like Gary must adjust, that is, put aside their best way of learning and learn the way the school decrees. My friend's child, fortunately, was able to make this change, but how many other students are lost along the way?”

Betty Edwards (1926) American artist

Source: The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain (1979), p.237

Rahm Emanuel photo

“Rahm Emanuel is son of the devil's spawn. He is an individual who would sell his mother to get a vote. He would strap his children to the front end of a steam locomotive.”

Rahm Emanuel (1959) politician, investment banker, White House Chief of Staff

Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY). http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/03/08/massa_rahm_emanuel_would_sell_his_own_mother_for_votes.html
About

Julian of Norwich photo
Ludovico Ariosto photo

“A virgin is like a rose: while she remains on the thorn whence she sprang, alone and safe in a lovely garden, no flock, no shepherd approaches. The gentle breeze and the dewy dawn, water, and earth pay her homage; amorous youths and loving maidens like to deck their brows with her, and their breasts. / But no sooner is she plucked from her mother-stalk, severed from her green stem, than she loses all, all the favour, grace, and beauty wherewith heaven and men endowed her.”

La verginella e simile alla rosa
Ch'in bel giardin' su la nativa spina
Mentre sola e sicura si riposa
Ne gregge ne pastor se le avvicina;
L'aura soave e l'alba rugiadosa,
L'acqua, la terra al suo favor s'inchina:
Gioveni vaghi e donne inamorate
Amano averne e seni e tempie ornate.<p>Ma no si tosto dal materno stelo
Rimossa viene, e dal suo ceppo verde
Che quato havea dagli huoi e dal cielo
Favor gratia e bellezza tutto perde.
Canto I, stanzas 42–43 (tr. G. Waldman)
Compare:
Ut flos in saeptis secretus nascitur hortis,
Ignotus pecori, nullo contusus aratro,
Quem mulcent aurae, firmat sol, educat imber;
Multi illum pueri, multae optavere puellae:
idem cum tenui carptus defloruit ungui,
nulli illum pueri, nullae optavere puellae:
sic virgo, dum intacta manet, dum cara suis est;
cum castum amisit polluto corpore florem,
nec pueris iucunda manet, nec cara puellis.
As a flower springs up secretly in a fenced garden, unknown to the cattle, torn up by no plough, which the winds caress, the sun strengthens, the shower draws forth, many boys, many girls, desire it: so a maiden, whilst she remains untouched, so long she is dear to her own; when she has lost her chaste flower with sullied body, she remains neither lovely to boys nor dear to girls.
Catullus, Carmina, LXII (tr. Francis Warre-Cornish)
Orlando Furioso (1532)

William Faulkner photo
Isidor Isaac Rabi photo
Malala Yousafzai photo
Amartya Sen photo
Svetlana Alliluyeva photo

“When my mother left us, he [Stalin] was left completely alone. And I think what came next, in the late 30s and after the war in the 40s - I think that was a result of his complete loneliness on top of the world. Nobody would argue with him anymore.”

Svetlana Alliluyeva (1926–2011) daughter of Joseph Stalin

Stalin's daughter Lana Peters dies in US of cancer http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15931683, BBC News, (29 November, 2011).

Edmund Spenser photo
Edith Stein photo
Camille Paglia photo

“I’m saying that men go from control by their mothers to control by their wives, and this is the horror of men’s lives. And feminism refuses to see this.”

Camille Paglia (1947) American writer

Vamps and Tramps (1994), "No Law in the Arena: A Pagan Theory of Sexuality"

Arthur Frederick Bettinson photo
Ai Weiwei photo
William Wordsworth photo

“Come, blessed barrier between day and day,
Dear mother of fresh thoughts and joyous health!”

William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Romantic poet

To Sleep (A Flock of Sheep), l. 13 (1806).

John Gay photo

“Do you think your Mother and I should have liv'd comfortably so long together, if ever we had been married?”

John Gay (1685–1732) English poet and playwright

Peachum, Act I, sc. viii
The Beggar's Opera (1728)

John Napier photo
William Ernest Henley photo
Sarah Silverman photo
Jeff Foxworthy photo

“My mother won't drive 50 miles an hour. You put her in a rental car, she's doing doughnuts in the grocery store parking lot!”

Jeff Foxworthy (1958) American stand-up comedian

Have Your Loved Ones Spayed and Neutered (2004)

Mikhail Baryshnikov photo
Elie Wiesel photo
Kate Bush photo

“My mother and her little brown jug
It held her milk
And now it holds our memories…”

Kate Bush (1958) British recording artist; singer, songwriter, musician and record producer

Song lyrics, Aerial (2005), A Sea of Honey (Disc 1)

Gerald Ford photo

“There are no adequate substitutes for father, mother, and children bound together in a loving commitment to nurture and protect. No government, no matter how well-intentioned, can take the place of the family in the scheme of things.”

Gerald Ford (1913–2006) American politician, 38th President of the United States (in office from 1974 to 1977)

Speech to the International Eucharistic Conference, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as quoted in the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner (13 August 1976)
1970s

Alan Keyes photo
Lillian Gish photo
Robert G. Ingersoll photo
Conor Oberst photo
Dane Cook photo
Gerald Durrell photo
Owen Lovejoy photo
Godfrey Higgins photo
Anita Dunn photo

“The third lesson and tip actually comes from two of my favorite political philosophers - Mao Tse Tung and Mother Teresa, not often coupled with each other, but the two people that I turn to most to basically deliver a simple point, which is, you're going to make choices. You're going to challenge. You're going to say, "Why not?". You're going to figure out how to do things that have never been done before. But here's the deal: These are your choices, they are no one else's. In 1947, when Mao Zedong was being challenged within his own party on his plan to basically take China over. Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalist Chinese held the cities, they had the army, they had the air force, they had everything on their side. And people said, "How can you win? How can you do this? How can you do this, against all of the odds against you?" And Mao Zedong said, you know, "You fight your war, and I'll fight mine." And think about that for a second. You don't have to accept the definition of how to do things and you don't have to follow other peoples choices and paths. Ok? It is about your choices and your path. You fight your own war, you lay out your own path, you figure out what's right for you. You don't let external definition define how good you are internally, you fight your war, you let them fight theirs. Everybody has their own path.”

Anita Dunn (1958) American political strategist

Speech at the Washington National Cathedral for St. Andrews Episcopal High School's (of Bethesda Maryland) graduation on June 5, 2009. It was broadcast on the Glenn Beck Show, Oct 15, 2009. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fi1zg2NOCn8 http://www.saes.org/academics/lower_school/newsletter.aspx?StartDate=6/2/2009

George W. Bush photo

“You helped our nation celebrate its Bicentennial in 17- [hastily corrects himself] in 1976. [Queen gives him a sharp look and mutters inaudibly] She gave me a look that only a mother could give a child.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

Speech to Queen Elizabeth II http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/05/07/bush-to-queen-you-helpe_n_47847.html during her visit to the White House. (May 7, 2007)
2000s, 2007

Russell Brand photo
Ann Taylor (poet) photo

“Who ran to help me when I fell,
And would some pretty story tell,
Or kiss the place to make it well?
My mother.”

Ann Taylor (poet) (1782–1866) British female poet and literary critic

"My Mother," from Original Poems for Infant Minds (1804)

Karen Lord photo

“His mother had been the daughter of a minor chief, and she had carefully instilled in Ansige an understanding of the importance of importance.”

Karen Lord (1968) Barbadian novelist and sociologist of religion

Source: Redemption in Indigo (2010), Chapter 1 “Ansige is Delayed on the Road to Makendha” (p. 8)

Amit Chaudhuri photo

“Communist writers likewise maintain that the Judaic-Christian code of ethics is "class" morality. By this they mean that the Ten Commandments and the ethics of Christianity were created to protect private property and the property class. To show the lengths to which Communist writers have gone to defend this view we will mention several of their favorite interpretations of the Ten Commandments. They believe that "Honor thy Father and thy Mother" was created by the early Hebrews to emphasize to their children the fact that they were the private property of their parents. "Thou shalt not kill" was attributed to the belief of the dominant class that their bodies were private property and therefore they should be protected along with other property rights. "Thou shalt not commit adultery" and "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife" were said to have been created to implement the idea that a husband was the master of the home and the wife was strictly private property belonging to him. This last line of reasoning led to some catastrophic consequences when the Communists came into power in Russia. In their anxiety to make women "equal with men" and prevent them from becoming private property, they degraded womankind to the lowest and most primitive level. Some Communist leaders advocated complete libertinism and promiscuity to replace marriage and the family.”

The Naked Communist (1958)

Victor Villaseñor photo
M.I.A. photo

“They wanted me to be the face of Coca Cola. I was like 'Wow. Have you guys got any idea what you’re talking about?' Then Pepsi called me the next week. My mother-in-law called me and said 'Oh my God, Maya, they’re offering you so much money.”

M.I.A. (1975) British recording artist, songwriter, painter and director

Quote on corporate sponsorship http://www.nme.com/photos/in-her-own-words-mias-20-sharpest-quotes/172930/16/4#5 reprinted in NME (2010)
Sourced quotes

George Eliot photo
P. D. James photo
Tom Robbins photo
Natalie Merchant photo

“In modern Britain the most dangerous place to be is in your mother's womb. It should be a place of sanctity.”

On Abortion; quoted in "MPs back 24-week abortion limit," http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7409696.stm BBC News 20 May 2008

Sister Souljah photo
Richard Rodríguez photo
E. M. S. Namboodiripad photo

“The author has accused her own mother of indulging in deviant sexuality. Yet, Mary Roy takes pride in the "beautiful work" by her daughter. "Why is it so?"”

E. M. S. Namboodiripad (1909–1998) Indian politician

Above quotes on Arundhati Roy’s novel "The God of Small Things" in which she had criticized E.M.S. cited in EMS attacks literary content of Arundhati Roy's novel, 29 November 1997, 13 December 2013, Rediff.com http://www.rediff.com/news/nov/29roy.htm,

Gloria Estefan photo
Ignatius Sancho photo
Sri Aurobindo photo

“God took a child to fondle him in His bosom of delight; but the mother wept and would not be consoled because her child no longer existed.”

Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950) Indian nationalist, freedom fighter, philosopher, yogi, guru and poet

Thoughts and Aphorisms (1913), Bhakti

George William Russell photo
Whoopi Goldberg photo
Mr. T photo

“Mother, There is No Other. Like Mother So treat Her right, treat Her right.”

Mr. T (1952) American actor and retired professional wrestler

Quotes from acting
Variant: Mother, I always Love Her. My Mother. So treat Her right, treat Her right.

Harry Blackmun photo
Tommy Franks photo
Warren Farrell photo
Warren Farrell photo
Sinclair Lewis photo
Josette Sheeran photo

“If any good comes out of the current famine in the Horn of Africa — amidst the pictures of mothers carrying dying babies at their shrivelled breasts and hollow-eyed children with swollen bellies and matchstick limbs — it will be galvanising the world on the need to ensure access to nutritious food for the world’s most vulnerable people.”

Josette Sheeran (1954) American diplomat

"Filling empty bellies is no longer enough" (20 September 2011) at UK Government Department for International Development web site http://blogs.dfid.gov.uk/2011/09/filling-empty-bellies-is-no-longer-enough/

Jeremy Clarkson photo
Manuel Fraga Iribarne photo

“My mother (from Iparralde) understood perfectly that she had to teach French, not Basque, which is a dead language.”

Manuel Fraga Iribarne (1922–2012) Spanish politician

Frases que reflejan el recorrido de Manuel Fraga, 16th January 2012, Gara, 16th January 2012, castellà http://www.gara.net/azkenak/01/315809/es/Frases-que-reflejan-recorrido-Manuel-Fraga,
Language

Anne Brontë photo
Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo
Colin Meloy photo
Simon Soloveychik photo

“A vicious teacher is just a vicious teacher, as a vicious neighbor may happen to be. But a vicious mother - means that the whole world is vicious.”

Simon Soloveychik (1930–1996) Russia writer and philosopher

Book 1, part 2, ch. 20
Pedagogika dlya vseh (Parenting For Everyone) (1977–1986)

Frederik Pohl photo
Orson Scott Card photo
Herman Cain photo
Gloria Estefan photo
George W. Bush photo
Julian of Norwich photo
Cassandra Clare photo
Edmund Spenser photo

“For all that Nature by her mother-wit
Could frame in earth.”

Canto 10, stanza 21
The Faerie Queene (1589–1596), Book IV

“Necessary is often the mother of light fingers instead of invention.”

Source: No Enemy But Time (1982), Chapter 10 “Fruit of the Looms” (p. 76)

George W. Bush photo

“I'm fortunate to know many of the trustees. Well, for example I'm good friends with the Chairman, Mike Boone. And there’s one trustee I know really well, a proud graduate of the SMU Class of 1968 who went on to become our nation’s greatest First Lady. Do me a favor and don’t tell Mother. I know how much the trustees love and care for this great university. I see it firsthand when I attend the Bring-Your-Spouse-Night Dinners. I also get to drop by classes on occasion. I am really impressed by the intelligence and energy of the SMU faculty. I want to thank you for your dedication and thank you for sharing your knowledge with your students. To reach this day, the graduates have had the support of loving families. Some of them love you so much they are watching from overflow sites across campus. I congratulate the parents who have sacrificed to make this moment possible. It is a glorious day when your child graduates from college — and a really great day for your bank account. I know the members of the Class of 2015 will join me in thanking you for your love and your support. Most of all, I congratulate the members of the Class of 2015. You worked hard to reach this milestone. You leave with lifelong friends and fond memories. You will always remember how much you enjoyed the right to buy a required campus meal plan. You'll remember your frequent battles with the Park ‘N’ Pony Office. And you may or may not remember those productive nights at the Barley House.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

2010s, 2015, Remarks at the SMU 100th Spring Commencement (May 2015)

“Solitude is the mother of anxieties.”

Publilio Siro Latin writer

Maxim 222
Sentences, The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, a Roman Slave