100 Mother’s Day Quotes That Are Sure to Brighten Her Day
Updated: May 12, 2023
These Mother's Day quotes will make you laugh, cry and call your mom!
Mother’s Day quotes to share on her special day
We should all let our moms know how much we admire them on the regular. However, Mother’s Day is an extra special day to spoil her with gifts, complete with cards that house sweet greetings or even meaningful Mother’s Day poems. Another great way to show you care? Sharing one of these Mother’s Day quotes with her.
These quotes about motherhood, Mother’s Day, parenting and everything in between are wise, touching and even chuckle-worthy. Simply choose the right quote your mom would like best and send it her way. She’s sure to appreciate the sweet gesture! And check out these mother-daughter quotes to tailor your words to your specific relationship.
Get Reader’s Digest’s Read Up newsletter for more holiday tips, humor, cleaning, travel, tech and fun facts all week long.
Heart-touching Mother’s Day quotes
1. “Mothers hold their children’s hands for a short while, but their hearts forever.” —Unknown
2. “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
3. “Motherhood: All love begins and ends there.” —Robert Browning
4. “An ounce of mother is worth a ton of priest.” —Spanish Proverb
5. “The best place to cry is on a mother’s arms.” —Jodi Picoult
6. “[My mother] always said I was beautiful, and I finally believed her at some point.” —Lupita Nyong’o
7. “If I’ve learned anything as a mom with a daughter who’s 3, I’ve learned that you cannot judge the way another person is raising their kid. Everybody is just doing the best they can. It’s hard to be a mom.” —Maggie Gyllenhaal
8. “I would say that my mother is the single biggest role model in my life, but that term doesn’t seem to encompass enough when I use it about her. She was the love of my life.” —Mindy Kaling
9. “Blessed is a mother that would give up part of her soul for her children’s happiness.” —Shannon Alder
10. “Mothers were meant to love us unconditionally, to understand our moments of stupidity, to reprimand us for lame excuses while yet acknowledging our point of view, to weep over our pain and failures as well as cry at our joy and successes and to cheer us on despite countless start-overs. Heaven knows, no one else will.” —Richelle Goodrich
11. “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
12. “I can imagine no heroism greater than motherhood.” —Lance Conrad
13. “All I am I owe to my mother.” —George Washington
14. “There’s no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one.” —Jill Churchill
15. “There is an enduring tenderness in the love of a mother to a son that transcends all other affections of the heart.” —Washington Irving
16. “All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.” —Abraham Lincoln
17. “Sons are the anchors of a mother’s life.” —Sophocles
18. “No language can express the power and beauty and heroism of a mother’s love.” —Edwin Hubbel Chapin
19. “My mother is a walking miracle.” —Leonardo DiCaprio
20. “Mothers are the people who love us for no good reason. And those of us who are mothers know it’s the most exquisite love of all.” —Maggie Gallagher
21. “There are no perfect parents, and there are no perfect children, but there are plenty of perfect moments along the way.” —Dave Willis
22. “Some are kissing mothers and some are scolding mothers, but it is love just the same, and most mothers kiss and scold together.” —Pearl S. Buck
23. “My children are the reason I laugh, smile and want to get up every morning.” —Gena Lee Nolin Read
24. “No man succeeds without a good woman behind him. Wife or mother, if it is both, he is twice blessed indeed.” —Godfrey Winn
25. “Mother’s love is peace. It need not be acquired, it need not be deserved.” —Erich Fromm
Need something else to pull at mom’s heartstrings? Have her read these sweet stories about motherhood.
Inspiring Mother’s Day quotes
26. “I remember my mother’s prayers, and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.” —Abraham Lincoln
27. “As is the mother, so is her daughter.” —Ezekiel 16:4
28. “Of all the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother.” —Lin Yutang
29. “Acceptance, tolerance, bravery, compassion. These are the things my mom taught me.” —Lady Gaga
30. “My mother is my root, my foundation. She planted the seed that I base my life on, and that is the belief that the ability to achieve starts in your mind.” —Michael Jordan
31. “My mom is my hero. [She] inspired me to dream when I was a kid, so anytime anyone inspires you to dream, that’s gotta be your hero.” —Tim McGraw
32. “[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
33. “My mother always said ‘Don’t bother other people.’ I think that’s good advice.” —Amy Sedaris
34. “They are not kidding when they say that mothers are strong women. We need to be strong in more ways than our children will ever know.” —M.B. Antevasin
35. “A good mother loves fiercely but ultimately brings up her children to thrive without her.” —Erin Kelly
36. “Clarity and focus doesn’t always come from God or inspirational quotes. Usually, it takes your mother to slap the reality back into you.” —Shannon Alder
37. “That’s the wonderful thing about mothers: You can because you must, and you just do.” —Kate Winslet
38. “My mother sacrificed her dreams so I could dream.” —Rupi Kaur
39. “A mother’s love doesn’t make her son more dependent and timid; it actually makes him stronger and more independent.” —Cheri Fuller
40. “The mother’s heart is the child’s schoolroom.” —Henry Ward Beecher
41. “There will be many times you will feel like you have failed. But in the eyes, heart and mind of your child, you are supermom.” —Stephanie Precourt
42. “I am sure that if the mothers of various nations could meet, there would be no more wars.” —E.M. Forster
43. “Most mothers are instinctive philosophers.” —Harriet Beecher Stowe
44. “The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.” —Mike Wallace
45. “Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother.” —Oprah Winfrey
46. “I think, as mothers, we are all just trying our best.” —Gisele Bundchen
47. “Live so that when your children think of fairness, caring and integrity, they think of you.” —H. Jackson Brown Jr.
48. “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
49. “Being a mother is an attitude, not a biological relation.” —Robert A. Heinlein
50. “I believe the choice to become a mother is the choice to become one of the greatest spiritual teachers there is.” —Oprah Winfrey
Read these other inspiring quotes that will lift you up.
Cute Mother’s Day quotes
51. “Mama was my greatest teacher, a teacher of compassion, love and fearlessness. If love is sweet as a flower, then my mother is that sweet flower of love.” —Stevie Wonder
52. “My mother has always been my emotional barometer and my guidance. I was lucky enough to get to have one woman who truly helped me through everything.” —Emma Stone
53. “My mother had a slender, small body, but a large heart—a heart so large that everybody’s joys found welcome in it, and hospitable accommodation.” —Mark Twain
54. “But behind all your stories is always your mother’s story, because hers is where yours begins.” —Mitch Albom
55. “My mother was my role model before I even knew what that word was.” —Lisa Leslie
56. “I can only hope to be 10% of the mom mine was to me.” —Charlize Theron
57. “Mothers are like glue. Even when you can’t see them, they’re still holding the family together.” —Susan Gale
58. “To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power. Or the climbing, falling colors of a rainbow.” —Maya Angelou
59. “A mother’s arms are more comforting than anyone else’s.” —Princess Diana
60. “Men are what their mothers made them.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
61. “Moms are as relentless as the tides. They just don’t drive us to practice, they drive us to greatness.” —Steve Rushin
62. “Every beetle is a gazelle in the eyes of its mother.” —Moroccan proverb
63. “Mothers hold their children’s hands for a short while, but their hearts forever.” —Unknown
64. “Life began with waking up and loving my mother’s face.” —George Eliot
65. “I really learned it all from mothers.” —Benjamin Spock
66. “There is nothing in the world of art like the songs mother used to sing.” —Billy Sunday
67. “We never know the love of a parent till we become parents ourselves.” —Henry Ward Beecher
68. “Throughout my life, my mom has been the person that I’ve always looked up to.” —Mike Krzyzewski
69. “[A] mother is one to whom you hurry when you are troubled.” —Emily Dickinson
70. “Motherhood is heart-exploding, blissful hysteria.” —Olivia Wilde
71. “She never quite leaves her children at home, even when she doesn’t take them along.” —Margaret Culkin Banning
72. “A mother is the truest friend we have when trials, heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity.” —Washington Irving
73. “A mother’s arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them.” —Victor Hugo
74. “Youth fades, love droops, the leaves of friendship fall; A mother’s secret hope outlives them all.” —Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
75. “Hugs can do great amounts of good—especially for children.” —Princess Diana
Still looking for that perfect gift for mom? Browse through these Amazon Mother’s Day gifts for inspiration.
Funny Mother’s Day quotes
76. “Being a mom has made me so tired. And so happy.” —Tina Fey
77. “Our mothers always remain the strangest, craziest people we’ve ever met.” —Marguerite Duras
78. “If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands?” —Milton Berle
79. “I do what I want, when I want, where I want … if my mom says it’s okay.” —Unknown
80. “When your children are teenagers, it’s important to have a dog so that someone in the house is happy to see you.” —Nora Ephron
81. “If at first you don’t succeed, try doing it the way your mom told you to do it from the start.” —Unknown
82. “Mothers are all slightly insane.” —J.D. Salinger
83. “A mother takes 20 years to make a man of her boy, and another woman makes a fool of him in 20 minutes.” —Robert Frost
84. “Don’t forget Mother’s Day. Or as they call it in Beverly Hills, Dad’s Third Wife Day.” —Jay Leno
85. “I always brought up my children not to believe in Mother’s Day gifts, and now I regret it.” —Lauren Bacall
86. “Insanity is hereditary; you get it from your children.” —Sam Levenson
87. “My dear Mama, you are definitely the hen who hatched a famous duck.” —Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
88. “I hope my tongue in prune juice smothers, If I belittle dogs and mothers.” —Ogden Nash
89. “Any mother could perform the jobs of several air-traffic controllers with ease.” —Lisa Alther
90. “Sweater, n.: garment worn by child when its mother is feeling chilly.” —Ambrose Bierce
91. “I’m amazed when I see mothers wearing high heels. If your kids run off you can’t run after them.” —Claudia Schiffer
92. “A suburban mother’s role is to deliver children obstetrically once, and by car forever after.” —Peter De Vries
93. “You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance.” —Franklin P. Adams
94. “I can cook; but not well. I figure I have six years until my children discover what their friends’ mothers make for dinner.” —Jane Pauley
95. “When you feel neglected, think of the female salmon, who lays 3,000,000 eggs but no one remembers her on Mother’s Day.” —
96. “Children should have enough freedom to be themselves—once they’ve learned the rules.” —Anna Quindlen
97. “If you’ve never been hated by your child, you’ve never been a parent.” —Bette Davis
98. “When your mother asks, ‘Do you want a piece of advice?’ it is a mere formality. It doesn’t matter if you answer yes or no. You’re going to get it anyway.” —Erma Bombeck
99. “A perfect parent is a person with excellent child-rearing theories and no actual children.” —Dave Barry
100. “When my kids become wild and unruly, I use a nice, safe playpen. When they’re finished, I climb out.” —Erma Bombeck
Need more laughs? These mom jokes will do just the trick.
Additional reporting by Emma Taubenfeld and Lindsay Tigar.
