Encouragement Quotes and Sayings for Mothers and Daughters
"A daughter may outgrow your lap, but she will never outgrow your heart." –Unknown
Inspirational Quotes for Moms and Daughters
Celebrate that special bond with your mom, whether it is her birthday, Mother's Day, or any day you just want to let her know how wonderful she is.
And for the moms, you will find encouraging words here to let your daughters know just how much they mean to you.
These quotes are for all mothers and daughters every day of the year. While we don’t need special words to remember all of the precious feelings we keep in our hearts, it is nice to occasionally (or frequently!) express those feelings out loud to those whom we cherish.
Quotes for All Occasions
Below you will find inspiring, heartfelt words for moms and daughters. Some are light and funny; others inspiring and insightful. Some come from contemporary personalities, whereas others were penned by accomplished writers from long ago. May these words help you explore and solidify your bond with your mom or daughter. This is my very special collection that I'm sharing with you.
"Life is too short to wake up in the morning with regrets."
Special Proverbs to Share
"No one comes to the earth like grass. We come like trees, we all have roots."
— Yiddish proverb
"A son is a son till he takes him a wife, a daughter is a daughter all of her life."
— Irish saying
"One generation plants the trees; another gets the shade."
— Chinese proverb
Our True Self
"Deep inside us there is a voice crying out ... It is a voice that can change our life ... It is the voice of our true self."
— Jinger Heath, American entrepreneur and writer
Inspirational Sayings
"We spend the first twelve months of our children's lives teaching them to walk and talk and the next twelve telling them to sit down and shut up."
— Phyllis Diller, American comedian
Mid pleasures and palaces
though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble,
There's no place like home.
— John Howard Payne, American actor, playwright, and poet
Motherly Love
"Suddenly, through birthing a daughter, a woman finds herself face to face not only with an infant, a little girl, a woman-to-be, but also with her own unresolved conflicts from the past and her hopes and dreams for the future. ... As though experiencing an earthquake, mothers of daughters may find their lives shifted, their deep feelings unearthed, the balance struck in all relationships once again off kilter. Sharing these inspirational words together makes the good times better and the bad times more tolerable."
— Elizabeth Debold, author of Mother Daughter Revolution: From Good Girls to Great Women
The Great Umbilical
"Motherly love is not much use if it expresses itself only as a warm gush of emotion, delicately tinged with pink. It must also be strong, guiding and unselfish. The sweetly sung lullaby; the cool hand on the fevered brow, the Mother's Day smiles and flowers are only a small part of the picture. True mothers have to be made of steel to withstand the difficulties that are sure to beset their children."
— Rachel Billington, author of The Great Umbilical: Mother, Daughter, Mother: The Unbreakable Bond
A Mother Laughs Our Laughter
A mother laughs our laughter,
Sheds our tears,
Returns our love,
Fears our fears.
She lives our joys,
Cares our cares,
And all our hopes and
Dreams she shares.
— Julia Summers
Mother Daughter Proverbs
"What the daughter does ... the mother did."
— Jewish proverb
"A rich child often sits in a poor mother's lap."
— Danish proverb
Tender Years
“The popular view that a child forgets easily is not an accurate one. Many people go right through life in the grip of an idea which has been impressed on them in very tender years.”
— Agatha Christie, English detective novelist
Proverbs and Sayings
"A hundred men may make an encampment, but it takes a woman to make a home."
— Chinese proverb
"A son is a son till he takes him a wife. A daughter is a daughter all of her life."
— Irish saying
"Ingratitude is the mother of every vice."
— French proverb
A Woman's Secret
"Because after a time having a secret and nobody knowing you have a secret is no fun. And although you don't want others to know what the secret is, you want them to at least know you have one."
— E. L. Konigsburg, American writer and illustrator
Youth fades; love droops;
the leaves of friendship fall;
A mother's secret hope outlives them all.
— Oliver Wendell Holmes, American jurist and legal scholar who served on the U.S. Supreme Court 1902–32
Children and Mothers
Children and mothers
Never truly part
Bound in the beating of
Each other's heart.
— Charlotte Gray, Canadian historian and author
"The soul is healed by being with children."
— Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Russian novelist, journalist, and essayist
Willingness to Listen
The willingness to listen
The patience to understand
The strength to support
The heart to care and just be there ...
That is the beauty of a mom
— Unknown
The Work-Home Balance
"At work, you think of the children you have left at home. At home, you think of the work you've left unfinished. Such a struggle is unleashed within yourself. Your heart is rent."
— Golda Meir, the fourth prime minister of the State of Israel, 1969–74
Mother-Daughter Bond
"It can be the best of relationships and the worst of relationships—often at the same time. The bond between a mother and daughter is one of the strongest, but it's also among the most complicated."
— Deborah Tannen, American author and professor of linguistics at Georgetown University
"If at first you don't succeed, do it the way your Mother told you to."
— Unknown
"Generation after generation of women have pledged to raise their daughters differently, only to find that their daughters grow up and fervently pledge the same thing."
— Elizabeth Debold, senior editor of EnlightenNext magazine
Role Models
"And mothers are their daughters' role model, their biological and emotional road map, the arbiter of all their relationships."
— Victoria Secunda
"...The daughter is for the mother at once her double and another person."
— Giuliana Giobbi
A daughter is ...
A link to the past
A bridge to the future.
— Unknown
Short and Sweet Quotes
"A daughter may outgrow your lap, but she will never outgrow your heart."
— Unknown
"Every woman is someone's daughter."
— Tammy Falkner, American author
"Pretty dresses, little curls. Oh, thank heaven for little girls!"
— Unknown
"Only mothers can think of the future, because they give birth to it in their children."
— Maxim Gorky, Russian writer and political thinker
Self-Awareness Quotes
Though you may not think much about it, self-awareness is essential for if you do not know yourself it will be easy for others to sway to do things that others think you should do. This will never help you in making wise decisions.
"Figuring out who you are is the whole point of the human experience."
— Anna Quindlen, American author and journalist
"Without self-awareness we are as babies in the cradles."
— Virginia Woolf, English author
"A father may turn his back on his child, brothers and sisters may become inveterate enemies, husbands may desert their wives, wives their husbands. But a mother's love endures through all."
— Washington Irving, American writer
Words of Encouragement
"A child becomes an adult when she realizes that she has a right not only to be right but also to be wrong."
— Thomas Szasz, Hungarian-American academic and psychiatrist
"Good advice is always certain to be ignored, but that's no reason not to give it."
— Agatha Christie, English detective novelist
"Mothers and daughters are closest when daughters become mothers."
— Unknown
The People You Need
“Life doesn’t give you the people you want, it gives you the people you need: To love you, To hate you, To make you, To break you, And to make you the person you were meant to be.”
— Walt Whitman, American poet, essayist, and journalist
"Re-examine all you have been told in school or church or in any book, and dismiss whatever insults your own soul; and your very flesh shall be a great poem."
— Walt Whitman
"A mother is one to whom you hurry when you are troubled."
— Emily Dickinson, American poet
Mother's Love
"The love of husbands and wives may waver; Brothers and sisters may become deep-rooted enemies; But a mother's love is so strong and unyielding that it usually endures all circumstances: Good fortune and misfortune, prosperity and privation, honor and disgrace. A mother's love perceives no impossibilities."
— Joe Paddock, American poet and environmentalist
"The mother-daughter relationship is the most complex."
— Wynonna Judd, American country music singer
Father-Daughter Quote
"A father is available to help his daughter balance both her love and her anger toward her mother, to moderate the inevitable emotional extremes in the intense mother-daughter equation. With Daddy's steadying influence daughters can learn to be comfortable with healthy anger, rather than feeling that they must be eternal good girls who must at all costs conceal it."
— Victoria Secunda, author of Women and Their Fathers: The Sexual and Romantic Impact of the First Man In Your Life
Words of Wisdom
"The best conversations with mothers always take place in silence, when only the heart speaks."
— Carrie Latet
"A problem is a chance for you to do your best."
— Duke Ellington, American jazz pianist and composer
Adversity and Challenges
“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome."
— Anne Bradstreet, English Puritan poet of the early American colonies
"You must do the things you think you cannot do."
— Eleanor Roosevelt, American political figure, activist, and first lady of the United States, 1933–45
Words of Encouragement
"Peace. It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart."
— Unknown
"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there."
— L. P. Hartley, British novelist
One Sad Truth
There's one sad truth in life I've found
While journeying east and west -
The only folks we really wound
Are those we love the best.
We flatter those we scarcely know,
We please the fleeting guest,
And deal full many a thoughtless blow
To those who love us best.
— Ella Wheeler Wilcox, American author and poet
Motherhood
"Of all the haunting moments of motherhood, few rank with hearing your own words come out of your daughter’s mouth."
— Victoria Secunda, American author
"When I stopped seeing my mother with the eyes of a child, I saw the woman who helped me give birth to myself."
— Nancy Friday, American author
Cathy responds to her mother's "look."
Love Between a Mom and Daughter
"The love between a mother and daughter exists in a special place ... where 'always' always lasts and 'forever' never goes away."
— Laurel Atherton, author of The Love Between a Mother and Daughter Is Forever
"A daughter is one of the most beautiful gifts this world has to give."
— Laurel Atherton
Gifts and Brunch Ideas for Mom
Now that you've gotten some inspiration for quotes and sayings to celebrate Mom, let's turn our attention to other ways to show her how much you care. If it's Mother's Day or her birthday, consider these great breakfast-in-bed recipes that are easy enough for kids to prepare. How about a gift? These DIY craft ideas are super cute and will be cherished forever because they're handmade with love. Or for the mom who has everything, one of these creative gifts of time may be the thing she appreciates most.
More Words of Love for Mom
- Messages to Write in a Mother's Day Card
These are examples of what to write in a Mother's Day card for your mom. Also included are tips and strategies for how to write a good Mother's Day wish. - Thank You Messages for Mom on Mother's Day
Examples of sweet messages you can write in a card to show affection and gratitude to your mom on Mother’s Day.
Comments
anna on April 07, 2015:
I moved for me and my daughter for a new life
htodd from United States on November 26, 2011:
Thanks for the great post..nice
irenemaria from Sweden on November 25, 2011:
Really lovely hub!
Shari (author) from New York, NY on November 17, 2011:
IzzyM - as mothers and daughters you and I both know the power of words!
Shari (author) from New York, NY on November 16, 2011:
Jimmythejock- knowing what a great dad you are (especially to your gorgeous daughters) - I know you know a lot about this subject so I really appreciate your words! xoxox
Shari (author) from New York, NY on November 16, 2011:
susan54 - so true. .and when girls get to be teenagers it is so tough. Boys are harder the first years as they are so physical and not as sensitive. Sometimes the right words with our daughters get so misconstrued, so turning to wise words of others can sometimes make the communication a bit smoother!
IzzyM from UK on November 16, 2011:
What a lovely, heart-warming hub! Well done, rated up :)
Jimmy the jock from Scotland on November 16, 2011:
voted up and beautiful Wavegirl, beautiful quotes and beautiful pictures thanks for sharing.....jimmy
susan54 on November 16, 2011:
wavegirl22,What a great hub! Vote up! I have tried to encourage all my kids but my girls a little me, Boy are rough and tuff, girl need a little more positive reinforcement. Thanks
