50 Inspiring Quotes for Strong, Hard-working Moms

When you think of a strong woman who do think of? Hopefully, the first woman is your mom.

I never truly realized this until the birth of my first child. Today, I realize that being “mom” is a non-stop job that is both exhausting and exhilarating. While I wouldn’t change being a mom for anything in the world, there are those challenging days when you’re dissatisfied, stressed, and over-worked.

I snap out of this by focusing on the positive and exercising. But, sometimes I need some outside inspiration, like the following 50 quotes.

1. “Any mother could perform the jobs of several air-traffic controllers with ease.” – Lisa Alther

2. “Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs… since the payment is pure love.” – Mildred B. Vermont

3. “Your most valuable parenting skill is learning to manage yourself first.” – Dr. Laura Markham

4 “All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.” – Abraham Lincoln

5. “There are many different molds for a good mom.”

“Some good moms make healthy meals. Some good moms have bad days and decide spontaneously to feed the kids ice cream for dinner.”

“Some good moms throw amazing parties, volunteer at school all the time, fit into their skinny jeans on the way home from delivering their babies, and some good moms want to throw toilet paper in the yards of those moms just before it rains.”

“I’ve seen good moms have kids who deal with depression and anxiety. I’ve seen good moms cry from worry about their kids.” – Mary Organizes

6. “Live in the moment and make it so beautiful that it will be worth remembering.” – Fanny Crosby

7. “Women have to work much harder to make it in this world. It really pisses me off that women don’t get the same opportunities as men do, or money for that matter. Because lets face it, money gives men the power to run the show. It gives men the power to define our values and to define what’s sexy and what’s feminine and that’s bullshit. At the end of the day, it’s not about equal rights, it’s about how we think. We have to reshape our own perception of how we view ourselves.” – Beyoncé

8. “Mothers and their children are in a category all their own. There’s no bond so strong in the entire world. No love so instantaneous and forgiving.” – Gail Tsukiyama

9. “If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands?” – Milton Berle

10. “The phrase ‘working mother’ is redundant.” – Jane Sellman

11. “And remember that behind every successful woman is a basket of dirty laundry.” – Anonymous

12. “It is not until you become a mother that your judgment slowly turns to compassion and understanding.” – Erma Bombeck

13. “It’s not what you do for your children but what you have taught them to do for themselves that will make them successful human beings.” – Ann Landers

14. “No mom can do it all on her own. Asking for help is not a sign of weakness! When you need help, ask for it! When you are asked for help, give it – and offer it, too. In asking for help we can get past these too-hard-on-ourselves moments and instead build community with family, friends, and neighbors. Help – given and received – can help you achieve that acceptance of non-perfection – and the outcome may be even better than your initial vision of ‘perfect.’” – Jen Klein

15. “The best place to cry is on a mother’s arms.” – Jodi Picoult

16. “Do not bring people in your life who weigh you down. And trust your instincts … good relationships feel good. They feel right. They don’t hurt. They’re not painful. That’s not just with somebody you want to marry, but it’s with the friends that you choose. It’s with the people you surround yourselves with.” – Michelle Obama

17. “Buckle up, and know that it’s going to be a tremendous amount of work, but embrace it.” –Tory Burch

18. “If I have done anything in life worth attention, I feel sure that I inherited the disposition from my mother.” – Booker T. Washington

19. “No influence is so powerful as that of the mother.” – Sarah Josepha Hale

20. “Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing.” – Phyllis Diller

21. “Did you know, when kids go to bed, you can hear yourself think again. I sound fabulous.” – Paige Kellerman

22. “Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.” – Maya Angelou

23. “Everybody wants to save the earth; nobody wants to help Mom with the dishes.” – P. J. O’Rourke

24. “If you have never been hated by your child you have never been a parent.” – Bette Davis

25. “There is no way to be a perfect mother, but a million ways to be a good one.” – Jill Churchill

26. “Most mothers are instinctive philosophers.” – Harriet Beecher Stowe

27. “I just love bossy women. I could be around them all day. To me, bossy is not a pejorative term at all. It means somebody’s passionate and engaged and ambitious and doesn’t mind learning.” – Amy Poehler

28. “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

29. “The difference between successful people and others is how long they spend time feeling sorry for themselves.” – Barbara Corcoran

30. “Mothers are like glue. Even when you can’t see them, they’re still holding the family together.” – Susan Gale

31. “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

32 . “I’m a woman, of course I still have curves on me, and that’s ok. I had a baby and I’ve worked hard. And I don’t think women should have to feel that kind of pressure. I’ve done it really healthfully, and I took my time.” – Lily Aldridge

33. “My mother was the one constant in my life. When I think about my mom raising me alone when she was 20, and working and paying the bills, and, you know, trying to pursue your own dreams, I think is a feat that is unmatched.” – Barack Obama

34. “[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

35. “Successful Mothers are not the ones that have never struggled, they are the ones that never give up, despite the struggles.” – Sharon Jaynes

36. “If you think taking care of yourself is selfish, change your mind. If you don’t, you’re simply ducking your responsibilities.” – Ann Richards

37. “Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.” –Ingrid Bergman

38. “Motherhood has a very humanizing effect. Everything gets reduced to essentials.” – Meryl Streep

39. “You are the one that possesses the keys to your being. You carry the passport to your own happiness.” – Diane von Furstenberg

40. “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

41. “It’s not easy being a mother. If it were easy, fathers would do it.” – Dorothy on The Golden Girls

42. “You go through big chunks of time where you’re just thinking, ‘This is impossible—oh, this is impossible.’ And then you just keep going and keep going, and you sort of do the impossible.” – Tina Fey

43. “There are two kinds of people, those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group; there is less competition there.” – Indira Gandhi

44. “My mom had four kids, one with special needs. She had a full-time job, and she still came home and made dinner for us every night, from scratch. It was amazing.” – Eva Longoria

45. “I am always busy, which is perhaps the chief reason why I am always well.” – Elizabeth Cady Stanton

46. “Being a mother is about learning about strengths you didn’t know you had and dealing with fears you didn’t know existed.” – Linda Wooten

47. “I see myself as mom first. I’m so lucky to have that role in life. The world can like me, hate me or fall apart around me and at least I wake up with my kids and I’m happy.” – Angelina Jolie

48. “I may sometimes be willing to teach for nothing, but if paid at all, I shall never do a man’s work for less than a man’s pay.” – Clara Barton

49. “Sometimes the strength of motherhood is greater than natural laws.” – Barbara Kingsolver

50. “You can’t give up! If you give up, you’re like everybody else.” – Chris Evert