300 Quotes for Working Moms That Honor Her Strength

Below are 300 lines from leaders, artists, writers, and thinkers who knew what it meant to keep going. Some will make you laugh. A few might make you tear up. All of them get it.

Send one to a friend who is running on coffee and love, or keep a favorite where you will see it on the hard mornings. However you use them, they are yours.

For the Mom Who Does It All

1. “Mothers can forgive anything! Tell me all, and be sure that I will never let you go, though the whole world should turn from you.” — Louisa May Alcott
2. “Women should be tough, tender, laugh as much as possible, and live long lives.” — Maya Angelou
3. “My mother told me to be a lady. And for her, that meant be your own person, be independent.” — Ruth Bader Ginsburg
4. “Women belong in all places where decisions are being made.” — Ruth Bader Ginsburg
5. “The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.” — Ayn Rand
6. “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
7. “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
8. “Confidence is 10 percent work and 90 percent delusion.” — Tina Fey
9. “She never quite leaves her children at home, even when she doesn’t take them along.” — Margaret Culkin Banning
10. “My mother said to me, ‘If you are a soldier, you will become a general. If you are a monk, you will become the Pope.’ Instead, I was a painter, and became Picasso.” — Pablo Picasso
11. “Motherhood has taught me the meaning of living in the moment and being at peace.” — Beyoncé
12. “I think every working mom probably feels the same thing: 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 you sort of do the impossible.” — Tina Fey
13. “True forgiveness is when you can say, ‘Thank you for that experience.’” — Oprah Winfrey
14. “Living in the moment brings you a sense of reverence for all of life’s blessings.” — Oprah Winfrey
15. “How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!” — Maya Angelou
16. “Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet.” — Maya Angelou
17. “Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.” — Maya Angelou
18. “Nothing will work unless you do.” — Maya Angelou
19. “We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.” — Maya Angelou
20. “Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.” — Maya Angelou
21. “You wouldn’t worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
22. “When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?” — Eleanor Roosevelt
23. “I could not, at any age, be content to take my place by the fireside and simply look on.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
24. “A stumbling block to the pessimist is a stepping-stone to the optimist.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
25. “What one has to do usually can be done.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

Morning Fuel for Working Moms

1. “I have spent many years of my life in opposition and I rather like the role.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
2. “Life is what you make it. Always has been, always will be.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
3. “To this day I believe that we are here on the planet Earth to live, grow up and do what we can to make this world a better place for all people to enjoy freedom.” — Rosa Parks
4. “Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” — Harriet Tubman
5. “Organize, agitate, educate, must be our war cry.” — Susan B. Anthony
6. “The day will come when man will recognize woman as his peer, not only at the fireside, but in councils of the nation.” — Susan B. Anthony
7. “I am convinced that the women of the world, united without any regard for national or racial dimensions, can become a most powerful force for international peace and brotherhood.” — Coretta Scott King
8. “Women, if the soul of the nation is to be saved, I believe that you must become its soul.” — Coretta Scott King
9. “Every great dream begins with a dreamer.” — Harriet Tubman
10. “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” — Marie Curie
11. “What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” — Jane Goodall
12. “Nothing brings me more happiness than trying to help the most vulnerable people in society.” — Princess Diana
13. “Anywhere I see suffering, that is where I want to be, doing what I can.” — Princess Diana
14. “The greatest problem in the world today is intolerance. Everyone is so intolerant of each other.” — Princess Diana
15. “Helping people in need is a good and essential part of my life, a kind of destiny.” — Princess Diana
16. “Everyone of us needs to show how much we care for each other and, in the process, care for ourselves.” — Princess Diana
17. “Only do what your heart tells you.” — Princess Diana
18. “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” — Mother Teresa
19. “What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family.” — Mother Teresa
20. “Just try new things. Don’t be afraid. Step out of your comfort zones and soar.” — Michelle Obama
21. “You can’t make decisions based on fear and the possibility of what might happen.” — Michelle Obama
22. “Instead of letting your hardships and failures discourage or exhaust you, let them inspire you.” — Michelle Obama
23. “Do not bring people in your life who weigh you down. And trust your instincts — good relationships feel good.” — Michelle Obama
24. “We need to do a better job of putting ourselves higher on our own ‘to do’ list.” — Michelle Obama
25. “No country can ever truly flourish if it stifles the potential of its women and deprives itself of the contributions of half of its citizens.” — Michelle Obama

The Beautiful Juggle: Work, Kids, and Everything Between

1. “For me, becoming isn’t about arriving somewhere or achieving a certain aim. I see it instead as forward motion, a means of evolving.” — Michelle Obama
2. “There’s power in allowing yourself to be known and heard, in owning your unique story, in using your authentic voice.” — Michelle Obama
3. “I would like to be remembered as someone who did the best she could with the talent she had.” — J.K. Rowling
4. “The thing about growing up with Fred and George is that you sort of start thinking anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve.” — J.K. Rowling
5. “There is no limit to what we, as women, can accomplish.” — Michelle Obama
6. “When they go low, we go high.” — Michelle Obama
7. “It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all.” — J.K. Rowling
8. “It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” — J.K. Rowling
9. “The reason women don’t play football is because 11 of them would never wear the same outfit in public.” — Phyllis Diller
10. “Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children and no theories.” — Attributed to John Wilmot
11. “The one thing children wear out faster than shoes is parents.” — John J. Plomp
12. “There are only two things a child will share willingly: communicable diseases and its mother’s age.” — Benjamin Spock
13. “You know your children are growing up when they stop asking you where they came from and refuse to tell you where they’re going.” — P.J. O’Rourke
14. “I don’t care how poor a man is; if he has family, he’s rich.” — M*A*S*H (Colonel Potter)
15. “Raising teenagers is like trying to nail Jell-O to a tree.” — Unknown
16. “A mom’s brain has too many tabs open. Like, 47 tabs. And three of them are frozen.” — Unknown
17. “Pick the day. Enjoy it — to the hilt.” — Audrey Hepburn
18. “Happy girls are the prettiest.” — Audrey Hepburn
19. “Life is hard. After all, it kills you.” — Katharine Hepburn
20. “Don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.” — Dolly Parton
21. “You’ll never do a whole lot unless you’re brave enough to try.” — Dolly Parton
22. “You’ve got to love yourself first.” — Jennifer Lopez
23. “I always joke about letting the haters motivate you.” — Jennifer Lopez
24. “Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible’!” — Audrey Hepburn
25. “If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.” — Dolly Parton

Trading Guilt for Grace

1. “The success of every woman should be the inspiration to another. We should raise each other up.” — Serena Williams
2. “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” — Nelson Mandela
3. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” — Winston Churchill
4. “Winners never quit and quitters never win.” — Vince Lombardi
5. “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” — Attributed to Mahatma Gandhi
6. “There is no female mind. The brain is not an organ of sex. Might as well speak of a female liver.” — Charlotte Perkins Gilman
7. “The feminine mystique has succeeded in burying millions of American women alive.” — Betty Friedan
8. “Mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to ‘jump at the sun. We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground.’” — Zora Neale Hurston
9. “I love myself when I am laughing.” — Zora Neale Hurston
10. “I don’t wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that.” — Pearl S. Buck
11. “But he that dares not grasp the thorn should never crave the rose.” — Anne Brontë
12. “Whatever glory belongs to the race for a development unprecedented in history for the given length of time, a full share belongs to the womanhood of the race.” — Mary McLeod Bethune
13. “There’s no greater challenge and there is no greater honor than to be in public service.” — Condoleezza Rice
14. “My philosophy is that not only are you responsible for your life, but doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.” — Oprah Winfrey
15. “Failure is a feeling long before it becomes an actual result.” — Michelle Obama
16. “It’s remarkable how a stereotype functions as an actual cage.” — Michelle Obama
17. “It is past time for women to take their rightful place, side by side with men, in the rooms where the destinies of peoples, where their children’s and grandchildren’s fates, are decided.” — Hillary Clinton
18. “Take criticism seriously, but not personally.” — Hillary Clinton
19. “Always aim high, work hard, and care deeply about what you believe in.” — Hillary Clinton
20. “Feeling confident — or pretending that you feel confident — is necessary to reach for opportunities.” — Sheryl Sandberg
21. “The most important career choice you’ll make is who you marry.” — Sheryl Sandberg
22. “Fearlessness is like a muscle. I know from my own life that the more I exercise it the more natural it becomes to not let my fears run me.” — Arianna Huffington
23. “Find something that you love to do, and find a place that you really like to do it in.” — Ursula Burns
24. “Rent your title, own your character.” — Thasunda Brown Duckett
25. “My biggest challenge every day is to be a great mother and a great businesswoman.” — Tory Burch

Voices of Strength: Women Who Paved the Way

1. “My theory is that if you look confident you can pull off anything — even if you have no clue what you’re doing.” — Jessica Alba
2. “Work hard, know your shit, show your shit, and then feel entitled.” — Mindy Kaling
3. “Good for her! Not for me.” — Amy Poehler
4. “As you navigate through the rest of your life, be open to collaboration.” — Amy Poehler
5. “Some people say, ‘Never let them see you cry.’ I say, if you’re so mad you could just cry, then cry. It terrifies everyone.” — Tina Fey
6. “The hardest thing about writing is writing.” — Nora Ephron
7. “We are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not.” — Joan Didion
8. “Do stuff. Be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration’s shove or society’s kiss on your forehead.” — Susan Sontag
9. “First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable.” — Octavia Butler
10. “I like to be a free spirit. Some don’t like that, but that’s the way I am.” — Princess Diana
11. “I have to be seen to be believed.” — Queen Elizabeth II
12. “I once had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue: no good in a bed, but fine up against a wall.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
13. “A little simplification would be the first step toward rational living.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
14. “I shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.” — Attributed to Catherine the Great
15. “You must learn to be still in the midst of activity and to be vibrantly alive in repose.” — Indira Gandhi
16. “Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.” — Margaret Thatcher
17. “I refuse to believe that you cannot be both compassionate and strong.” — Jacinda Ardern
18. “To love what you do and feel that it matters — how could anything be more fun?” — Katharine Graham
19. “Even if I’m completely unsure, I’ll pretend I know exactly what I’m talking about and make a decision.” — Anna Wintour
20. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I always knew the woman I wanted to be.” — Diane von Furstenberg
21. “Learn how to cook — try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless and above all have fun.” — Julia Child
22. “I am learning all the time. The tombstone will be my diploma.” — Eartha Kitt
23. “An artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times.” — Nina Simone
24. “I’ll tell you what freedom is to me: no fear.” — Nina Simone
25. “Sometimes you’ve got to let everything go — purge yourself.” — Tina Turner

Eleanor Roosevelt on Courage and Conviction

1. “The most alluring thing a woman can have is confidence.” — Beyoncé
2. “Some women choose to follow men, and some women choose to follow their dreams.” — Lady Gaga
3. “I think fearless is having fears but jumping anyway.” — Taylor Swift
4. “The magic is inside you. There ain’t no crystal ball.” — Dolly Parton
5. “The day I stop fighting for equality and for people that look like you and me will be the day I’m in my grave.” — Serena Williams
6. “No matter what accomplishments you make, somebody helps you.” — Althea Gibson
7. “Science is fun. Science is curiosity.” — Sally Ride
8. “It is not easy to be a pioneer — but oh, it is fascinating!” — Elizabeth Blackwell
9. “All creative people want to do the unexpected.” — Hedy Lamarr
10. “There was no choice but to be pioneers.” — Margaret Hamilton
11. “I came to Washington to work for God, FDR, and the millions of forgotten, plain common workingmen.” — Frances Perkins
12. “The air is the only place free from prejudices.” — Bessie Coleman
13. “You were once wild here. Don’t let them tame you.” — Isadora Duncan
14. “I knew that I just didn’t have it in me to give up, even if I sometimes felt like a fool for continuing to try.” — Misty Copeland
15. “No one can arrive from being talented alone.” — Anna Pavlova
16. “Great artists are people who find the way to be themselves in their art.” — Margot Fonteyn
17. “Take your work seriously, but never yourself.” — Margot Fonteyn
18. “An opera begins long before the curtain goes up and ends long after it has come down.” — Maria Callas
19. “Everybody’s a teacher if you listen.” — Renée Fleming
20. “Accomplishments have no color.” — Leontyne Price
21. “As long as you keep a person down, some part of you has to be down there to hold him down, so it means you cannot soar as you otherwise might.” — Marian Anderson
22. “I wanna show that gospel, country, blues, rhythm and blues, jazz, rock ‘n’ roll are all just really one thing.” — Etta James
23. “I’ve learned to trust myself, to listen to truth, to not be afraid of it and to not try and hide it.” — Natalie Cole
24. “Instead of looking at the past, I put myself ahead twenty years and try to look at what I need to do now in order to get there then.” — Diana Ross
25. “To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone and a funny bone.” — Reba McEntire

Mothers Who Changed the World

1. “I’m just trying to matter.” — June Carter Cash
2. “Follow your arrow wherever it points.” — Kacey Musgraves
3. “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” — Kelly Clarkson
4. “I’ve always done whatever I want and always been exactly who I am.” — Billie Eilish
5. “It’s always darkest before the dawn.” — Proverb
6. “It doesn’t matter how you get knocked down in life, because that’s going to happen. All that matters is that you gotta get up.” — Natalie Portman
7. “I’m a true believer in karma.” — Sandra Bullock
8. “Your life is your story, and the adventure ahead of you is the journey to fulfill your own purpose and potential.” — Kerry Washington
9. “Don’t try to squeeze into a glass slipper. Instead, shatter the glass ceiling.” — Priyanka Chopra
10. “I don’t harp on the negative because if you do, then there’s no progression.” — Taraji P. Henson
11. “Don’t settle for average. Bring your best to the moment.” — Angela Bassett
12. “The greatest gift is not being afraid to question.” — Ruby Dee
13. “You have to embrace getting older.” — Meryl Streep
14. “If you don’t see a clear path for what you want, sometimes you have to make it yourself.” — Cynthia Erivo
15. “Be fearless. Have the courage to take risks.” — Katie Couric
16. “Perfectionism doesn’t make you feel perfect; it makes you feel inadequate.” — Maria Shriver
17. “Sisterhood is powerful.” — Robin Morgan
18. “Take your life into your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame.” — Erica Jong
19. “It is our duty to fight for our freedom.” — Assata Shakur
20. “I have a great belief in the fact that whenever there is chaos, it creates wonderful thinking.” — Septima Clark
21. “Hope is a song in a weary throat.” — Pauli Murray
22. “We specialize in the wholly impossible.” — Nannie Helen Burroughs
23. “Let us put our money together; let us use our money; let us put our money out at usury among ourselves, and reap the benefit ourselves.” — Maggie Lena Walker
24. “Never be afraid to sit awhile and think.” — Lorraine Hansberry
25. “The thing that makes you exceptional, if you are at all, is inevitably that which must also make you lonely.” — Lorraine Hansberry

When the Day Feels Impossible

1. “I found god in myself and I loved her fiercely.” — Ntozake Shange
2. “Exhaust the little moment. Soon it dies.” — Gwendolyn Brooks
3. “Deal with yourself as an individual, worthy of respect and make everyone else deal with you the same way.” — Nikki Giovanni
4. “The world offers itself to your imagination.” — Mary Oliver
5. “I want to think again of dangerous and noble things.” — Mary Oliver
6. “A dysfunctional family is any family with more than one person in it.” — Mary Karr
7. “You can’t test courage cautiously.” — Annie Dillard
8. “Let children read whatever they want and then talk about it with them.” — Judy Blume
9. “It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all.” — Laura Ingalls Wilder
10. “Stories are light. Light is precious in a world so dark.” — Kate DiCamillo
11. “Sometimes you make choices in life and sometimes choices make you.” — Gayle Forman
12. “The problem with wanting is that it makes us weak.” — Leigh Bardugo
13. “If I cannot be better than them, I will become so much worse.” — Holly Black
14. “All knowledge hurts.” — Cassandra Clare
15. “If you can’t change your fate, change your attitude.” — Amy Tan
16. “In a time of destruction, create something.” — Maxine Hong Kingston
17. “That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet.” — Jhumpa Lahiri
18. “History has failed us, but no matter.” — Min Jin Lee
19. “The word ‘happiness’ does indeed have meaning, doesn’t it? I shall go out in search of it.” — Mariama Bâ
20. “Black women all over the world should re-unite and re-examine the way history has portrayed us.” — Buchi Emecheta
21. “Another world is not only possible, she is on her way.” — Arundhati Roy
22. “In nature’s economy the currency is not money, it is life.” — Vandana Shiva
23. “You can kill me as soon as you like, but you cannot stop the emancipation of women.” — Qurrat al-Ayn Tahirih
24. “If women’s rights are a problem for some modern Muslim men, it is neither because of the Quran nor the Prophet, nor the Islamic tradition, but simply because those rights conflict with the interests of a male elite.” — Fatima Mernissi
25. “But out of limitations comes creativity.” — Debbie Allen

Love That Serves: Mother Teresa and Princess Diana

1. “Each of us has a fire in our hearts for something. It’s our goal in life to find it and keep it lit.” — Mary Lou Retton
2. “Hard days are the best because that’s when champions are made.” — Gabby Douglas
3. “You have to remember that the hard days are what make you stronger.” — Aly Raisman
4. “Set daily, monthly and long term goals and dreams. Don’t ever be afraid to dream too big. Nothing is impossible.” — Nastia Liukin
5. “Never set limits, go after your dreams, don’t be afraid to push the boundaries.” — Joan Benoit Samuelson
6. “Take those chances and you can achieve greatness, whereas if you go conservative, you’ll never know.” — Danica Patrick
7. “When you fall, get right back up.” — Lindsey Vonn
8. “You can have a certain arrogance, and I think that’s fine, but what you should never lose is the respect for the others.” — Steffi Graf
9. “If you can react the same way to winning and losing, that’s a big accomplishment.” — Chris Evert
10. “Do not be afraid.” — Michaela Coel
11. “I still strongly believe that women can ‘have it all’ (and that men can too). I believe that we can ‘have it all at the same time.’ But not today, not with the way America’s economy and society are currently structured.” — Anne-Marie Slaughter
12. “We hold ourselves back in ways both big and small, by lacking self-confidence, by not raising our hands, and by pulling back when we should be leaning in.” — Sheryl Sandberg
13. “Knowing that things could be worse should not stop us from trying to make them better.” — Sheryl Sandberg
14. “When you lift up women, you lift up humanity.” — Melinda Gates
15. “All lives have equal value.” — Melinda Gates
16. “Now I think it’s one of the most useless questions an adult can ask a child — What do you want to be when you grow up?” — Michelle Obama
17. “I don’t think of myself as a poor deprived ghetto girl who made good.” — Oprah Winfrey
18. “My ability to turn good news into anxiety is rivaled only by my ability to turn anxiety into chin acne.” — Tina Fey
19. “I was a little excited but mostly blorft.” — Tina Fey
20. “People get scared when you try to do something, especially when it looks like you’re succeeding.” — Mindy Kaling
21. “My life is good because I am not passive about it.” — Gwyneth Paltrow
22. “I can’t concentrate in flats.” — Victoria Beckham
23. “If I make a fool of myself, who cares? I’m not frightened by anyone’s perception of me.” — Angelina Jolie
24. “I thrive on obstacles. If I’m told that it can’t be done, then I’ll push harder.” — Issa Rae
25. “I represent the Wonder Woman of the new world.” — Gal Gadot

Evening Words: Michelle Obama and J.K. Rowling

1. “I always did something I was a little not ready to do.” — Marissa Mayer
2. “Run to the fire; don’t hide from it.” — Meg Whitman
3. “The highest calling of leadership is to challenge the status quo and unlock the potential of others.” — Carly Fiorina
4. “Talent is equally distributed, opportunity is not.” — Leila Janah
5. “One day, all children will have the chance to attain an excellent education.” — Wendy Kopp
6. “The opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice.” — Jacqueline Novogratz
7. “I have a disproportionate amount of money to share.” — MacKenzie Scott
8. “I will have nothing to do with a bomb!” — Lise Meitner
9. “Winning the prize wasn’t half as exciting as doing the work itself.” — Maria Goeppert Mayer
10. “The excitement of learning separates youth from old age.” — Rosalyn Yalow
11. “Above all, don’t fear difficult moments. The best comes from them.” — Rita Levi-Montalcini
12. “Your reward will be the widening of the horizon as you climb.” — Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin
13. “If we want machines to think, we need to teach them to see.” — Fei-Fei Li
14. “I have learned to use the word ‘impossible’ with the greatest caution.” — Jacqueline Cochran
15. “If women can be railroad workers in Russia, why can’t they fly in space?” — Valentina Tereshkova
16. “Don’t be afraid to reach for the stars.” — Ellen Ochoa
17. “I like to help women help themselves, as that is, in my opinion, the best way to settle the woman question.” — Louisa May Alcott
18. “Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality.” — Beatrix Potter
19. “A thing that you see in my pictures is that I was not afraid to fall in love with these people.” — Annie Leibovitz
20. “Photography helps people to see.” — Berenice Abbott
21. “Cooking with love provides food for the soul.” — Carla Hall
22. “Cooking is not about being the best or most perfect cook, but rather it is about sharing the table with family and friends.” — Nigella Lawson
23. “Delete the negative; accentuate the positive!” — Donna Karan
24. “In difficult times fashion is always outrageous.” — Elsa Schiaparelli
25. “The fashionable woman wears clothes. The clothes don’t wear her.” — Mary Quant

Laughing Through the Chaos

1. “Fashion is very important. It is life-enhancing.” — Vivienne Westwood
2. “The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible.” — Toni Cade Bambara
3. “I am not the first woman to multitask. I am not the first woman to work and have a baby. There are many women who have done this before.” — Jacinda Ardern
4. “You can never leave footprints that last if you are always walking on tiptoe.” — Leymah Gbowee
5. “Human rights is a universal standard.” — Shirin Ebadi
6. “Without facts, you can’t have truth.” — Maria Ressa
7. “Whatever you’re meant to do, do it now.” — Doris Lessing
8. “We look at the world once, in childhood. The rest is memory.” — Louise Glück
9. “I prefer the absurdity of writing poems to the absurdity of not writing poems.” — Wisława Szymborska
10. “I asked the waiter, ‘Is this milk fresh?’ He said, ‘Lady, three hours ago it was grass.’” — Phyllis Diller
11. “The only time I ever enjoyed ironing was the day I accidentally got gin in the steam iron.” — Phyllis Diller
12. “My photographs don’t do me justice — they just look like me.” — Phyllis Diller
13. “Housework is a treadmill from futility to oblivion with stop-offs at tedium and counterproductivity.” — Phyllis Diller
14. “I buried a lot of my ironing in the back yard.” — Phyllis Diller
15. “You know you’re old if they have discontinued your blood type.” — Phyllis Diller
16. “I succeeded by saying what everyone else is thinking.” — Joan Rivers
17. “Don’t follow your dreams; chase them.” — Joan Rivers
18. “I enjoy life when things are happening.” — Joan Rivers
19. “Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me.” — Carol Burnett
20. “When you have a dream, you’ve got to grab it and never let go.” — Carol Burnett
21. “Comedy is tragedy plus time.” — Carol Burnett
22. “I may be a senior, but so what? I’m still hot.” — Betty White
23. “Get at least eight hours of beauty sleep. Nine if you’re ugly.” — Betty White
24. “Why do people say ‘grow some balls’? Balls are weak and sensitive. If you wanna be tough, grow a vagina. Those things can take a pounding.” — Betty White
25. “I feel about airplanes the way I feel about diets. Once you’re on one, you’re on one.” — Jean Kerr

She’s Still Becoming

1. “The average, healthy, well-adjusted adult gets up at seven-thirty in the morning feeling just plain terrible.” — Jean Kerr
2. “I’m tired of all this nonsense about beauty being only skin-deep. That’s deep enough. What do you want, an adorable pancreas?” — Jean Kerr
3. “Being divorced is like being hit by a Mack truck. If you live through it, you start looking very carefully to the right and to the left.” — Jean Kerr
4. “Marrying a man is like buying something you’ve been admiring for a long time in a shop window. You may love it when you get it home, but it doesn’t always go with everything else in the house.” — Jean Kerr
5. “Strength is the capacity to break a Hershey bar into four pieces with your bare hands — and then eat just one of the pieces.” — Judith Viorst
6. “One advantage of marriage is that, when you fall out of love with him or he falls out of love with you, it keeps you together until you fall in love again.” — Judith Viorst
7. “I look out the window and I see the lights and the skyline and the people on the street rushing around looking for action, love, and the world’s greatest chocolate chip cookie, and my heart does a little dance.” — Nora Ephron
8. “Everything is copy.” — Nora Ephron
9. “The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.” — Anna Quindlen
10. “Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for.” — Ellen Goodman
11. “The thing about democracy, beloveds, is that it is not neat, orderly, or quiet.” — Molly Ivins
12. “A library is a place where you can lose your innocence without losing your virginity.” — Germaine Greer
13. “Nothing happens, and nothing happens, and then everything happens.” — Fay Weldon
14. “If you don’t go after what you want, you’ll never have it.” — Nora Roberts
15. “Be on the alert to recognize your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur.” — Muriel Spark
16. “All the things I really like to do are either immoral, illegal or fattening.” — Elizabeth von Arnim
17. “I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.” — Dodie Smith
18. “You may not be able to change the world, but at least you can embarrass the guilty.” — Jessica Mitford
19. “I think myself I ought to be shot for writing such nonsense.” — Georgette Heyer
20. “One must think like a hero to behave like a merely decent human being.” — May Sarton
21. “Grown don’t mean nothing to a mother. A child is a child.” — Toni Morrison
22. “The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.” — Muriel Rukeyser
23. “Breathe in experience, breathe out poetry.” — Muriel Rukeyser
24. “What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? The world would split open.” — Muriel Rukeyser
25. “A woman’s guess is much more accurate than a man’s certainty.” — Rudyard Kipling

Editor’s Picks: 11 Quotes for Working Moms

If you only read eleven, make them these.

Questions About Quotes for Working Moms

What’s a good quote to send a working mom today?

Pick one that names what she is doing right. “Women should be tough, tender, laugh as much as possible, and live long lives.” (Maya Angelou) fits almost any hard day. Short on time? A simple “I see how hard you are working, and it matters” in your own words lands just as well.

How can I support a working mom beyond words?

Words help, but relief helps more. Offer one specific thing: school pickup on Thursdays, an hour of babysitting, dinner dropped off. Then follow through. To learn more about the women behind these lines, the National Women’s History Museum keeps wonderful biographies.

Do most working moms deal with guilt?

Most say yes. Researchers call it role conflict: feeling pulled between work and home. It helps to drop the idea of perfection. As several lines in this collection remind us, the goal is showing up with love, not getting every detail right.

Can I share these quotes on cards or social media?

Yes. They are made for that: birthday cards, texts, captions. If you share a picture card from this page, a link back to CrownQuote is appreciated but never required.

More to Explore

These collections pair well with the quotes above:

• Love quotes to share with the people who matter most
• Strength quotes for the days that test you
• Self-love quotes, because she deserves her own kindness too
• Happiness quotes for brighter mornings
• Hope quotes to hold onto
• Kindness quotes that soften hard days
• Family quotes celebrating the crew at home
• Good morning quotes to start her day right
• Success quotes for her biggest ambitions
• Courage quotes for brave new steps
• Gratitude quotes for thankful hearts
• Mother quotes honoring moms everywhere
• Quotes for single moms doing it solo
• Quotes for new moms at the start of the journey
• Birthday quotes for Mom when her day arrives
• Perseverance quotes for never giving up