MOTHER

"I have found being a mother has made me emotionally raw in many situations. Your heart is beating outside of your body when you have a baby," said Kate Beckinsale.

"If you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do well matters very much," said Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

"I figure that if the children are alive when I get home, then I’ve done my job," said Roseanne Barr.

"Motherhood has a very humanizing effect. Everything gets reduced to essentials," said Meryl Streep.

"You instantly become less selfish. You can’t be the biggest person in the world anymore—they are. Motherhood really grounds you," said Keri Russell.

"The relationship between parents and children, but especially between mothers and daughters, is tremendously powerful, scarcely to be comprehended in any rational way," said Joyce Carol Oates.

"Sometimes, when I want to take on the world, I try to remember that it's just as important to sit down and ask my son how he's feeling or talk to him about life," said Angelina Jolie.

"If I’ve learned anything as a mom with a daughter who’s three, 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," said Maggie Gyllenhaal.

"Think of stretch marks as pregnancy service stripes," said Joyce Armor.

"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," said Sophia Loren.

"Having children just puts the whole world into perspective. Everything else just disappears," said Kate Winslet.

"Over the years, I learned so much from mom. She taught me about the importance of home and history and family and tradition. She also taught me that aging need not mean narrowing the scope of your activities and interests, or a diminution of the great pleasures to be had in the everyday," said Martha Stewart.

"A mother is not a person to lean on, but a person to make leaning unnecessary," said Dorothy Canfield Fisher.

"Having kids—the responsibility of rearing good, kind, ethical, responsible human beings—is the biggest job anyone can embark on. As with any risk, you have to take a leap of faith and ask lots of wonderful people for their help and guidance. I thank God every day for giving me the opportunity to parent," said Maria Shriver.

"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," said Gilda Radner.

"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 keep going, and you sort of do the impossible," said Tina Fey.

"As a mom, you have to look at how much time you're spending with your kids. There is nothing you will regret more in your life–nothing than not being present for your children," said Jamie Lee Curtis.

"A mother's love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity, it dares all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path," said Agatha Christie.

"There are moments when I feel like I have a looong road ahead of me, with college and dating and driving and all of that. But then I realize it just means that I have so much time left to enjoy my kids. And it really does go by so quickly," said Geena Davis.

"My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. I attribute all my success in my life to the moral, intellectual, and physical education I received from her," said George Washington.

"Motherhood is the most completely humbling experience I've ever had. It puts you in your place, because it really forces you to address the issues that you claim to believe in—and if you can't stand up to those principles when you're raising a child, forget it," said Diane Keaton.

"As a working mother, high heels don't really fit into my life anymore—but in a totally wonderful way. I would much rather think about my son than myself," said Sarah Jessica Parker.

"A mother's body remembers her babies-the folds of soft flesh, the softly furred scalp against her nose. Each child has it's own entreaties to body and soul," said Barbara Kingsolver.

"I think what surprised me the most about motherhood, as sentimental as it sounds, is how much I love my kids. I mean, I just can't believe it. It's like a whole new dimension in emotion that I've never experienced," said Gwyneth Paltrow.

"Most mothers are instinctive philosophers," said Harriet Beecher Stowe.

"A mother’s arms are more comforting than anyone else’s," said Princess Diana.

"To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power. Or the climbing, falling colors of a rainbow," said Maya Angelou.

"God could not be everywhere, and therefore he made mothers," said Rudyard Kipling.

"A mother is one to whom you hurry when you are troubled," said Emily Dickinson.

"I like my body so much better after I had kids. Is that a crazy thing to say? I’m more womanly. I feel sexier," said Reese Witherspoon.