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65 Heartwarming Mother-Son Quotes for Mother’s Day and Beyond

Updated: Apr. 26, 2024

These moving mother-son quotes capture the incomparable bond between a mother and son

Heartwarming Mother Son Quote
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Mother-son quotes to celebrate Mom

Mothers and their boys have a special relationship unlike any other—and Mother’s Day (Sunday, May 12) is the perfect time to celebrate that love. As the son, you can get Mom a sweet Mother’s Day gift, but you should also make sure to tell Mom how much she means to you—maybe with some of these powerful mother-son quotes on Mother’s Day—or all year round, of course!

Mothers love listening to the mother-daughter quotes their girls find, but they haven’t forgotten about their sons! Share these sweet, loving and inspirational mother and son quotes with your mom. She’s sure to feel all the love—and might shed a few happy tears too!

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Short mother-son quotes

1. “Mothers are inscrutable beings to their sons, always.” —A.E. Coppard, English author

2. “There has never been, nor will there ever be, anything quite so special as the love between the mother and a son.” —Unknown 

3. “The mother’s heart is the child’s schoolroom.” —Henry Ward Beecher, clergyman

4. “Moms are as relentless as the tides. They just don’t drive us to practice, they drive us to greatness.” —Steve Rushin, journalist 

5. “Happy is the son whose faith in his mother remains unchallenged.” —Louisa May Alcott, novelist

6. “Sons are the anchors of a mother’s life.” —Sophocles, tragedian

7. “Little boy, you remind me how so much depends on days made of now.” —Allison McGhee, author, in Little Boy

8. “Men are what their mothers made them.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson, essayist 

9. “A mother’s arms are more comforting than anyone else’s.” —Princess Diana, humanitarian, member of the British royal family

10. “The most important mark I will leave on this world is my son.” —Sarah Shahi, actress

11. “Heaven on Earth is looking at my little boy.” —Jenny McCarthy, actress, model

12. “The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.” —Honore de Balzac, novelist, playwright 

13. “All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That’s his.” —Oscar Wilde, poet, playwright 

Along with these mother-son quotes, consider including these Mother’s Day greetings in your card for Mom.

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Funny mother-son quotes

14. “Every mother hopes that her daughter will marry a better man than she did, and is convinced that her son will never find a wife as good as his father did.” –Martin Andersen Nexo, author

15. “Of course, my son has been the center of my life and will always be the center of my love. When he was young, I was the rock in his life. Now that I am old, he is the rock in my life.” –Hyacinth Mottley, memoirist

16. “You know you’re a boy mom when everything in your house is either lost, dirty or broken.” –Unknown

17. “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 I became Picasso.” —Pablo Picasso, painter, sculptor

18. “I raise boys…nothing scares me.” –Unknown

19. “I do what I want, when I want, where I want…if my mom says it’s okay.” —Unknown

20. “If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands?” —Milton Berle, comedian

21. “Raising boys has made me a more generous woman than I really am.” —Mary Kay Blakely, author 

22. “Ain’t a woman alive who could take my mama’s place.” —Tupac Shakur, rapper

23. “It takes one woman twenty years to make a man of her son – and another woman twenty minutes to make a fool of him.” —Helen Rowland, journalist, humorist 

24. “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, journalist, writer

25. “If I wasn’t at work, I just wanted to stay home and party with my little man — and by ‘party’ I mean, of course, endless rounds of ‘Itsy Bitsy Spider.” —Olivia Wilde

26. “If at first you don’t succeed, try doing it the way your mom told you to do it from the start.” —Unknown

27. “My mother is not a CIA agent, but she’s an Italian mother, and she’d do anything for her son.” —Adriano Giannini, actress, director 

For more laughs, check out these mom jokes—and hilarious mom memes too! Mom will definitely find them funny.

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Inspiring mother-son quotes

28. “Even more than the time when she gave birth, a mother feels her greatest joy when she hears others refer to her son as a wise learned one.” —Thiruvalluvar, Tamil philosopher, poet

29. “I am a boy mom, and I keep my eyes on the goal: raising the boy I love into a man who will make this world a better place.” —Monica Swanson, author

30. “Love as powerful as your mother’s for you leaves its own mark. To have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever” –Albus Dumbledore, character in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone 

31. “Let your boys test their wings. They may not be eagles, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t soar free.”—C.J. Milbrandt, author

32. “If you would have your son to walk honorably through the world, you must not attempt to clear the stones from his path, but teach him to walk firmly over them—not insist upon leading him by the hand, but let him learn to go alone.” —Anne Brontë, author

33. “Be strong out there, my son. Look for the love and kindness in others. Forgive yourself when you make mistakes, and enjoy the journey.” –Kirsten Wreggitt, author

34. “I’m glad we’ve begun to raise our daughters more like our sons—but it will never work until we raise our sons more like our daughters.” –Gloria Steinem, feminist icon, author

35. “There is an enduring tenderness in the love of a mother to a son that transcends all other affections of the heart.” —Washington Irving, essayist 

36. “A mother’s love doesn’t make her son more dependent and timid; it actually makes him stronger and more independent.” —Cheri Fuller, author 

37. “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, professional basketball player

38. “To be a mother of a son is one of the most important things you can do to change the world. Raise them to respect women, raise them to stand up for others, raise them to be kind.” —Shannon L. Alder, author

39. “No man succeeds without a good woman behind him. Wife or mother, if it is both, he is twice blessed indeed.” —Godfrey Winn, journalist 

40. “You don’t raise heroes, you raise sons. And if you treat them like sons, they’ll turn out to be heroes, even if it’s just in your own eyes.” —Walter M. Schirra, Sr., aviator 

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, writer 

42. “My mother carried me for ten months. I asked her ‘Mother, you had an extra month, why you didn’t make me a beautiful face?’ and mother told me, ‘My son, I was busy making your beautiful hands and heart.’” —Mstislav Rostropovich, cellist, conductor 

In addition to these mother-son quotes, these Mother’s Day short stories will warm your heart.

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Sweet mother-son quotes

43. “The only man who has stolen my heart is my son.” –Sandra Bullock, actress, producer

44. “Yet now in my arms, I was holding a helpless baby boy who would grow into a man… I cannot imagine that soft little face one day having whiskers.” –Rhonda Stoppe, author, motivational speaker

45. “My son is a blessing in every way.” –Elizabeth Emken, US politician

46. “All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.” —Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the United States

47. “Every beetle is a gazelle in the eyes of its mother.” —Moroccan proverb

48. “I love you forever, I like you for always, as long as I’m living my baby you’ll be.” —Robert Munsch, author in Love You Forever

49. “Mothers see the angel in us because the angel is there. If it’s shown to the mother, the son has got an angel to show, hasn’t he?” —Booth Tarkington, novelist in The Magnificent Ambersons

50. “There was never a great man who had not a great mother—it is hardly an exaggeration.” —Olive Shreiner, author 

51. “When Jack Burns needed to hold his mother’s hand, his fingers could see in the dark.” —John Irving, novelist in Until I Find You

52. “To wake up to the sound of my son saying ‘Mama, mama!’ It’s the best sound ever.” —Miranda Kerr, model

53. “And she loved a little boy very, very much—even more than she loved herself.” —Shel Silverstein, writer, poet

54. “Happy the boy whose mother is tired of talking nonsense to him before he is old enough to know the sense of it.” —Augustus Hare, writer

55. “When you look into your mother’s eyes, you know that is the purest love you can find on this Earth.” —Mitch Albom, author 

56. “If you try singling me out to my mother, she’ll be down your throat. She has three sons, and she’s equally proud of us all.” —Lee Pearson, Paralympic Games gold medallist

Besides just these mother-son quotes, these uplifting quotes will lift you (and your mom’s) spirits.

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Mother-son quotes about being friends

57. “First my mother, forever my friend.” —Unknown

58. “Mothers hold their children’s hands for a short while, but their hearts forever.” —Unknown

59. “A boy’s best friend is his mother.” —Joseph Stefano, screenwriter 

60. “A mother is the truest friend we have.” —Washington Irving, essayist 

61. “A man loves his sweetheart the most, his wife the best, but his mother the longest.” —Irish Proverb

62. “Son, you will outgrow my lap, but never my heart.” —Unknown

63. “No matter your age, you always need your mom.” —Anonymous

64. “[My mom]’s a cool chick. We can hang, and she can roll with the punches.” —Bradley Cooper, actor, filmmaker 

65. “I know you have your own life, his mother said to his voicemail. I was just hoping to be part of it for a few hours.” —Maggie Stiefvater, writer 

If you’re inspired to use one of these mother-son quotes in a card and don’t have time to run to the store, fear not! Use one of these printable Mother’s Day cards.

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