Inspirational Mother and Daughter Quotes, Poems & Sayings

It’s impossible to fully describe the connection between a mother and her daughter. This lifelong bond is more powerful than words alone, because it’s made of instinct, sacrifice, gratitude and so many other complicated emotions and memories that are completely unique to each family. However, it doesn’t hurt to try. “I love you” never loses its luster, and weddings are especially good excuses for a mom and her daughter to talk about how much they mean to each other.

Telling your story with Mother and Daughter Quotes

Mother-daughter relationships come in many forms and flavors. Whether it begins in the womb or develops a few years later, it’s usually one of the longest and most important relationships in both women’s lives. It colors the way they see the world and themselves, it motivates them to make each other proud, and it teaches them lifelong lessons about forgiveness, respect and love. But at its core, it’s a love story.

Weddings celebrate a different kind of love, but they also create milestone moments for brides-to-be and their mothers. Even if they don’t plan the ceremony or pick out the dress together, they still get to share this exciting time with each other. One woman is watching her child begin a new chapter in life, and the other is following in her mother’s footsteps, putting together a new home and family of her own. There’s a lot to be learned, but it’s also important to stop and savor this moment.

Putting it on paper

Many brides select gifts for members of their wedding party, which often includes their mothers. Of course, the mother of the bride gives the greatest wedding gift of all: her unconditional support. This may be financial, emotional or both, but it’s an important ingredient in a successful wedding. Still, she may want to share something deeper with her daughter, to honor the childhood they spent together and remind her that she’ll always be a daughter, even after she becomes a wife.

It’s difficult to find a way to express a lifetime of love, but jewelry and other material objects certainly don’t come close. Words don’t either, but when they’re incorporated into a scrapbook of memories and they echo real feelings, they’re better than any necklace or check. If your daughter is getting married soon, give her a present that’s not on her registry, and that no one else in the world could possible create: a scrapbook of photos, quotes, mementos and personal notes to your daughter.

If you’re the one who’s getting married, your bar is set even higher. Without your mother’s guidance, your life may not have led you to the person you’re about to marry. You owe her so much, yet she doesn’t expect anything in return for it. Surprise her anyway, and create a scrapbook that reminds her you’ll never stop being her daughter or appreciating her.

Borrowing the perfect quotes

The following quotes are perfect complements to the profound experience of getting married. They include passages from novels and poems, the thoughts of famous artists and intellectuals, and sayings that are old but powerful, and they’re all about the love shared between mothers and daughters.

Some people are better than others at describing the unique ways in which they relate to one another. These quotes might help you express ideas and feelings that you both already have, but haven’t quite put into words before. If you see one that speaks to you, save it for the scrapbook.

A mother’s arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them.
Victor Hugo

I will never be as good a mother as she was. She was just grace incarnate.
Angelina Jolie, actress and humanitarian

I’m blessed and I couldn’t be more grateful. Do you want to know why? Because I’m a mother, but that’s only half of it. I’m blessed because, when I need to, I can still just be a daughter. I get the feeling that there is nothing more precious than to have both of these roles, simultaneously.
Adrianna Stepiano, novelist

Motherhood is a choice you make every day, to put someone else’s happiness and well-being ahead of your own, to teach the hard lessons, to do the right thing even when you’re not sure what the right thing is…and to forgive yourself, over and over again, for doing everything wrong.
Donna Ball, novelist

If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands?
Milton Berle, comedian

Youth fades, love droops, the leaves of friendship fall; a mother’s secret hope outlives them all.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, poet

My mother… she is beautiful, softened at the edges and tempered with a spine of steel. I want to grow old and be like her.
Jodi Picoult, novelist

In my daughter’s eyes I am a hero. I am strong and wise, and I know no fear. But the truth is plain to see; she was sent to rescue me. I see who I want to be in my daughter’s eyes. Martina McBride, country singer

A daughter is a gift of love.
Author Unknown

All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel Mother.
Abraham Lincoln

A daughter is a little girl who grows up to be a friend.
Author Unknown

Beloved, you are my sister, you are my daughter, you are my face; you are me.
Toni Morrison

If you can give your son or daughter only one gift, let it be enthusiasm.
Bruce Barton

God could not be everywhere, so he made mothers.
Jewish proverb

A mother’s treasure is her daughter.
Catherine Pulsifer, writer

A daughter is a mother’s gender partner, her closest ally in the family confederacy, an extension of herself. And mothers are their daughters’ role model, their biological and emotional road map, the arbiter of all their relationships.
Victoria Secunda, self-help author

Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children.
William M. Thackeray

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.
Agatha Christie

Daughters are angels sent from above to fill our heart with unending love.
Author Unknown.

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

A daughter is a day brightener and a heart warmer.
Author Unknown

I remember my mothers prayers and they have always followed me.  They have clung to me all my life.
Abraham Lincoln

A mother’s treasure is her daughter.
Catherine Pulsifer

We have tried to give credit where we know the quotation author, and will be happy to correct any errors, when pointed out.

If you still need more quotes to fill your pages, browse relevant expressions and passages on Pinterest, Goodreads and other popular websites. Poem and song lyric websites are also a great place to find short, sweet lines about motherhood.

Complement your scrapbook with a simple bouquet of her favorite flowers, or a pendant with one of these quotes engraved on the back. The woman you love so much will be touched by the thought you put into this gift. Every time she flips through it, these quotes will bring back a flood of memories and pleasant feelings. What greater gift could there be?