When you first become a new mom I 100% believe someone should hand you a book or this post full of encouraging quotes for moms!

Because you will innately start to sacrifice your body, time, food and mental space to do whatever you need to do for your child.

You’ll probably feel like you need to be a perfect mother when in all actuality that doesn’t exist!

What I hope and pray you feel, after reading these encouraging quotes, is that you are a good mother.

Scratch that, a great mother!k

Why You Need Encouring Quotes on Hand

You see as soon as I became a mom I decided that I wanted to be in the business of encouraging moms. Because being a mom is hard and we are usually our toughest critic!

Plus, we have a lot working agains us…

There’s mom judgement, mom guilt and mom fails. Then there are “those days.”

You know “those” days, the extra hard days.

The ones that you had grand plans that all fell flat on their face. How about the ones that you feel like everything you do goes wrong.

And let’s not forget the ones that you just simply feel like a bad mom for whatever reason.

My most recent is when my daughter was on top of the kitchen table, my son had broken glass in the living room and my youngest was telling me he had a poopy diaper…those days!

Sadly, these type of days happen quite often to me and maybe to you?!

I have found that it’s very important to equip myself with encouragement and truth.

That way I can usually navigate my way back to a positive, uplifting place.

p.s. There is a free printable version of these quotes at the end of the post. You can place them around your home or just have them handy for your encouragement needs.

What You Need to Know

I want you to remember that there is nothing that can compare to a mother’s love.

And, the way you mother is exactly how you should be mothering! There is no way that is the right way or wrong way.

The way you raise and love your child takes the place of all others. Your love is the purest love and the one they need the most.

The hardest thing about being a mom is that sometimes we get so busy with taking care of everyone around us, that we forget to take care of ourselves.

It’s important to have the tools you need (like encouraging quotes for moms) at the ready.

So, when you feel like you’re not doing a great job.

You can read these quotes and remember you are a

• a fearless mother
• a strong mother

So, you can have words of encouragement right when you need them!

If this helps you in any way please pass it along to another mom. Let’s make encouraging moms the norm instead of guilting or judging each other.

100 Encouraging Quotes for Moms

 1. “This too shall pass…for real, it will!”

This is absolutely my most favorite encouragement!

There are so many times since becoming a mom that I have felt like whatever moment I was in was going to last forever and the truth is that it won’t.

I especially felt like this when my son was a newborn and I had no idea what I was doing, like really, no idea!!

I especially, especially felt like this when I was getting no sleep.

I’m a girl who needs her sleep, so during this time I held onto these words tightly…This too shall pass! Interpreted as I will sleep again and guess what I did. Here is how we finally got our baby to sleep through the night!

2. “Sometimes the strength of motherhood is greater than natural laws.” -Barbara Kingsolver

This is such a great reminder of the strength of the heart of a mother. Don’t ever underestimate the impact and power you have! Even when you don’t feel like it.

3. “I really saw clearly, and for the first time, why a mother is really important. Not just because she feeds and also loves and cuddles and even mollycoddles a child, but because in an interesting and maybe an eerie and unworldly way, she stands in the gap. She stands between the unknown and the known.” -Maya Angelou

What an important place we get to stand in for our families, the gap. To connect the part of life that feel disconnected.

4. “My mother’s gifts of courage to me were both large and small. The latter are woven so subtly into the fabric of my psyche that I can hardly distinguish where she stops and I begin.” – Maya Angelou

I can see this as proof in my own life, can’t you?! You’re doing something and thin, “this is totally something my mom would do. 

5. “Successful mothers are not the ones who never struggled. They are the ones that never give up, despite their struggles.” -Sharon Jaynes

Yes!!! I think it’s some how comforting to know you are not the only one that is struggling. 

Literally everyone has their own struggles. It’s how you handle them that matters most!

6. “Rest easy, real mothers. The very fact that you are worrying about being a good mom means that you are already one.” -Jodi Picoult

Doesn’t this just take a load off!? The thought that you care enough to worry makes you a great mom! And you are!

7. “We should no longer allow a mother to be defined as “just a mom”. It is on her back that great nations are built.” – Oprah Winfrey

Preach. it. Oprah!!! I have never wanted to hug Oprah more in my life. 

You are not JUST anything!

You are strong, courageous, brave and you are changing your child’s whole world!

8. “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

As a new mom and heck a woman it’s so easy to be intimidated by others. This verse especially helped me in my early nursing days.

On one occasion I mustered up enough courage to breastfeed in public. That is if you consider a bath room stahl public, but nonetheless it was a brave moment for me.

While I was sitting on the toilet nursing my newborn a scornful voice seeped through my stahl door. In a disgusted tone a lady said, “are you breastfeeding in there?!?!”

I answered yes…

and she went on to berate me and tell me how selfish I was to occupy a stahl for breastfeeding.

I just sat there feeling totally inferior and intimidated and I did it.

I gave her the power.

But in reality NO ONE can intimidate you unless you let them. I often wish that would happen again because I’m pretty sure I would handle that situation with a little more gusto these days.

Related: The Day I was Shamed for Breastfeeding

9. “There’s no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one.”  – Jill Churchill

This is such a relief to read. You don’t have to be perfect…no one is! 

10. “The fastest way to break the cycle of perfectionism and become a fearless mother is to give up the idea of doing it perfectly – indeed to embrace uncertainty and imperfection.” – Arianna Huffington

Some of the most beautiful moment as a mother is the moments of imperfection and what you can learn from those moments.

11. “There’s something really empowering about going, ‘Hell, I can do this! I can do this all!’ That’s the wonderful thing about mothers, you can because you must, and you just DO.” – Kate Winslet

YES!!! I remember feeling so powerful when I went hiking while wearing my son in my Ergo carrier for the first time. I felt like a super hero!

12. “The truth is, when our mothers held us, rocked us, stroked our heads -none of us ever got enough of that. We all yearn in some way to return to those days when we were completely taken care of – unconditional love, unconditional attention. Most of us didn’t get enough.” – Mitch Albom

13. “When you look into your mother’s eyes, you know that is the purest love you can find on this earth.” – Mitch Albom

14. “Motherhood: all love begins and ends there.” – Robert Browning

15. “A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.” -Washington Irving

16. “God Handpicked YOU to be your child’s mom, so you are the only perfect one for the job.”

Yes, yes, yes!!! There were/are days that I feel like I am not a good mom (and I so badly want to be). But, then I have to remind myself of the truth. God chose me to be the mom to my 3 children, so that means that there is NOBODY else on earth that could do a better job.

Even the funniest, prettiest, smartest woman in the world because God didn’t choose her for my children. He chose me and He chose you for your sweet little ones!

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

18. My mom and I have always been really close. She’s always been the friend that was always there. – Taylor Swift

19. “Being a mom has made me so tired. And so happy.” – Tina Fey

20. “Everyone of us needs to show how much we care for each other and, in the process, care for ourselves.” – Princess Diana

21. “I don’t go by the rule book. I lead from the heart, not the head.” – Princess Diana

22. “I will fight for my children on any level so they can reach their potential as human beings, and in their public duties.” – Princess Diana

23. “A mother’s arms are more comforting than anyone else’s.” – Princess Diana

24. “The most important work you and I will do will be within the walls of our own homes.” – Harold B. Lee

25. “God created you to do amazing things.”

You are no accident, it is not an accident that you are the mother to your child. You are here to be amazing in your own unique way.

This is another verse that I guard myself with when the lies come pouring in. I am special and God made me to do amazing things! And guess what lady, He did the same for you.

You and I have a unique fingerprint, a unique voice and personality that no one else has and that is exactly what the world and your child needs…YOU!

26. “When I get up and work out, I’m working out just as much for my girls as I am for me, because I want them to see a mother who loves them dearly, who invests in them, but who also invests in herself. It’s just as much about letting them know as young women that it is OK to put yourself a little higher on your priority list.”  – Michelle Obama

I think about this a lot when I’m working out or struggling to work out with my kids. As one of them is clinging to my leg and the other is asking for a refill on snacks, haha.

I try to remind myself that they see me doing something for myself, to make myself stronger and better for them! 

27. “After I came out [of the hospital], I had a stomach, but I thought, This is kind of cool. I have a stomach because the baby was there.” – Serena Williams

28. 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

29. “A mother is your first friend, your best friend, your forever friend.” – Amit Kalantri

30. “Having kids—the responsibility of rearing good, kind, ethical, responsible human beings—is the biggest job anyone can embark on.” —Maria Shriver

31. “[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

 32. “Motherhood was the great equalizer for me; I started to identify with everybody.” —Annie Lennox

33. “Once you’re a mom, you’re always a mom. It’s like riding a bike, you never forget.” – Taraji P. Henson

34.”I have not failed. I have just come up with 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

This has served as a great reminder for me since becoming a mom because I legit feel like I have found the 10,000 ways that won’t work.

This especially applies to my baby food making attempts. It’s crazy how something as innocent sounding as this can get in your head and make you feel like a failure when it doesn’t work out as planned. You can read more about it here.

The summarized version is that I end up ruining my months supply of homemade baby food with one mistake and I felt like I failed in my attempt to provide for my son.

This quote reminds me that I’m not failing, I’m just finding ways that won’t work. So, I just need to dust myself and move on. After all, nothing great can come out of harping on mistakes.

35. “Mother is a verb. It’s something you do. Not just who you are.” – Cheryl Lacey Donovan

36.”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

37. “There was never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him to sleep.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

38. “My mother was my role model before I even knew what that word was.” – Lisa Leslie

39.“A mother is not a person to lean on, but a person to make leaning unnecessary.” —Dorothy Canfield Fisher

40.”Personally, I’ve always known that I wanted to go back to work because I’m confident, and I’m certain that my daughter will have a better mother in me if I’m doing the things that I’m excited about and that I’m passionate about.” – Lisa Ling

41.“Having children just puts the whole world into perspective. Everything else just disappears.” – Kate Winslet

42.“Youth fades; love droops; the leaves of friendship fall; a mother’s secret hope outlives them all.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes

43.“A mother’s love liberates.” —Maya Angelou

44. “To be a mother you must be strong. Even if you don’t feel it, you must pretend.” – Sade Adu

Fake it till you make it baby! 

45.“I know how to do anything—I’m a mom.” —Roseanne Barr

46. “Being a single parent is twice the work, twice the stress and twice the tears but also twice the hugs, twice the love and twice the pride.” -Simply Well Balanced

47.“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

48.The only love that I really believe in is a mother’s love for her children.” —Karl Lagerfeld

49.“Being a mama can be tough, but always remember in the eyes of your child, no one does it better than you.” – unknown

Absolutely! To your child you are the most amazing person in the world! Even if they don’t always treat you that way! 

50.“I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” – Philippians 4:13

51. We are born of love; love is our mother.” —Rumi

52.“We either make ourselves miserable or make ourselves strong. Either way, the amount of work is the same.” -Carlos Castenada

53. “It’s not easy being a mom. If it were easy, fathers would do it.” -Betty White

54.“I think moms, single or not, put a lot of pressure on ourselves trying to balance it all. It’s NEVER going to be perfectly balanced—the sooner you know this, the sooner you can relieve some of the pressure you put on yourself.” -Denise Richards

55. “There is no rule book to motherhood. You get to choose the best path for your family.” -Every Day Above Dirt

56. “The best thing I’ve learned about being a mom: You just do the very best you can with all your heart and soul and might as well forget perfection because it ain’t gonna happen!” – Oprah Winfrey

57.“Whether your pregnancy was meticulously planned, medically coaxed, or happened by surprise, one thing is certain—your life will never be the same.” – Catherine Jones

58.”A mother is she who can take the place of all others but whose place no one else can take.” – Cardinal Meymillod

59.”A child’s first teacher is its mother.” – Peng Liyuan

60.”Mother’s love is peace. It need not be acquired, it need not be deserved.” – Erich Fromm

61.“The fastest way to break the cycle of perfectionism and become a fearless mother is to give up the idea of doing it perfectly—indeed to embrace uncertainty and imperfection.” – Arianna Huffington

62. “Mom’s need to put their own needs higher on the priority list because you can’t pour from an empty cup.” – Every Day Above Dirt

(free printable at the bottom of this page: 9 Life Giving Quotes for Moms

63. Don’t let your struggle become your identity.- Joshua Hook

64. All mothers are working mothers.-Author Unknown

65. Parenting is the easiest thing in the world to have an opinion about but the hardest thing in the world to do– Matt Walsh

66. “In the end…I am the only one who can give my children a happy mother who loves life.” —Janene Wolsey Baadsgaard

67. “Men are what their mothers made them.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

You are so important to your boys (and of course your girls). They are looking to you to see how women should act, speak and live. 

You have the opportunity to show them the strength of a woman!

68. “The hand that rocks the cradle usually is attached to someone who isn’t getting enough sleep.” —John Fiebig

69. You can be a mess and a good mom, you’re allowed to be both.– Unknown

70. “Call your mother. Tell her you love her. Remember, you’re the only person who knows what her heart sounds like from the inside.” —Rachel Wolchin

71.”For when a child is born the mother also is born again.” – Gilbert Parker

72. “No matter what you’re going through, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.” — Demi Lovato.

73. “Take a deep breath; it’s just a bad day, not a bad life.” – unknown

74. “The mother’s heart is the child’s schoolroom.” – Henry Ward Beecher

75. Being a mother is not about what you gave up to have a child, but what you gained by having one.-Sunny Gupta

76. “There will be times you are sent into stormy seas to discover you can walk on water.” – unknown

77. “Don’t let your dreams be dreams.” — Jack Johnson.

Don’t forget your own dreams. You don’t have to sacrifice your dreams just because you’re a mom. If anything, being a mom can cause you to dream even more.

Your children need to see you dream, so they’ll know they can dream too!

78. “Finding balance as a mother means accepting your imperfections.” – Mary Organizes.

79.”You don’t take a class; you’re thrown into motherhood and learn from experience.” – Jennie Finch

80. “I am sure that if the mothers of various nations could meet, there would be no more wars.” – E.M. Forster

81. “The work of a mother is hard, too often unheralded work. Please know that it is worth it then, now, and forever.” – Jeffrey R. Holland

82. “God could not be everywhere, and therefore he made mothers.” – Rudyard Kipling

83. “My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute my success in life to the moral, intellectual, and physical education I received from her.” – George Washington

84. “Mother is the heartbeat in the home; and without her, there seems to be no heartthrob.” – Leroy Brownlow

85. “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

86. “The joy of motherhood comes in moments. There will be hard times and frustrating times. But amid the challenges, there are shining moments of joy and satisfaction.” – M. Russell Ballard

87. “Motherhood is the exquisite inconvenience of being another person’s everything.” – Unknown

88. “Love as powerful as your mother’s for you leaves its own mark. … To have been loved so deeply … will give us some protection forever.” – J. K. Rowling

89 “Mothers and 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

90. “To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power.” – Maya Angelou

91. “A mother understands what a child does not say.” —Jewish proverb

92. “When you’re in the thick of raising your kids by yourself, you tend to keep a running list of everything you think you’re doing wrong. I recommend taking a lot of family pictures as evidence to the contrary.”f   – Connie Schultz

93. “A mother is always the beginning. She is how things begin.” – Unknown

94. “There will be so many times you feel like you’ve failed, but in the eyes, heart, and mind of your child, you are super mom.” – Stephanie Precourt

95. “Mother is one to whom you hurry when you are troubled.” – Emily Dickinson

96. “The art of mothering is to teach the art of living to children.” – Elaine Heffner

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

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

99. “I have found being a mother has made me emotionally raw in many situations. Your heart is beating outside your body when you have a baby.” – Kate Beckinsale

100. “A mother’s love is everything. It is what brings a child into this world. It is what molds their entire being. When a mother sees her child in danger, she is literally capable of anything. Mothers have lifted cars off of their children and destroyed entire dynasties. A mother’s love is the strongest energy known to man.” – Jamie McGuire

The way you talk to yourself, what you put into your mind has an enormous impact on your day and your well being. That’s why encouragement is such a big deal to me. I hope there have been words that resonated with you and that you feel encouraged!

Encouraging Resources for Mom

Free Printable version of Be Encouraged

Free Printable of 9 life giving quotes for moms

If you’re like me and you need more encouragement and affirmation check out 31 Days of Printable Affirmations. It’s amazing what putting positive thoughts in your mind can do for your attitude and well being.

I’ll comment on some of the quotes but some I’ll just let speak for themselves!

I sincerely hope that you are encouraged and reminded just how important you are when you get to the end of this post.