[I]t takes a bad woman to be a good godmother.

There be foure good mothers have foure bad daughters: Trueth hath Hatred; Prosperity hath Pride; Security hath Perill; and Familiarity hath Contempt.

Long, long ago; her thought was of that child
By him begot, the son by whom the sire
Was murdered and the mother left to breed
With her own seed, a monstrous progeny.
Then she bewailed the marriage bed whereon
Poor wretch, she had conceived a double brood,
Husband by husband, children by her child.

Good souls have born better sons, Better souls born worse ones. Paint the black hole blacker...

... [I]t is our being bad brothers and sisters that leads us to be bad fathers and mothers, not our having bad fathers and mothers that has made us bad brothers and sisters.

Good women are no fun... The only good woman I can recall in history was Betsy Ross. And all she ever made was a flag.

For in the nobly born </br> The slightest evil taint </br> More heinous is, for they </br> Should fair example set.

A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.

Fathers, do not let your sons forget

Do not let your sons forget
where their essence was just formed,
when their bodies were most vulnerable,
they were protected by the womb of a woman.

If they ever call all women weak,
remind them of the strength of their mother
who pulled her whole body apart
to give theirs a home.

Some parents, especially those who have many children from different wives, may reject a bad son, a master may reject a wicked servant, a wife may go so far as to abandon a bad husband, but a mother can never, never reject her son. If he is convicted, she will be condemned alongside him.

A good mother grows into a richly eutrophic old woman, knowing that her work doesn’t end until she creates a home where all of life’s beings can flourish. There are grandchildren to nurture, and frog children, nestlings, goslings, seedlings, and spores, and I still want to be a good mother.

To be a good mother — a woman must have sense, and that independence of mind which few women possess who are taught to depend entirely on their husbands. Meek wives are, in general, foolish mothers; wanting their children to love them best, and take their part, in secret, against the father, who is held up as a scarecrow.

Translation: Many judges and counsellors are afraid to name to their prince that excellent mother of a bad son, I mean Truth.

The best of women (I have heard my grandmother say) are hypocrites.