We must never expect discretion in first love: it is accompanied by such excessive joy that unless the joy is allowed to overflow, it will choke you.
Alexandre DumasRead
For in those tacit understandings which maintain the bond of family union, the mother is really the mistress of her daughter only upon the condition of continually presenting herself to her as a model of wisdom and type of perfection.
Interpretation
What this quote means
A mother influences her daughter by being a role model of wisdom and excellence.
This quote emphasizes the crucial role a mother plays in shaping her daughter's values and character. It suggests that a mother's authority comes from embodying qualities of wisdom and perfection, which her daughter can aspire to emulate, thereby strengthening the family bond through mutual understanding and respect.
Themes
MotherDaughterFamilyWisdomRole Model
In practice
Example use cases
During a family gathering, you can share this quote to spark a discussion about the role of mothers in raising daughters.
More from Alexandre Dumas
All quotes →There are two ways of seeing: with the body and with the soul. The body's sight can sometimes forget, but the soul remembers forever.
Alexandre DumasRead
I do not often laugh, sir, as you may perceive by the air of my countenance; but nevertheless, I retain the privilege of laughing when I please.
Alexandre DumasRead
There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness.
Alexandre DumasRead
Those born to wealth, and who have the means of gratifying every wish, know not what is the real happiness of life, just as those who have been tossed on the stormy waters of the ocean on a few frail planks can alone realize the blessings of fair weather.
Alexandre DumasRead
It is the way of weakened minds to see everything through a black cloud. The soul forms its own horizons; your soul is darkened, and consequently the sky of the future appears stormy and unpromising
Alexandre DumasRead
Similar quotes
My family and I survived Hurricane Katrina in 2005; we left my grandmother's flooding house, were refused shelter by a white family, and took refuge in trucks in an open field during a Category Five hurricane. I saw an entire town demolished, people fighting over water, breaking open caskets searching for something that could help them survive.
Jesmyn WardRead
I am most anxious to give my own children enough love and understanding so that they won't grow up with an aching void in them--like you and I and Harold and Martha. That can never be filled, and one goes around all one's life trying, trying to make up for what one didn't get that was one's birthright, asking the wrong people for it.
Anne Morrow LindberghRead
I'm a dad, I'm a husband, I'm an activist, I'm a writer and I'm just a student of the world.
Michael J. FoxRead
I tell my children now that they are older, 'If something happens to me... don't make no big fuss over me. Don't make no big expense on my funeral. Don't put any pressure on the rest of the family. I've loved everybody, and I hope they loved me. But don't create this big expense for the family.'
B. B. KingRead
If you have a child, I said, you have a responsibility at least to stay alive.
Christiane AmanpourRead
There's a line I have that our family was designed more for public than for private. But there are definitely some things that are only mine. I am someone who dreams at night, and you don't know what I'm dreaming.
Carrie FisherRead