Dear Readers: Happy Mother's Day! Below are some beautiful quotes and tributes written about mothers.

Dear Annie: My mother is the voice of all reason. Any time I am facing a difficult decision, I go straight to her with the confidence of knowing I am getting smart, rational, helpful advice. Her unconditional love and support have given me the fearlessness to take risks and put myself in situations that are new and, at times, uncomfortable. I really look up to my mom, and I hope to one day embody the work ethic, the love and the enthusiasm for life that she has modeled for me since I was a child. — Grateful Daughter

Dear Annie: My mother was not a "traditional mother." I can assure you there were no milk and cookies waiting for me and my sister after school. But through her hard work and tough love she taught me that I could do and be anything in the world. She gave me strong roots to depend on and wings to fly out of the nest. — Thankful

"Mothers hold their children's hands for a short while, but their hearts forever." — Unknown

"To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power. Or the climbing, falling colors of a rainbow." — Maya Angelou

"If I look back at everything I've done in life, you're easily the best thing I've ever created." — Unknown

"Being a mama can be tough, but always remember in the eyes of your child, no one does it better than you." — Unknown

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

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

"I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life." — Abraham Lincoln

"Men are what their mothers made them." — Ralph Waldo Emerson

"I am sure that if the mothers of various nations could meet, there would be no more wars." — E.M. Forster

"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

"The influence of a mother in the lives of her children is beyond calculation." — James E. Faust

"A man loves his sweetheart the most, his wife the best, but his mother the longest." — Irish proverb

"Youth fades; love droops; the leaves of friendship fall; A mother's secret hope outlives them all." — Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Whatever else is unsure in this stinking dunghill of a world a mother's love is not." — James Joyce

"My mother said the cure for thinking too much about yourself was helping somebody who was worse off than you." — Sylvia Plath, "The Bell Jar"

"Grown don't mean nothing to a mother. A child is a child. They get bigger, older, but grown. In my heart it don't mean a thing." — Toni Morrison

"God could not be everywhere and therefore he made mothers." — Rudyard Kipling

"The simple path: Silence is prayer, prayer is faith, faith is love, love is service, the fruit of service is peace." — Mother Teresa

Motherhood is amazing, really challenging, miraculous and everything in between. So hold onto each moment.

"How Can I Forgive My Cheating Partner?" is out now! Annie Lane's second anthology — featuring favorite columns on marriage, infidelity, communication and reconciliation — is available as a paperback and e-book. Visit http://www.creatorspublishing.com for more information. Send your questions for Annie Lane to [email protected].

Photo credit: pixel2013 at Pixabay