Short answer
A Mother's Day card quote is one or two lines a sender writes above a signature. Sources for these lines fall into three groups: public domain poetry, lines from films and songs, and lines written by card companies. Mother's Day in the United States falls on the second Sunday in May. The date is May 10 in 2026 and May 9 in 2027.
The holiday began as a US campaign led by Anna Jarvis. Woodrow Wilson issued the proclamation in 1914 that set the second Sunday in May as the national date.
Before you copy a line, check three things: the author, the date, and the copyright status.
Public domain lines
These lines come from works published before 1930. The authors died more than 70 years ago. A card shop can print them. You can print them at home.
- "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways." Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnets from the Portuguese, 1850.
- "A mother is a mother still, / The holiest thing alive." Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Three Graves.
- "Mother o' mine, O mother o' mine!" Rudyard Kipling.
- "Youth fades; love droops; the leaves of friendship fall; / A mother's secret hope outlives them all." Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
Attributions that do not hold
Two lines appear on cards and posters with a famous name attached.
- "God could not be everywhere, and therefore he made mothers." Often credited to Rudyard Kipling. Reference works list it as a Jewish proverb.
- "A mother's love is the fuel that enables a normal human being to do the impossible." Credited to Marion C. Garretty. No primary source records the line.
Copyright limits
US copyright has expired on works published before 1930. Song lyrics and film lines from later years stay under copyright. A short phrase is safe to write by hand. A full verse or chorus is not. Card publishers license lyrics and pay a fee for each print run.
Card numbers
The Greeting Card Association ranks Mother's Day third among US card-sending holidays, behind Christmas and Valentine's Day. The National Retail Federation put US Mother's Day spending at $33.5 billion in 2024. The average per person was $254.04.
Write a line with no quote
Use one task, one place, and one number. Keep the line between 8 and 12 words. Example: "You drove to violin practice every Tuesday for six years." The detail does the work.
Mothering Sunday
In the UK, Mothering Sunday falls on the fourth Sunday of Lent. The date lands in March or April. It began as a church visit to the mother church of a parish. UK cards carry that date, not the US date.