Bess Myerson Quotes

Parents can make us distrust ourselves. To them, we seem always to be works-in-progress.

My mom won't let anyone treat me like a little princess.

I really, really admire my parents so much, for how they raised me. They're some of the best human beings I know.

My mother was a high-strung perfectionist. She would check my homework for the slightest imperfection and demand that it be redone if she detected any flaws, which she invariably did. My father, in contrast, was easy going and affable and delighted in helping me with any project.

I was born 20 years after my eldest sister. I was the pampered child. That kind of love gives you an almost unbreakable backbone. My mother had three kids before me. She let me be completely free. I just never had anything to beat myself up over.

My mom has made it possible for me to be who I am. Our family is everything. Her greatest skill was encouraging me to find my own person and own independence.

Growing up, I wanted desperately to please, to be a good girl.

Dad was the pitching coach, while Mom was the emotional supporter. Her unconditional love was great, and she wanted what was best for me.

Until late in life, I was never quite good enough for my father, and I suppose that is part of what drives me even now, well after his death in 1992.

My mother thinks I am the best. And I was raised to always believe what my mother tells me.

I am just so thankful that my mom was a fantastic mom. She wasn't a stage mother; she didn't push me. She was happy if I was happy. We are so different. I was very shy; my mom did all the talking. She was my strength. She never expected that I would be this ballerina.

With my son, I tried not to be so judgmental and tried not to push him so hard. I didn't want him to feel that everything or that our love for him will be based on how much he has achieved.

I guess what really forms you as a person is what you do within your family to receive love or attention. In my family, what you had to do to receive attention was to have good conversation at the dinner table or for me to do well at school, and those were really my focuses because that was what was valued the most.

Every woman has a mother, and every woman will have an issue with that mother and things that mother did or didn't do. It just depends on how you choose to process the lessons that you learned from your own mother.

I looked up at my mom, and I was like, 'Well, Mom, uh, when you really think about it, C's aren't really that bad. C's are average.' And I've never seen my mom so upset, to this day. I just saw this flash of fire in her eyes, and she yelled, 'Average? You are never allowed to be average, because you look like me.'

What makes Mom the best is that she never put any expectations too high on the kids. She just wanted us to be doing the things that made us happy, as long as we were working hard, but we never had to live up to something.

I never once doubted that my parents cared about my thoughts and my ideas. And I always, always knew how deeply they loved me. That feeling of being valued and loved, that's what my mom wants for every child.

If something's not right, I don't believe in maintaining something for the sake of what's considered a traditional family, because I believe that there are different ways to raise children. It's far more effective to raise children in happy homes.

I liked the fact that my father had a lot of expectations from my brother. I probably wanted to be that person who he could be proud of.

My parents, they were just really strict on things being perfect.

I'm adopted by my uncle and aunt, who I look to as my parents and people who really did everything they could to put me on the right path. I'm really grateful to them.

I am a father who never pushes or forces his children into anything.

My dad always believed in me. He was always kind of, 'All right, buddy, if that's what you want to do...' My mom was always more of a realist.

I thank my mom... I thank God for my mom every day because I think if it wasn't for her, who knows?

It's a complicated dynamic sometimes, mothers and daughters. There's this thing of, like, 'This is a model of womanhood for you,' but yet we find so many reasons why we don't want to be like our mother.