― all you have to do is kill every citizen at birth and then, by God, you're left with the perfect ―

— William Marshall

Among industrialized countries, the U.S. ranks 29th in infant survival.

— Jennifer Block

A mother does not become pregnant in order to provide employment to medical people. Giving birth is an ecstatic jubilant adventure not available to males. It is a woman's crowning creative experience of a lifetime.

— John Stevenson

And then he draws the lamb in one smooth strong stroke, and slaps and rakes its wet mosslike fur to make it breathe, feels the power of its fast heartbeat in the chicken-bone cage of its ribs, still wet in his hands from the grease of birth, all these things of life, from wisdom to mucus slavered between thighs to the wet sack of birth and glistening oiled newborn thing—all of these things of life watered.

— Cynan Jones

And what agony, thought Drug the thinker, to love so madly a little creature, formed in some mysterious fashion (even more mysterious to us than it had been to the very first thinkers in their pale olive gloves) by the fusion of two mysteries, or rather two sets of a trillion of mysteries each; formed by a fusion which is, at the same time, a matter of choice and a matter of chance and a matter of pure enchantment; thus formed and then permitted to accumulate trillions of its own mysteries; the whole suffused with consciousness, which is the only real thing in the world and the greatest mystery of all.

— Vladimir Nabokov

And when I was born I drew in the common air and fell upon the earth which is of like nature and the first voice which I uttered was crying as all others do. . . For all men have one entrance into life. The Apocrypha Monday's child is fair of face Tuesday's child is full of grace Wednesday's child is full of woe Thursday's child has far to go Friday's child is loving and giving Saturday's child works hard for a living But the child born on the Sabbath day Is happy and wise and good and gay.

— Anonymous

A new collection of matter and information to present to the universe and to which it in turn will be presented; different, arguably equal parts of that great ever-repetitive, ever-changing jurisdiction of being.

— Iain M. Banks

Animals give birth to children, so that alone is not an argument strong enough to make a human a man. Otherwise, goats, dogs and pigs could beat us to the game, because they could do in one go what will take man-years to accomplish. A woman can only give birth to a number of kids at a time, in a year, while some animals could give birth to as many as tens of breeds in a year.

— Sunday Adelaja

Anything which is just born, which has just come into existence, has no past behind it. Birth, in other words, is the condition of having no past. And likewise, anything which now dies, which has just ceased to be, has no future left in front of it. Death is the condition of having no future. But we have already seen that this present moment has both no past and no future simultaneously. That is, birth and death are one in this present moment. This moment is just now being born—you can never find a past to this present moment, you can never find something before it. Yet also, this moment is just now dying — you can never find a future to this moment, never find something after it. This present, then, is a coincidence of opposites, a unity of birth and death, being and non-being, living and dying. As IPSEN put it, "Every moment is the last moment and every moment is a rebirth.

— Ken Wilber

A pregnant pause with enough gestation can give birth to a well-formed idea.

— Khang Kijarro Nguyen