birth quotes

Mary Antin, 1912: 

We are not born all at once, but by bits. The body first, and the spirit later; and the birth and growth of the spirit, in those who are attentive to their own inner life, are slow and exceedingly painful. Our mothers are racked with the pains of our physical birth; we ourselves suffer the longer pains of our spiritual growth.

May Sarton: 

... without darkness
Nothing comes to birth,
As without light
Nothing flowers.

Robert Frost: 

What is this talked-of mystery of birth
But being mounted bareback on the earth?