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Motherhood Quote by Brittany Murphy

"If I could be a third of the woman that my mom is and have a third of the strength that she has, then I will have done good by this life"

About this Quote

Ambition gets recast here as inheritance, not conquest. Brittany Murphy isn’t talking about fame, craft, or even self-actualization; she’s measuring a life against something quieter and harder: her mother’s stamina. The modest math of it - a third, a third - reads like humility, but it’s also a way of making an overwhelming standard livable. When the bar is a parent you’ve watched endure, you don’t claim you’ll match it. You ask for a fraction and make that fraction a moral target.

The intent is devotional, but the subtext is pressure. Murphy frames “strength” as the real currency, suggesting a biography where resilience mattered more than opportunity. For a young actress who came up in an industry that prizes surface and speed, the line subtly resists the usual metrics. It’s a declaration that her north star isn’t the next role, it’s character: how you hold up, what you can carry, who you become when you’re not performing.

The phrasing “done good by this life” is tellingly unglamorous, almost folkish. It shifts achievement into gratitude and obligation, as if life is something you’re in relationship with, not something you “win.” In the context of celebrity culture - where parents are often treated as backstory or baggage - Murphy centers her mother as the main text. The sentiment lands because it’s specific and unsentimental: love expressed as a practical benchmark, not a Hallmark slogan.

Quote Details

TopicMother
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Murphy, Brittany. (2026, January 16). If I could be a third of the woman that my mom is and have a third of the strength that she has, then I will have done good by this life. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-i-could-be-a-third-of-the-woman-that-my-mom-is-109847/

Chicago Style
Murphy, Brittany. "If I could be a third of the woman that my mom is and have a third of the strength that she has, then I will have done good by this life." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-i-could-be-a-third-of-the-woman-that-my-mom-is-109847/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"If I could be a third of the woman that my mom is and have a third of the strength that she has, then I will have done good by this life." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-i-could-be-a-third-of-the-woman-that-my-mom-is-109847/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

Brittany Murphy

Brittany Murphy (November 10, 1977 - December 20, 2009) was a Actress from USA.

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