How we cite our quotes: (Volume.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"Boy and man, he's the noblest, stoutest heart I ever knew. I don't care if I am his mother; I can see what's what, and not be blind." (1.9.34)
It's an understatement to say that John Thornton is the apple of his mother's eye. In her mind, the boy can really do no wrong. She knows that she feels this way because she's his mother, but still, she thinks that even on an objective level, her son's the best thing going.
Quote #5
Mr. Thornton saw her beautiful eyes lifted to her father, full of light, half-laughter and half-love, as this bit of pantomime went on between the two, unobserved, as they fancied, by any. (1.10.2)
When Mr. Thornton sees the look of love that Margaret gives to her father, he badly wishes that she could look at him this way, too. One thing that makes it especially compelling is that fact that it's totally natural, and that Margaret does it as if no one is watching.
Quote #6
The very daringness with which mother and son spoke out unpalatable truths, the one to the other, showed a reliance on the firm centre of each other's souls. (1.12.10)
Mrs. Thornton and her son aren't afraid to tell it like it is to one another. If anything, this brutal honesty is what makes them so close. You probably wouldn't get this kind of closeness between Margaret and her parents, where harsh truths need to be treated delicately.