Best quotes on father, aphorisms, ideas, maxims and proverbs by various and famous writers, artists and authors on fathers. A hearty tribute to our dear dads.
Father! – to God himself we cannot give a holier name.
William Wordsworth
That he delights in the misery of others no man will confess, and yet what other motive can make a father cruel?
Joseph Addison
When my father worked I spent little time with him. Then he got sick and so we spent several hours a day together. Then in the end he died and now we are inseparable.
Carl William Brown
Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
Exodus 20:12
Do not bandy words with your father, nor treat him as a dotard, nor reproach the old man, who has cherished you, with his age.
Aristophanes
Dad, your guiding hand on my shoulder will remain with me forever.
Author Unknown
A father is always making his baby into a little woman. And when she is a woman he turns her back again.
Enid Bagnold
When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.
Mark Twain
If the relationship of father to son could really be reduced to biology, the whole earth would blaze with the glory of fathers and sons.
James Baldwin
Those who have never had a father can at any rate never know the sweets of losing one. To most men the death of his father is a new lease of life.
Samuel Butler
Death freed my father from his evils and unfortunately imprisoned me even more in mine.
Carl William Brown
Those who have never had a father can at any rate never know the sweets of losing one. To most men the death of his father is a new lease of life.
Samuel Butler
As fathers commonly go, it is seldom a misfortune to be fatherless; and considering the general run of sons, as seldom a misfortune to be childless.
Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield
The father who does not teach his son his duties is equally guilty with the son who neglects them.
Confucius
If the new American father feels bewildered and even defeated, let him take comfort from the fact that whatever he does in any fathering situation has a fifty percent chance of being right.
Bill Cosby
At home my father always read the newspaper, which is why perhaps I developed this habit of writing against stupidity.
Carl William Brown
I believe that what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments, when they aren’t trying to teach us. We are formed by little scraps of wisdom.
Umberto Eco
Be kind to thy father, for when thou were young, who loved thee so fondly as he? He caught the first accents that fell from thy tongue, and joined in thy innocent glee.
Margaret Courtney
What a dreadful thing it must be to have a dull father.
Mary Mapes Dodge
Noble fathers have noble children.
Euripides
My father always observed the laws, but he never cared to look at those who did not observe them. These were the two biggest flaws of him.
Carl William Brown
The place of the father in the modern suburban family is a very small one, particularly if he plays golf, which he usually does.
Bertrand Russell
You know, fathers just have a way of putting everything together.
Erika Cosby
To a father growing old nothing is dearer than a daughter.
Euripides
I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father’s protection.
Sigmund Freud
To be a successful father… there’s one absolute rule: when you have a kid, don’t look at it for the first two years.
Ernest Hemingway
I bet that none of us has ever wanted to come into the world, and probably even Jesus didn’t really want to, he was forced to, in fact it was his father who sent him.
Carl William Brown
One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters.
George Herbert
There are fathers who do not love their children, but there is no grandfather who does not adore his grandson.
Victor Hugo
Sons have always a rebellious wish to be disillusioned by that which charmed their fathers.
Aldous Huxley
My father didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.
Clarence Budington Kelland
No love is greater than that of a father for His son.
Dan Brown
A man who is not a father to his children can never be a real man.
Mario Puzo
A father’s tears and fears are unseen, his love is unexpressed, but his care and protection remains as a pillar of strength throughout our lives.
Ama H. Vanniarachchy
When I was small I felt like a Superhero as my father threw me up in the air. Now after reaching this success peak I unmask – Real Superhero made me Superhero!
Hasil Paudyal
His father watched him across the gulf of years and pathos which always must divide a father from his son.
John Marquand
There’s something like a line of gold thread running through a man’s words when he talks to his daughter, and gradually over the years it gets to be long enough for you to pick up in your hands and weave into a cloth that feels like love itself.
John Gregory Brown
A man knows when he is growing old because he begins to look like his father.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
My daddy, he was somewhere between God and John Wayne.
Hank Williams, Jr.
My father always tells me I’m not tired of calling everyone an idiot, but I tell him it’s my favorite pastime.
Carl William Brown
One never knows anything about one’s father. A father … is a passageway immersed in the deepest darkness, where we stumble blindly seeking a way out.
Roberto Bolaño
When one has not had a good father, one must create one.
Friedrich Nietzsche
In the minds of women, fatherhood used to be considered a part-time job. It was something men did at the end of the day between parking the car for the night and going to bed.
Erma Bombeck
The mania for destruction was instilled in me from an early age, my father in fact built weapons and on Santa Lucia day I always wanted guns and rifles as gifts.
Carl William Brown
Being a father … I can’t help feeling that, by comparison with being a mother, being a father is a rather abstract business.
J. M. Coetzee
I stopped loving my father a long time ago. What remained was the slavery to a pattern.
Anais Nin
The worst misfortune that can happen to an ordinary man is to have an extraordinary father.
Austin O’Malley
He who is taught to live upon little owes more to his father’s wisdom than he who has a great deal left him does to his father’s care.
William Penn
You will find that if you really try to be a father, your child will meet you halfway.
Robert Brault
Why are men reluctant to become fathers? They aren’t through being children.
Cindy Garner
I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.
Harry S. Truman
My sisters and I can still recite Dad’s grilling rules: Rule No. 1: Dad is in charge. Rule No. 2: Repeat Rule No. 1.
Connie Schultz
He has always provided me a safe place to land and a hard place from which to launch.
Chelsea Clinton
Any man can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a dad.
Anne Geddes
It is not flesh and blood but the heart which makes us fathers and sons.
Friedrich Schiller
Men are generally more careful of the breed of their horses and dogs than of their children.
William Penn
We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow. Our wiser sons, no doubt will think us so.
Alexander Pope
A father is a banker provided by nature.
French Proverb
A man’s desire for a son is usually nothing but the wish to duplicate himself in order that such a remarkable pattern may not be lost to the world.
Helen Rowland
The fundamental defect with fathers is that they want their children to be a credit to them.
Bertrand Russell
I was born three times; the first when my mother bore me, the second when I became Carl William Brown, the third when my father died. The only problem is that I have always been born dead.
Carl William Brown
It doesn’t matter who my father was; it matters who I remember he was.
Anne Sexton
My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me.
Jim Valvano
When a father gives to his son, both laugh; when a son gives to his father, both cry.
William Shakespeare
You don’t raise heroes, you raise sons. And if you treat them like sons, they’ll turn out to be heroes, even if it’s just in your own eyes.
Walter M. Schirra, Sr
The difference between a ‘man’ and a ‘father’ is that the former shares his genes, but latter gives his life.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
Any man can be a Father it takes someone special to be a Dad.
Author Unknown
My father is no longer here, but his spirit lives in me, and therefore he is still alive, except that I am already dead.
Carl William Brown
My dad, like any coach, has always stressed the fundamentals. He taught me responsibility, accountability, and the importance of hard work.
Steve Young
Becoming a man means doing the right thing even though it may be hard or difficult. Boys do what is easiest. A man does what is right, whether easy or not.
Carew Papritz
Never raise your hand to your kids. It leaves your groin unprotected.
Red Buttons
Being a great father is like shaving. No matter how good you shaved today, you have to do it again tomorrow.
Reed Markham
Fatherhood is the best thing that could happen to me, and I’m just glad I can share my voice.
Dwayne Wade
My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, “You’re tearing up the grass.” “We’re not raising grass,” Dad would reply. “We’re raising boys.”
Harmon Killebrew
A father is neither and anchor to hold us back nor a sail to take us there but a guiding light whose love shows us the way.
Unknown
Whenever one of my children says, ‘Goodnight, Daddy,’ I always think to myself, ‘You don’t mean that.
Jim Gaffigan
Having children is like living in a frat house – nobody sleeps, everything’s broken, and there’s a lot of throwing up.
Ray Romano
It is a wise father that knows his own child.
William Shakespeare
The hardest part about parenting is when I have to be The Dad–aka the Fun-Sucker–as opposed to being a friend.
James Patterson
It is obvious that for those who believe in the miraculous gifts of Padre Pio, including that of the gift of ubiquity or leavening, speaking of logic, common sense and sterile humanity is an operation of extreme and naive stupidity.
Carl William Brown
My father must have had some elementary education for he could read and write and keep accounts inaccurately
George Bernard Shaw
An unforgiving eye, and a damned disinheriting countenance!
Richard Brinsley Sheridan
That is the thankless position of the father in the family — the provider for all, and the enemy of all.
August J. Strindberg
An angry father is most cruel toward himself.
Publilius Syrus
What harsh judges fathers are to all young men!
Terence
Fathers do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
The Holy Bible Ephesians 6:4
In peace the sons bury their fathers, but in war the fathers bury their sons.
Author Unknown
One night a father overheard his son pray: Dear God, Make me the kind of man my Daddy is. Later that night, the Father prayed, Dear God, Make me the kind of man my son wants me to be.
Author Unknown
Onomatopoeic aphorism. Praise be to Padre Pio; pio, pio, pio, cheep, cheep, cheep, meow, meow, meow, cri, cri cri…
Carl William Brown
The affection of a father and a son are different: The father loves the person of the son, and the son loves the memory of his father.
Author Unknown
The best gift a father can give to his son is the gift of himself – his time. For material things mean little, if there is not someone to share them with.
Author Unknown
Behind every great man is a man greater, his father.
Habeeb Akande
Fathers and daughters have a special bond. She is always daddy’s little girl.
Richard L. Ratliff
Two little girls, on their way home from Sunday school, were solemnly discussing the lesson. “Do you believe there is a devil?” asked one. “No,” said the other promptly. “It’s like Santa Claus: it’s your father.”
Nebelspalter (Zurich, Switzerland)
A good father is one of the most unsung, unpraised, unnoticed, and yet one of the most valuable assets in our society.
Billy Graham
Love and fear. Everything the father of a family says must inspire one or the other.
Joseph Joubert
The father who would taste the essence of his fatherhood must turn back from the plane of his experience, take with him the fruits of his journey and begin again beside his child, marching step by step over the same old road.
Angelo Patri
The words that a father speaks to his children in the privacy of home are not heard by the world, but, as in whispering-galleries, they are clearly heard at the end and by posterity.
Jean Paul Richter
A father is always making his baby into a little woman. And when she is a woman he turns her back again.
Enid Bagnold
The amount of time we give to something indicates its importance to us.
Jim George
There are many famous people who thank Padre Pio for saving them from painful misfortunes; However, I have never been able to understand which saints should be thanked for sending them.
Carl William Brown
Dad, I know you’ve loved me as long as I’ve lived; but I’ve loved you my whole life.
Unknown
To her, the name of father was another name for love.
Fanny Fern
My Dad is my hero.
Harry Connick, Jr.
My dad was my best friend and greatest role model. He was an amazing dad, coach, mentor, soldier, husband and friend.
Tiger Woods
By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he’s wrong.
Unknown
When my father didn’t have my hand….he had my back.
Linda Poindexter
There’s no shame in fear, my father told me, what matters is how we face it.
George R. R. Martin
Dad, your guiding hand on my shoulder will remain with me forever.
Author Unknown
Any man can be a father. It takes someone special to be a dad.
Author Unknown
I love my father as the stars – he’s a bright shining example and a happy twinkling in my heart.
Terri Guillemets
It no longer bothers me that I may be constantly searching for father figures; by this time, I have found several and dearly enjoyed knowing them all.
Alice Walker
A father carries pictures where his money used to be.
Author Unknown
Freud thought the child tends to fall in love with the mother and be jealous of the father, this is the idea of his famous Oedipus complex. But let’s assume we find ourselves in the presence of a tender homosexual!
Carl William Brown
My father, when he went, made my childhood a gift of a half a century.
Antonio Porchia
Fatherhood is pretending the present you love most is soap-on-a-rope.
Bill Cosby
Fathers should be neither seen nor heard. That is the only proper basis for family life.
Oscar Wilde
The American father is never seen in London. He passes his life entirely in Wall Street and communicates with his family once a month by means of a telegram in cipher.
Oscar Wilde
I think my mom put it best. She said, ‘Little girls soften their daddy’s hearts.
Paul Walker
The father who has selflessly poured himself into the life of his children may leave no other monument than that of his children. But as for a life well lived, no other monument is necessary.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
There should be a children’s song: ‘If you’re happy and you know it, keep it to yourself and let your dad sleep.
Jim Gaffigan
Even when I finished my first book, my father preferred to continue reading the newspaper, and I continued to write against stupidity.
Carl William Brown
I don’t care how poor a man is; if he has family, he’s rich.
M*A*S*H, Colonel Potter
Daddy, a Son’s first hero and daughter’s first love.
Unknown
He didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.
Clarence Budington Kelland
Your father’s not young when your small is he, he’s not any age, he’s more a power.
Caryl Churchill
My father taught me that the only way you can make good at anything is to practice, and then practice some more.
Pete Rose
A father is a man that has two or more souls to save or lose.
Austin O’malley
A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty.
Author Unknown
During the sole argument we had when [Chelsea] was in high school, the subject of which I don’t even remember, I looked at her and said, ‘As long as you’re in this house, being president is my second most important job.
Bill Clinton
Blessed indeed is the man who hears many gentle voices call him father!
Lydia M. Child
Sometimes the poorest man leaves his children the richest inheritance.
Ruth E. Renkel
There is probably no more terrible enlightenment than the one in which you discover your father is a man–with human flesh.
Frank Herbert
The older I get, the smarter my father seems to get.
Tim Russert
Dad, you’re someone to look up to no matter how tall I’ve grown.
Author Unknown
My father used to say that it’s never too late to do anything you wanted to do. And he said, ‘You never know what you can accomplish until you try.
Michael Jordan
Fathers are the geniuses of the house because only a person as intelligent as we could fake such stupidity.
Bill Cosby
A Father dosen’t tell you that he loves you. He shows you.
Demitri The Stoneheart
A father’s smile has been known to light up a child’s entire day.
Susan Gale
Son, brother, father, lover, friend. There is room in the heart for all the affections, as there is room in heaven for all the stars.
Victor Hugo
We looked up to our father. He still is much greater than us.
Wynton Marsalis
A woman can take care of the family. It takes a man to provide structure. To provide stability. Not that a woman can’t provide stability, I’m not saying that… It does take a father, though.
Tom Delay
The greatest gift I ever had came from God; I call him Dad!
Anonymous
My father established our relationship when I was seven years old. He looked at me and said, “You know, I brought you in this world, and I can take you out. And it don’t make no difference to me, I’ll make another one look just like you.”
Bill Cosby
To the WORLD you are a dad. To our FAMILY, you are the world.
Unknown
It is much easier to become a father than to be one.
Kent Nerburn
You know how it is with fathers, you never escape the idea that maybe after all they’re right.
John updike
Old as she was, she still missed her daddy sometimes.
Gloria Naylor
Sons are for fathers the twice-told tale.
Victoria Secunda
Fathers represent another way of looking at life — the possibility of an alternative dialogue.
Louise J. Kaplan
There are three stages of a man’s life: He believes in Santa Claus, he doesn’t believe in Santa Claus, he is Santa Claus.
Author Unknown
It Is Hard For Many People To Give Up The Religion In Which They Were Born; To Admit That Their Fathers Were Utterly Mistaken, And That The Sacred Records Of Their Country Are But Collections Of Myths And Fables.
Robert Green Ingersoll
At the gambling table, there are no fathers and sons.
Chinese Proverb
When I was young, my father was lord Of a small kingdom: a wife, a garden, Kids for whom his word was Word. It took years for my view to harden, To shrink him to human size.
Tracy K. Smith
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Reflections and thoughts on the father
