By profession, I am a soldier and take pride in that fact. But I am prouder — infinitely prouder — to be a father. A soldier destroys in order to build; the father only builds, never destroys. The one has the potentiality of death; the other embodies creation and life. And while the hordes of death are mighty, the battalions of life are mightier still. It is my hope that my son, when I am gone, will remember me not from the battle field but in the home repeating with him our simple daily prayer, ‘Our Father who art in Heaven.’ – Douglas Macarthur

A man never stands as tall as when he kneels to help a child. – Knights of Pythagoras

I felt something impossible for me to explain in words. Then, when they took her away, it hit me. I got scared all over again and began to feel giddy. Then it came to me… I was a father. – Nat King Cole

To her the name of father was another name for love. – Fanny Fern

I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father’s protection. – Sigmund Freud

Babies don’t need fathers, but mothers do. Someone who is taking care of a baby needs to be taken care of. – Amy Heckerling

To a father growing old, nothing is dearer than a daughter. –Euripides

It doesn’t matter who my father was; it matters who I remember he was. – Anne Sexton

Certain is it that there is no kind of affection so purely angelic as of a father to a daughter. In love to our wives there is desire; to our sons, ambition; but to our daughters there is something which there are no words to express. – Joseph Addison

The country clubs, the cars, the boats – your assets may be ample, but the best inheritance you can leave your kids is to be a good example. – Barry Spilchuk

Until you have a son of your own… you will never know the joy, the love beyond feeling that resonates in the heart of a father as he looks upon his son. You will never know the sense of honor that makes a man want to be more than he is and to pass something good and hopeful into the hands of his son. And you will never know the heartbreak of the fathers who are haunted by the personal demons that keep them from being the men they want their sons to be. – Kent Nerburn

A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother. – Proverbs 10:1

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. – Proverbs 22:6

We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow. Our wiser sons, no doubt will think us so. – Alexander Pope

That is the thankless position of the father in the family… the provider for all, and the enemy of all. – J. August Strindberg

You fathers will understand. You have a little girl. She looks up to you. You’re her oracle. You’re her hero. And then the day comes when she gets her first permanent wave and goes to her first real party, and from that day on, you’re in a constant state of panic. – Stanley T. Banks (Father of the Bride)

Lucky that man whose children make his happiness in life and not his grief, the anguished disappointment of his hopes. – Euripedes

Children have more need of models than critics. – Joseph Joubert

All fathers are invisible in daytime; daytime is ruled by mothers and fathers come out at night. Darkness brings home fathers, with their real, unspeakable power. There is more to fathers than meets the eye. – Margaret Atwood (Cat’s Eyes)

It is impossible to please all the world and one’s father. – Jean de La Fontaine

My son, a perfect little boy of five years and three months, had ended his earthly life. You can never sympathize with me; you can never know how much of me such a young child can take away. A few weeks ago I accounted myself a very rich man, and now the poorest of all. – Ralph Waldo Emerson (on the death of his son)

There must always be a struggle between a father and son, while one aims at power and the other at independence. – Samuel Johnson

Fathers do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. – Ephesians 6:4

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father who is in Heaven give good things to them that ask Him? – Matthew 7:11

It is a wise father that knows his own child. – William Shakespeare (English Dramatist, Playwright and Poet, 1564-1616)

By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he’s wrong. — Charles Wadsworth

Those who trust us educate us. – T.S. Eliot

The place of the father in the modern suburban family is a very small one, particularly if he plays golf. — Bertrand Russell (English Logician and Philosopher 1872-1970)

It’s only when you grow up, and step back from him, or leave him for your own career and your own home – it’s only then that you can measure his greatness and fully appreciate it. Pride reinforces love. – Margaret Truman

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 the old man had learned in seven years. — Mark Twain (“Old Times on the Mississippi” Atlantic Monthly, 1874)

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, (Decorations in a Ruined Cemetery)

I’ve had a hard life, but my hardships are nothing against the hardships that my father went through in order to get me to where I started. — Bartrand Hubbard

Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table. – Psalms 128:3

By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right – he usually has a son who thinks he’s wrong! – Charles Wadsworth

The father who does not teach his son his duties is equally guilty as the son who neglects them. – Confucius

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

And, ye fathers – provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. – Ephesians 6:4

In peace the sons bury their fathers, but in war the fathers bury their sons. — Croesus

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

One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters. – George Herbert (English metaphysical Poet and Clergyman, 1593-1633)

Sometimes the poorest man leaves his children the richest inheritance. – Ruth E. Renkel

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 (American Baseball Player, b.1936)

Father! – To God himself we cannot give a holier name. – William Wordsworth

Blessed indeed is the man who hears many gentle voices call him father! – Lydia M. Child

Love and fear – Everything the father of a family says must inspire one or the other. – Joseph Joubert

A man knows when he is growing old because he begins to look like his father. – Gabriel García Márquez

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

“Who giveth this woman?” This woman? But she’s not a woman. She’s still a child. And she’s leaving us. What’s it going to be like to come home and not find her? Not to hear her voice calling, “Hi, Pops” as I come in? I suddenly realized what I was doing. I was giving up Kay. Something inside me began to hurt. – Stanley T. Banks (Father of the Bride)

Father I cannot tell a lie. I did it with my little hatchet. — George Washington

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

I watched a small man with thick calluses on both hands work fifteen and sixteen hours a day. I saw him once literally bleed from the bottoms of his feet, a man who came here uneducated, alone, unable to speak the language, who taught me all I needed to know about faith and hard work by the simple eloquence of his example. – Mario Cuomo

Henry James once defined life as that predicament which precedes death, and certainly nobody owes you a debt of honor or gratitude for getting him into that predicament. But a child does owe his father a debt, if dad, having gotten him into this peck of trouble, takes off his coat and buckles down to the job of showing his son how best to crash through it. — Clarence Budington Kelland

Of all nature’s gifts to the human race, what is sweeter to a man than his children? – Cicero (106-43 BC)

Fathers are men who give daughters away to other men who aren’t nearly good enough…so they can have grandchildren who are smarter than anybody’s. – Paul Harvey

Happy is the father whose child finds his attempts to amuse it, amusing. – Robert Lynd

It is much easier to become a father than to be one. – Kent Nerburn (Letters to My Son: Reflections on Becoming a Man, 1994)

Mommy would never divorce Daddy. He’s just like one of the family. – Bill Keane

My father taught me to be independent and cocky and free thinking, but he could not stand it if I disagreed with him. – Sara Maitland

My father, when he went, made my childhood a gift of a half a century. – Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

My father didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it. – Clarence Budington Kelland

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

I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain. – John Adams

 

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

When a father gives to his son, both laugh; when a son gives to his father, both cry.  –  William Shakespeare

Fathers, like mothers, are not born. Men grow into fathers – and fathering is a very important stage in their development. – David M. Gottesman

It is easier for a father to have children than for children to have a real father.  – Pope John XXIII

By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he’s wrong.  – Charles Wadsworth

A father is always making his baby into a little woman. And when she is a woman he turns her back again.  –  Enid Bagnold

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father who is in Heaven give good things to them that ask him?  – Matthew 7:11

It is not flesh and blood but the heart which makes us fathers and sons. –  Johann Schiller

My father considered a walk among the mountains as the equivalent of churchgoing. – Aldous Huxley (English Novelist & Critic, 1894-1963)

A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother. – Proverbs 10:1

Henry James once defined life as that predicament which precedes death, and certainly nobody owes you a debt of honour or gratitude for getting him into that predicament. But a child does owe his father a debt, if Dad, having gotten him into this peck of trouble, takes off his coat and buckles down to the job of showing his son how best to crash through it. – Clarence Budington Kelland

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.  – Proverbs 22:6

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.” – Ladies’ Home Journal (quoted in 2,715 One-Line Quotations for Speakers, Writers & Raconteurs by Edward F. Murphy)

Every father should remember that one day his son will follow his example instead of his advice. – Anonymous

My father was often angry when I was most like him. – Lillian Hellman (American Playwright, 1905-1984)

Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table.  –  Psalms 128:3

A Dad is someone you never outgrow your need for. – Unknown

A Dad is someone to look up to no matter how tall you’ve grown. –Unknown

Sherman made the terrible discovery that men make about their fathers sooner or later… that the man before him was not an aging father but a boy, a boy much like himself, a boy who grew up and had a child of his own and, as best he could, out of a sense of duty and, perhaps love, adopted a role called ‘Being a Father’ so that his child would have something mythical and infinitely important: a Protector, who would keep a lid on all the chaotic and catastrophic possibilities of life. – Tom Wolfe (The Bonfire of the Vanities)

Children learn to smile from their parents. – Shinichi Suzuki (Japanese violinist and teacher who introduced millions of children to his “Suzuki Method”, 1898-1998)

My finger may be small but I can still wrap my Daddy around it. – Unknown

We never know the love of our parents for us till we have become parents. – Henry Ward Beecher (Liberal US Congregational Minister, 1813-1887)

There is no place higher than on Daddy’s shoulders. – Unknown

Dad – a son’s first hero, a daughter’s first love. – Unknown

My father hated radio and could not wait for television to be invented so he could hate that too. – Peter De Vries (American Comic, Editor, Novelist, Satirist and Linguist, 1910-1993)

There’s a bathroom in heaven for the father of girls. — Unknown

I’m as lucky as can be, for the world’s best dad belongs to me. – Unknown

A father is neither an anchor to hold us back, nor a sail to take us there, but a guiding light whose love shows us the way. — Unknown

My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person – he believed in me. –Unknown

Becoming a father is easy enough, but being one can be very rough. – Wilhelm Busch (German painter and poet, 1832-1908)

I never had a chance to choose the man to be my Dad – But I sure thank my lucky stars for the taste my Mother had. – Unknown

My dad always used to tell me that if they challenge you to an after-school fight, tell them you won’t wait – you can kick their ass right now. – Cameron Diaz (American Actress, b. 1972)

A Dad is your biggest fan, even when you strike out. — Unknown

Dad, your guiding hand on my shoulder will remain with me forever. – Unknown

“I am indebted to my father for living, but to my teacher for living well.” — Alexander the Great

The Strength of a Man:– isn’t seen in the width of his shoulders, it’s  seen in the width of his arms that circle you;

– isn’t in the deep tone of his voice, it’s in the gentle words he whispers;

– isn’t how many buddies he has, it’s how good a buddy he is with his kids;

– isn’t in how respected he is at work, it’s in how respected he is at home;

– isn’t in how hard he hits, it’s in how tender he touches;

– isn’t in the hair on his chest, it’s in his heart…that lies within his chest;

– isn’t in how many women he’s loved, it’s in how he can be true to one woman;

– isn’t in the weight he can lift, it’s in the burdens he carries. – Unknown

Dad makes the decisions – and Mum tells him if he’s right. –Unknown

A loving father teaches by example precious lessons that his children learn by heart. – Unknown

The Measure of a Father – A man is loved not for how tall he stands but for how often he bends to help, comfort and teach. – Unknown

The greatest gift I ever had came from God, and I call him Dad! — Anonymous

Dad thank you for your nurturing light, for the wisdom of your laughter, and all the joy you bring us. — Unknown

What’s all this fuss about fathers being present at the birth of their children? The way events are shaping, they’ll be lucky to be present at the conception. – George H Davies

We are so peculiarly constituted that it is easier to be a large hero than a small martyr: a father would willingly risk his life to save his child from a burning building, but not give up his afternoon of golf to take the child to the zoo. Yet it is the small sacrifices, multiplied many times, that give love more meaning than the heroic gesture in a crisis. — Unknown

You tickled my toes….checked for monsters, showed me the stars….And taught me how to reach them…I love you Dad. — Unknown

You’ve taught me so much – I’ve watched how you live, how you chase after life. You inspire me to greater things – Dad you are my inspiration. — Unknown

‘Honour thy father and thy mother’ stands written among the three laws of most revered righteousness.” – Aeschylus

Life doesn’t come with an instruction book; that’s why we have fathers. – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

~12~

God made you my DAD – LOVE made me your FRIEND. – Unknown

Daddy, some day I will meet my prince charming but you will always be my king! – Unknown

A father is someone who can take the place of all others, but whose place no one else can take. — Unknown

A daddy is a man who has photos in his wallet where his money used to be. — Unknown

My Hero (Poem): As I ponder the love that I saw in his eyes, a Godly love, given without compromise – I recall many times that he stood by my side, and prodded me on with great vigor and pride. His voice ever confident, firm and yet fair, always speaking with patience, tenderness and care. The power and might of his hands was so sure, I knew there was nothing we couldn’t endure. It’s true, a few others provided insight, yet he laid the foundation that kept me upright. He’s the grandest of men to have lived on this earth, although he’s not royal by stature or birth. He’s a man of great dignity, honor and strength. His merits are noble, and of admirable length. He’s far greater than all other men that I know, he’s my Dad, he’s my mentor, my friend and hero. – Debbie Hinton Young

Dad knows best, but no one listens. — Unknown

You must know that there is nothing higher and stronger and more wholesome for life in the future than some good memory, especially a memory of childhood, of home…For if a man has only one good memory left in his heart – even that may keep him from evil. – Dostoevsky (from The Brothers Karamazov)

Happiness is having a Dad like you. — Unknown

Many things can wait. Children cannot… To them we cannot say ‘tomorrow.’ Their name is today. – Gabriela Mistral (Chilean poet)

Any man can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a Daddy! – Unknown

~13~

I talk and talk and talk, and I haven’t taught people in 50 years what my father taught by example in one week. – Mario Cuomo

Be kind to thy father, for when thou wert 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

A king, realizing his incompetence, can either delegate or abdicate his duties. A father can do neither. If only sons could see the paradox, they would understand the dilemma. – Marlene Dietrich

One father is better at caring for ten children than ten children are for one father  – Unknown

My dad has always taught me these words: care and share. That’s why we put on clinics. The only thing I can do is try to give back. If it works, it works. – Tiger Woods (American Golfer, b. 1975)

Daddy — A daddy and his daughters, walking hand in hand. Though he can’t spend much time with them, They say they understand.

When he’s at work or on a trip, the memory of him lingers, The two girls smile, they know they have him wrapped around their fingers.

A slight tilt of their pretty heads, a smile, a lowered glance, a hug and kiss and, “Daddy please?” He doesn’t stand a chance!

In later years he will recall, with tenderness and love, Two charming girls, with hands in his, Two blessings from above. – Unknown

The joys of parents are secret, and so are their griefs and fears. – Francis Bacon, Sr. (English lawyer and philosopher, 1561-1626)

Dads are special, especially mine. – Unknown

He wants to live on through something – and in his case, his masterpiece is his son. All of us want that, and it gets more poignant as we get more anonymous in this world. – Arthur Miller (American Playwright, 1915-2005)

If you know his father and grandfather you may trust his son. –  Moroccan proverb

A father is a source of strength, a teacher & a guide, the one his family looks up to with loving trust and pride… A father is a helper with a willing hand to lend, a partner, an advisor, and the finest kind of friend. A Father means so many things… an understanding heart, a source of strength and of support right from the very start – a constant readiness to help in a kind and thoughtful way, with encouragement and forgiveness no matter what comes your way. A special generosity and always affection, too – a father means so many things when he’s a man like you. – Unknown

Come mothers and fathers throughout the land, and don’t criticize what you can’t understand – Bob Dylan (American folksinger, b.1941)

For rarely are sons similar to their fathers: most are worse, and a few are better than their fathers. – Homer

When Charles first saw our child Mary, he said all the proper things for a new father. He looked upon the poor little red thing and blurted, ‘She’s more beautiful than the Brooklyn Bridge.’ – Helen Hayes

If the past cannot teach the present and the father cannot teach the son, then history need not have bothered to go on, and the world has wasted a great deal of time. – Russell Hoban

Lucky that man whose children make his happiness in life and not his grief, the anguished disappointment of his hopes. – Euripedes

Fifth Commandment: Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. – Exodus 20:12

You don’t have to deserve your mother’s love. You have to deserve your father’s. He’s more particular. – Robert Frost

Father asked us, ‘What was God’s noblest work?’ Anna said, ‘men’, but I said, ‘babies’. Men are often bad, but babies never are. – Louisa May Alcott

Every mother generally hopes that her daughter will snag a better husband than she managed to do…but she’s certain that her boy will never get as great a wife as his father did. – Anonymous

I don’t know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be. – Abraham Lincoln

A new father quickly learns that his child invariably comes to the bathroom at precisely the times when he’s in there, as if he needed company. The only way for this father to be certain of bathroom privacy is to shave at the gas station. – Bill Cosby

My father always used to say that when you die, if you’ve got five real friends, you’ve had a great life. – Elbert Hubbard

The father of a daughter is nothing but a high-class hostage. A father turns a stony face to his sons, berates them, shakes his antlers, paws the ground, snorts, runs them off into the underbrush, but when his daughter puts her arm over his shoulder and says, ‘Daddy, I need to ask you something,’ he is a pat of butter in a hot frying pan. – Garrison Keillor

Life was a lot simpler when what we honored was father and mother rather than all major credit cards. – Robert Orben

My father said, ‘Politics asks the question: Is it expedient? Vanity asks: Is it popular? But conscience asks: Is it right?’ – Dexter Scott King

My father always told me, ‘Find a job you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.’ – Jim Fox

When I was a kid, I said to my father one afternoon, ‘Daddy, will you take me to the zoo?’ He answered, ‘If the zoo wants you, let them come and get you.’ – Jerry Lewis

The thing to remember about fathers is, they’re men. A girl has to keep it in mind: They are dragon seekers, bent on improbable rescues. Scratch any father, you find someone chock full of qualms and romantic terrors, believing change is a threat like your first shoes with heels on, like your first bicycle It took such months to get. – Phyllis McGinley

Honor thy father and thy mother. – Matthew 19:19

A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty. – Unknown

A man’s children and his garden both reflect the amount of weeding done during the growing season. – Unknown

My father died many years ago, and yet when something special happens to me, I talk to him secretly not really knowing whether he hears, but it makes me feel better to half believe it. – Natasha Josefowitz

Small boy’s definition of Father’s Day: It’s just like Mother’s Day only you don’t spend so much. – Unknown

A wise son maketh a glad father. – Proverbs 10:1

My father taught me to work; he did not teach me to love it. – Abraham Lincoln

Father taught us that opportunity and responsibility go hand in hand. I think we all act on that principle; on the basic human impulse that makes a man want to make the best of what’s in him and what’s been given him. – Laurence Rockefeller

Love matches, so called, have illusion for their father and need for their mother. – Friedrich Nietzche

I just owe almost everything to my father [and] it’s passionately interesting for me that the things that I learned in a small town, in a very modest home, are just the things that I believe have won the election. – Margaret Thatcher

For thousands of years, father and son have stretched wistful hands across the canyon of time, each eager to help the other to his side, but neither quite able to desert the loyalties of his contemporaries. The relationship is always changing and hence always fragile; nothing endures except the sense of difference. – Alan Valentine

I’ve learned that a father’s blessing can fill a son’s soul to the brim. – Kelly Tobey

Sundays too my father got up early and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold, then with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather made banked fire blazes. No one ever thanked him. – Robert Hayden

Sometimes you struggle so hard to feed your family one way you forget to feed them the other way, with spiritual nourishment. Every body needs that. – James Brown

Certain is it that there is no kind of affection so purely angelic as of a father to a daughter. In love to our wives there is desire; to our sons, ambition; but to our daughters there is something which there are no words to express. – Joseph Addison

My father instilled in me the attitude of prevailing. If there’s a challenge, go for it. If there’s a wall to break down, break it down. – Donny Osmond

If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? – Hebrews 12:7

Every father expects his boy to do the things he wouldn’t do when he was young. – Kin Hubbard

My father taught me that the only way you can make good at anything is to practice, and then practice some more. – Pete Rose

My father had always said there are four things a child needs: plenty of love, nourishing food, regular sleep, and lots of soap and water. After that, what he needs most is some intelligent neglect.  – Ivy Baker Priest

The most assiduous task of parenting is to divine the difference between boundaries and bondage. – Barbara Kingsolver

The greatest gifts my parents gave to me…were their unconditional love and a set of values. – Colin Powell

He that hath knowledge spareth his words: and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit. – Proverbs 17:27

The debt of gratitude we owe our mother and father goes forward, not backward. What we owe our parents is the bill presented to us by our children. – Nancy Friday

When I was a boy I used to do what my father wanted. Now I have to do what my boy wants. My problem is: When am I going to do what I want? – Sam Levenson

When I was a kid, my father told me every day, ‘You’re the most wonderful boy in the world, and you can do anything you want to.’  – Jan Hutchins

Reading to children at night, responding to their smiles with a smile, returning their vocalizations with one of your own, touching them, holding them – all of these further a child’s brain development and future potential, even in the earliest months. – T. Berry Brazelton

Only by being permitted to experience the consequences of his actions will the child acquire a sense of responsibility; and within the limits marked by the demands of his safety this must be done. –Robert Lindner

How true Daddy’s words were when he said, ‘All children must look after their own upbringing.’ Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a [child’s] character lies in their own hands. – Anne Frank

Our children give us the opportunity to become the parents we always wished we’d had. – Louise Hart

Never do for a child what he is capable of doing for himself. –Elizabeth G. Hainstock

My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me. – Jim Valvano

Fathers Are Wonderful People (Poem): Fathers are wonderful people, too little understood, and we do not sing their praises as often as we should… for, somehow, Father seems to be the man who pays the bills, while Mother binds up little hurts and nurses all our ills… and Father struggles daily to live up to “his image” as protector and provider and “hero of the scrimmage” – and perhaps that is the reason we sometimes get the notion, that fathers are not subject to the thing we call emotion. But if you look inside Dad’s heart, where no one else can see, you’ll find he’s sentimental and as “soft” as he can be… but he’s so busy every day in the gruelling race of life, he leaves the sentimental stuff to his partner and his wife… but Fathers are just wonderful in a million different ways, and they merit loving compliments and accolades of praise… For the only reason Dad aspires to fortune and success is to make the family proud of him and to bring them happiness, and like our Heavenly Father, he’s a guardian and a guide, someone that we can count on to be always on our side. – Helen Steiner Rice

Fathers do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. – Ephesians 6:4

Children thrive when parents set before them increasingly difficult, but always meetable, challenges. – Unknown

A man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and the two become one flesh. – The Holy Bible

Many men can make a fortune, but very few can build a family. – J.S. Bryan

Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them. – James Baldwin

I’ve learned that a father’s blessing can fill a son’s soul to the brim. – Kelly Tobey

It’s not the fishin’… It’s the time together. – Author Unknown

My grandfather always said that living is like licking honey off a thorn. – Louis Adamic

His heritage to his children wasn’t words or possessions, but an unspoken treasure, the treasure of his example as a man and a father. – Will Rogers Jr.

When our kids are young, many of us rush out to buy a cute little baby book to record the meaningful events of our young child’s life…but I’ve often thought there should be a second book, one with room to record the moral milestones of our child’s lives. – Fred G. Gosman

Dads are stone skimmers, mud wallowers, water wallopers, ceiling swoopers, shoulder gallopers, upsy-downsy, over-and-through, round-and-about whoosers. Dads are smugglers and secret sharers. – Helen Thomson

I’ve had a hard life, but my hardships are nothing against the hardships that my father went through in order to get me to where I started. – Bartrand Hubbard

A father is someone you look up to no matter how tall you grow. – Author Unknown

Children have more need of models than of critics. – Joseph Joubert

Cannot we let [children] be themselves, and enjoy life in their own way? You are trying to make another you. One’s enough. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is my pleasure that my children are free and happy, and unrestrained by parental tyranny. Love is the chain whereby to bind a child to its parents. – Abraham Lincoln

What causes adolescents to rebel is not the assertion of authority but the arbitrary use of power, with little explanation of the rules and no involvement in the decision-making. – Laurence Steinberg and Ann Levine

Of course there were areas of safety; nothing could get at me if I curled up on my father’s lap, holding his ear with one thumb tucked into it… All about him was safe. – Naomi Mitchison

Dads don’t need to be tall and broad-shouldered and clever. Love makes them so. – Pam Brown

The best thing I ever saw was a man who loved his wife. – Paul McCartney

Because children see parents as authority figures and gods, they think that the way you treat them is the way they deserve to be treated: ‘What you say about me is what I am’ is a literal truth to your child. Consequently, when children are treated with respect, they conclude that they deserve respect and hence develop self-respect. – Stephanie Marston

If there is anything we wish to change in our children, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves. – Carl G. Jung

Let your child be the teenager he or she wants to be, not the adolescent you were or wish you had been. – Laurence Steinberg and Ann Levine

There must always be a struggle between a father and son, while one aims at power and the other at independence. – Samuel Johnson

It is admirable for a man to take his son fishing, but there is a special place in heaven for the father who takes his daughter shopping. – John Sinor

Men learn while they teach. – Seneca

Of course my father was a great influence on me. He taught me how to read. – Michael Foot

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

Sometimes the poorest man leaves his children the richest inheritance. – Ruth E. Renkel

If all the fathers in the world held out their hand in friendship, yours is the one I’d hold. – Author Unknown

Life doesn’t come with an instruction book; that’s why we have fathers. – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Small boys become big men through the influence of big men who care about small boys. – Anonymous

When a father gives to his son, both laugh; when a son gives to his father, both cry. – Jewish Proverb

When I measure myself I always use Dad as a guide. – Author Unknown

You know, fathers just have a way of putting everything together. – Erika Cosby

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. – Unknown

The first man a little girl falls in love with is her Dad. – Author Unknown

Sherman made the terrible discovery that men make about their fathers sooner or later… that the man before him was not an aging father but a boy, a boy much like himself, a boy who grew up and had a child of his own and, as best he could, out of a sense of duty and, perhaps love, adopted a role called ‘Being a Father’ so that his child would have something mythical and infinitely important: a Protector, who would keep a lid on all the chaotic and catastrophic possibilities of life. – Tom Wolfe, The Bonfire of the Vanities

Live so that when your children think of fairness and integrity, they think of you. – H. Jackson Brown, Jr

The great man is he who does not lose his child’s heart. – Mencius

The greatest gift I ever had came from God, and I call him Dad! – Anonymous

Train up a child in the way which he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it – Proverbs 22:6

His heritage to his children wasn’t words or possessions, but an unspoken treasure, the treasure of his example as a man and a father. – Will Rogers Jr.

I love my father as the stars – he’s a bright shining example and a happy twinkling in my heart. –  Adabella Radici

Fatherhood is pretending the present you love most is “soap-on-a-rope.” – Bill Cosby

When a man has done his best, has given his all, and in the process supplied the needs of his family and his society, that man has made a habit of succeeding. – Mack R. Douglas

Parents are often so busy with the physical rearing of children that they miss the glory of parenthood, just as the grandeur of the trees is lost when raking leaves. – Marcelene Cox

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

Small boys become big men through the influence of big men who care about small boys. – Anonymous

It is not flesh and blood but the heart which makes us fathers and sons. – Johann Schiller

The worst misfortune that can happen to an ordinary man is to have an extraordinary father. – Austin O’Malley

Doubly rich is the man still boyish enough to play, laugh and sing as he carries and emanates sunshine along a friendly road. – Charles R. Wiers

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

Take more pleasure in giving what is best to another than in having it for yourself, and then all the world will love you. – Thomas Jefferson

You will find that if you really try to be a father, your child will meet you halfway. – Robert Brault

Sons are for fathers the twice-told tale. – Victoria Secunda, Women and Their Fathers, 1992

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

A child is not likely to find a father in God unless he finds something of God in his father. – Glen Wheeler

What do I owe my father? Everything! – Henry Van Dyke

Noble fathers have noble children. – Euripides

A father should never make distinctions between his children. – Author Unknown

Dad, your guiding hand on my shoulder will remain with me forever. – Author Unknown

It’s not the fishin’… It’s the time together. – Author Unknown

50 years from now, God willing, three old people will still be here. Oh, I mean they’ll look old, but they won’t be, really. In thinking of me, they’ll be again what they are to me now – my adored children – and I will then be alive to them, too. – Andrew Bolt

A father’s words are like a thermostat that sets the temperature in the house. – Paul Lewis

For many little girls, life with father is a dress rehearsal for love and marriage. – David Jeremiah

It may be hard on some fathers not to have a son, but it is much harder on a boy not to have a father. – Sara Gilbert

Nothing I’ve ever done has given me more joys and rewards than being a father to my children. – Bill Cosby

Every dad is the family role model, whether he wants the job or not. – Dennis Rainey

Words have an awesome impact. The impressions made by a father’s voice can set in motion an entire trend of life. – Gordon MacDonald

I want to see my children grow up to enjoy some fundamental privileges: to communicate, to be understood, and to be able to make friends easily. – Paul Roos

Someone once said to me, ‘enjoy your kids when you’re young because they only get worse!’ How wrong they were. I have as much fun with my kids now that they’re adults as I did when they were little. I appreciate their sense of humour, the way they think and how they approach different issues. – David Koch

Like father, like son: every good tree maketh good fruits. – William Langland

… We can either grace our children, or damn them with unrequited wounds which never seem to heal … men, as fathers you have such power! – R Kent Hughes

There is no more vital calling or vocation for men than fathering. – John R Throop

Dad, when you come home at night with only shattered pieces of your dreams, your little one can mend them like new with two magic words – “Hi, Dad!” – Alan Beck

My dad and I hunted and fished together. How could I get angry at this man who took the time to be with me? – James Dobson

A good father reflects the love of the heavenly Father. – Unknown

Unless a father accepts his faults he will most certainly doubt his virtues. – Hugh Prather

To be successful in the family the father must have the welfare of each family member at heart and his decisions and plans must be based upon what is best for them. – Helen Andelin

It takes time to be a good father. It takes effort – trying, failing, and trying again. – Tim Hansel

Children desperately need to know – and to hear in ways they understand and remember – that they’re loved and valued by mom and dad. – Gary Smalley and Paul Trent

The more a child becomes aware of a father’s willingness to listen, the more a father will begin to hear. – Gordon MacDonald

When these parenting years have passed, something precious will have flickered and gone out of my life. Thus, I am resolved to enjoy every day that remains in this fathering era. – James Dobson

Many a father wishes he were strong enough to tear a telephone book in two – especially if he has a teenage daughter. – Guy Lombardo

A father is a person who is forced to endure childbirth without an anaesthetic. – Robert C Savage

The guys who fear becoming fathers don’t understand that fathering is not something perfect men do, but something that perfects the man. The end product of child-raising is not the child, but the parent. – Frank Pittman

There is no better example on earth than a father who leads his children in the paths of righteousness. – Unknown

Every father is a hero in the eyes of his children. – Unknown

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 Schirra Sr.

Life affords no greater responsibility, no greater privilege, than the raising of the next generation. – C Everett Koop

Children are poor men’s riches. – English Proverb

As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them. – Psalm 127:4-5 KJV

The notion of responsibility is at the crux of true fatherhood. The conscious sense of responsibility for the physical and spiritual well-being of others is the mark of a true father. – Clayton Barbeau

It behoves a father to be blameless if he expects his child to be. – Homer

As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him. – Psalm 103:13 NIV

Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value. – Albert Einstein

Can’t you see the Creator of the universe, who understands every secret, every mystery, sitting patiently and listening to a four-year-old talk to Him? That’s a beautiful image of a father. – James Dobson

Being a real father to your children is one job that no one else can ever do as well as you. Good fathers deserve their full share of top praise, for they are helping to build the loftiest cathedrals in the universe – young hearts and minds that are learning how to make this world a better place in which to live. – John E Crawford

You don’t need to be right all the time. Your child wants a man for a father, not a formula. He wants real parents, real people, capable of making mistakes without moping about it. – C D Williams

My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline and do not resent His rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those He loves, as a father the son he delights in. – Proverbs 3:11-12 NIV

My father is the standard by which all subsequent men in my life have been judged. – Kathryn McCarthy Graham

Authentic men aren’t afraid to show affection, release their feelings, hug their children, cry when they’re sad, admit it when they’re wrong, and ask for help when they need it. – Charles Swindoll

Fathering is a marathon, not a sprint. – Paul L Lewis

Life’s journey is circular it appears. The years don’t carry us away from our fathers – they return us to them. – Michel Marriott

I can remember playing under the big wooden desk in his office. My mother didn’t like us to chew gum, so we’d go into his office, and he’d feed us gum under the desk. – John F Kennedy Jr

If your children want to alter society, listen to their reasons and the idealism behind them. Don’t crush them with some clever remark straight away. – Prince Charles

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My Father when I was… 4 years old: My daddy can do anything.

5 years old: My daddy knows a whole lot.

6 years old: My dad is smarter than your dad.

8 years old: My dad doesn’t know exactly everything.

10 years old: In the olden days when my dad grew up, things were different.

12 years old: Oh, well, naturally, Father doesn’t know anything about that – he is too old to remember his childhood.

14 years old: Don’t pay attention to my father – he is so old-fashioned!

21 years old: Him? My Lord, he’s hopelessly out-of-date.

25 years old: Dad knows a little bit about it, but then he should because he has been around so long.

30 years old: Maybe we should ask Dad what he thinks – after all, he’s had a lot of experience.

35 years old: I’m not doing a single thing until I talk to Dad.

40 years old: I wonder how Dad would have handled it – he was so wise and had a world of experience.

50 years old: I’d give anything if Dad were here now so I could talk this over with him – too bad I didn’t appreciate how smart he was, I could have learned a lot from him. – Unknown