Blessed indeed is the man who hears many gentle voices call him father!
—Lydia Maria Child (1802–80) American Abolitionist, Writer
Certain it is that there is no kind of affection so purely angelic as the love of a father to a daughter. He beholds her both with and without regard to her sex.—In love to our wives, there is desire; to our sons, there is ambition; but in that to our daughters there is something which there are no words to express.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
None of you can ever be proud enough of being the child of SUCH a Father who has not his equal in this world—so great, so good, so faultless. Try, all of you, to follow in his footsteps and don’t be discouraged, for to be really in everything like him none of you, I am sure, will ever be. Try, therefore, to be like him in some points, and you will have acquired a great deal.
—Queen Victoria (1819–1901) British Royal
A father is a guy who has snapshots in his wallet where his money used to be.
—Unknown
I could not point to any need in childhood as strong as that for a father’s protection.
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian Psychiatrist, Psychoanalytic
What harsh judges fathers are to all young men!
—Terence (c.195–159 BCE) Roman Comic Dramatist
When one has not had a good father, one must create one.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
It is not flesh and blood but the heart, which makes us fathers and sons.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
A father is a banker provided by nature.
—French Proverb
To a father waxing old nothing is dearer than a daughter.—Sons have spirits of higher pitch, but less inclined to sweet, endearing fondness.
—Euripides (480–406 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
Father…knows exactly what those boys at the mall have in their depraved little minds because he once owned such a depraved little mind himself. In fact, if he thinks enough about the plans that he used to have for young girls, the father not only will support his wife in keeping their daughter home but he might even run over to the mall and have a few of those boys arrested.
—Bill Cosby (b.1937) American Actor, Comedian, Activist, Producer, Author
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 (b.1942) American Author, Humorist, Radio Personality
What a dreadful thing it must be to have a dull father.
—Mary Mapes Dodge (1831–1905) American Writer, Editor
We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow. Our wiser sons, no doubt will think us so.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
Love matches, so called, have illusion for their father and need for their mother.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
You don’t have to deserve your mother’s love. You have to deserve your father’s. He’s more particular. The father is always a Republican towards his son, and his mother’s always a Democrat.
—Robert Frost (1874–1963) American Poet
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 (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
It is impossible to please all the world and one’s father.
—Jean de La Fontaine (1621–95) French Poet, Short Story Writer
It is a wise father that knows his own child.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
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 worst misfortune that can happen to an ordinary man is to have an extraordinary father.
—Austin O’Malley (1858–1932) American Aphorist, Ophthalmologist
It is a wise child that knows his own father
—Homer (751–651 BCE) Ancient Greek Poet
It is easier for a father to have children than for children to have a real father.
—Pope John XXIII (1881–1963) Italian Catholic Religious Leader, Pope
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 (1875–1950) American Journalist, Humorist
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 (b.1939) Canadian Writer, Poet, Critic
Fathers do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
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 (1880–1964) American Military Leader
I stopped loving my father a long time ago. What remained was the slavery to a pattern.
—Anais Nin (1903–77) French-American Essayist
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 I it took such months to get.
—Phyllis McGinley (1905–78) American Children’s Writer, Poet, Children’s Books Author
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 (b.1944) American Novelist, Activist
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