quotes, quotations and passages on fathers

Any man can be a father,
but it takes a special person to be a dad.

Proverb

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 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

He opened the jar of pickles when no one else could. He was the only one in the house who wasn't afraid to go into the basement by himself. He cut himself shaving, but no one kissed it or got excited about it. It was understood when it rained, he got the car and brought it around to the door. When anyone was sick, he went out to get the prescription filled. He took lots of pictures. . . but he was never in them. Erma Bombeck My father didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it. Clarence Budington Kelland

Every dad, if he takes time out of his busy life to reflect upon his fatherhood, can learn ways to become an even better dad. Jack Baker

Being a great father is like shaving. No matter how good
you shaved today, you have to do it again tomorrow.

Reed Markham

A Father's Old Home Movies and 8mm Film Transfer:
Dad's 8mm home movie clips transferred to digital
How to update home movies with 8mm film transfer
How to load an 8mm projector to watch home movies
Preserve memories by converting 8mm film to digital

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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

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

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

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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

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

Robert Brault

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

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

That is the thankless position of the father in the family--
the provider for all, and the enemy of all.

J. August Strindberg

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

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

David M. Gottesman

A dad is someone who wants to catch you before you fall but
instead picks you up, brushes you off, and lets you try again.

A dad is someone who wants to keep you from making mistakes
but instead lets you find your own way, even though his
heart breaks in silence when you get hurt.

A dad is someone who holds you when you cry, scolds you
when you break the rules, shines with pride when you succeed,
and has faith in you even when you fail.

unattributed

I talk and talk and talk, and I haven't taught people in fifty
years what my father taught by example in one week.

Mario Cuomo

He didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.

Clarence Budington Kelland

One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters.

George Herbert

4 years: My Daddy can do anything!
7 years: My Dad knows a lot…a whole lot.
8 years: My father does not know quite everything.
12 years: Oh well, naturally Father does not know that either.
14 years: Oh, Father? He is hopelessly old-fashioned.
21 years: Oh, that man--he is out of date!
25 years: He knows a little bit about it, but not much.
30 years: I must find out what Dad thinks about it.
35 years: Before we decide, we will get Dad's idea first.
50 years: What would Dad have thought about that?
60 years: My Dad knew literally everything!
65 years: I wish I could talk it over with Dad once more.

unattributed

mothers

It is easier for a father to have children than for children to have a real father.

Pope John XXIII

It is a wise father that knows his own child.

William Shakespeare