By Scott Robertson
As is my wont on significant holidays, I’m turning this space over to those wiser and more eloquent than myself to share thoughts on the occasion. You may not agree with every quote on the page, (I don’t) but then again, did you agree with everything your own father said either?
Any man who says fatherhood is the greatest thing that can happen to you is understating it. – Mike Myers
Listen, there is no way any true man is going to let children live around him in his home and not discipline and teach, fight and mold them until they know all he knows. His goal is to make them better than he is. Being their friend is a distant second to this. – Victor Devlin
Much of life, fatherhood included, is the story of knowledge acquired too late. – Ben Fountain
Being a good father to our children requires a few goals:
1. Be an example of personal responsibility
2. Display self-respect
3. Be an example of personal growth, passion, and perseverance
4. Recognize and accept your child’s particular gifts and nurture them, not wish they had others
5. Love and respect your wife. – Charles Glassman
(When I became pregnant) I ignored my husband as a man. Instead, I revelled in him as a different thing altogether, far more seductive and important, and infinitely more resonant. My husband was no longer just a man: he was the father of my child. – Antonella Gambotto-Burke
The son offers the father his life as a vessel for carrying forth his father’s dream. – Tony Kushner
A few days after we came home from the hospital, I sent a letter to a friend, including a photo of my son and some first impressions of fatherhood. He responded, simply, ‘Everything is possible again.’ – Jonathan Foer
When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years. – Mark Twain
Watching your daughter being collected by her date feels like handing over a $1 million Stradivarius to a gorilla. – Jim Bishop
The kind of man who thinks that helping with the dishes is beneath him is the kind of man who thinks that helping with the baby is beneath him, and then he is certainly not going to be a very successful father. – Eleanor Roosevelt
The fundamental fault of fathers is that they want their children to be a credit to them. – Bertrand Russell
It is a wise father that knows his own child. – William Shakespeare
Leontine: As an only son, sir, I might expect a little more indulgence.
Croaker: As an only father, sir, I might expect a little more obedience. – Oliver Goldsmith
Before I got married, I had six theories on fatherhood. Now I have six children and no theories. – John Wilmot
As his father, I can show him how to be the right kind of stupid. – Nick Harkaway
He that has his father for a judge goes safe to the trial. – Cervantes
One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters. – George Herbert
My son, there may be a time when I explain these things to you, because there may be a time when I understand them. – Hanir Kureishi
No man is responsible for his father. That is entirely his mother’s affair. – Margaret Turnbull
My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could ever give another person. He believed in me. – Jim Valvano
A father is a man who expects his son to be as good a man as he meant to be. – Frank Clark
Father! To God himself we cannot give a holier name. – Wordsworth
