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 (1735-1826), second President of the United States and father of President John Quincy Adams
A father is always making his baby into a little woman. And when she is a woman he turns her back again. – Enid Bagnold (1889-1981), author (National Velvet), playwright and daughter of the Commander of the Royal Engineers
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 (1924-1987), gay African-American author and playwright. He never knew his biological father. He adopted the surname Baldwin from his cruel stepfather, who died in a mental hospital in 1943.
My parents have been there for me, ever since I was about seven. – David Robert Joseph Beckham (born May 2, 1975), the world’s highest-paid soccer star. The son of David Edward Alan Beckham, a kitchen fitter, and Sandra Georgina West, a hairdresser, he married the former Victoria Adams (“Posh Spice”) in 1999. They have three sons: Brooklyn, Romeo and Cruz. The names of all three sons are tattooed on Beckham’s back.
Becoming a father isn’t difficult, but it’s very difficult to be a father. – Wilhelm Busch (1832-1908), German poet, painter and the father of the comic strip
I encourage all Americans to express admiration and appreciation to fathers. – George W. Bush, President of the United States, Proclamation 8030 for Father’s Day 2006
Then spare the rod and spoil the child – Samuel Butler (1835-1902), English novelist, essayist and critic
Never raise your hand to your kids. It leaves your groin unprotected. – Red Buttons (1919-2006), actor and comedian born Aaron Chwatt
It was relatively easy for me to read the sitting president's body language after he had talked to his mother or father. Sometimes he'd ask me a probing question. And I'd think, Hmm, I don't think that question came from him. – Andrew Card Jr., White House Chief of Staff to President George W. Bush
Many a bad habit is developed through overindulgence, and many a good one by chastisement; therefore, beat your son as well as your pupil; never indulge them. – Chanakya (350 BCE - 275 BCE), Indian politician and writer
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 (born 1948), Charles Philip Arthur George, Prince of Wales, eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburg. He has two sons, Prince William of Wales and Prince Henry of Wales
I hate new fathers.... I want to tell them: Kids get hurt. Kids get sick. Kids make bad, bad choices. Don't smile at me knowingly when we pass in the park just because you can afford a really expensive European stroller. You don't have a clue. – Tom Chiarella, author, writer and English professor at DePauw University, writing in the June 2007 issue of Esquire, "How to Be a Good Father"
Blessed indeed is the man who hears many gentle voices call him ! – Lydia Maria Child (1802-1880), writer, abolitionist, women’s rights activitist
The father who does not teach his son his duties is equally guilty with the son who neglects them. – Confucius (551-479 BCE), the Socrates of the East
We really don’t rest if we think our kids are drifting, or if we think they don’t have the right work ethic. It drives us crazy. Because we ultimately want them to succeed and, until they do, we feel in some way that something is not complete. – Kevin Costner (born January 18, 1955), actor, director, producer and father of five
In peace the sons bury their fathers, but in war the fathers bury their sons. – Croesus (595-546 BCE), fifth and last king of Lydia
A stodgy parent is no fun at all. What a child wants and deserves is a parent who is sparky. – Roald Dahl (1916-1980), author and screenwriter: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, The Witches
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. – Marie Magdalene (“Marlene”) Dietrich (1901-1992), Berlin singer, Hollywood actress, international star
It would seem that something which means poverty, disorder and violence every single day should be avoided entirely, but the desire to beget children is a natural urge. – Phyllis Diller (born 1917), self-deprecating comedian born Phyllis Ada Driver, the mother of female stand-up comedy
I believe that what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments, when they aren’t trying to teach us. – Umberto Eco (born 1932), Italian novelist whose name, suggests Wikipedia, is an acronym of ex coelis oblatus (Latin: a gift from the heavens). The name was granted to his grandfather by a city official.
To an old father, nothing is more sweet Than a daughter. Boys are more spirited, but their ways And not so tender. – Euripides (480-406 BCE), father of more than 90 Greek tragedies
It is a great moment in life when a father sees a son grow taller than he or reach farther. – Richard Louis Evans (1906-1971), president of Rotary International and apostle of the Mormon Church
I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father’s protection. – Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), the father of psychoanalysis
Americans are like a rich father who wishes he knew how to give his son the hardships that made him rich. – Robert Frost (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963), Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet. His father was an unsuccessful candidate for city tax collector.
Babies don’t need fathers, but mothers do. Someone who is taking care of a baby needs to be taken care of. – Amy Heckerling (born 1954), moviemaker: Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Look Who's Talking, Look Who's Talking Too, Clueless, I Could Never Be Your Woman
My father was often angry when I was most like him. – Lillian Hellman (1905-1984), author and playwright: The Children's Hour, The Little Foxes, Toys in the Attic
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 (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961), American novelist and journalist.
The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother. – Theodore Hesburgh (born 1917), president emeritus of the University of Notre Dame
The better you are as a parent, the richer the nest you’ve built, the more difficult it is for your kids to leave. So they have to invent things to dislike about you. And they’re brilliant at it. – Dustin Hoffman (born August 8, 1937), actor, son of furniture salesman Harry Hoffman and father of six (Karina, Jenna, Jacob, Maxwell, Rebecca and Alexandra)
It is easier for a father to have children than for children to have a real father. – Pope John XXIII (1881-1963), born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, 261st pope of the Catholic Church
He didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it. – Clarence Budington Kelland (1881-1964), author of 60 novels and more than 350 short stories in 61 years of writing. From the 1920s through the 1950s, Kelland was one of the most widely read and highest paid authors in America. He is most famous today as the writer no one remembers.
There has been a succession of women’s revolutions in America. But watch out for the revolt of the father, if he should get fed up with feeding others, and get bored with being used, and lay down his tools, and walk off to consult his soul. – Maxwell Alan Lerner (1902-1992), American educator and author of fifteen books. As social critic for the New York Post, he wrote more than 6,000 columns.
Children who grow up in a household with only one biological parent are worse off, on average, than children who grow up in a household with both of their biological parents, regardless of the parent’s race or educational background. – Sara McLanahan, Princeton professor and author: Growing Up With a Single Parent, Fathers Under Fire
A man knows when he is growing old because he begins to look like his father. – Gabriel Garcia Marquez (born 1927), Latin American novelist, journalist, publisher, political activitist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature. He is the father of television and film director Rodrigo Garcia.
Motherhood is a biological fact, while fatherhood is a social invention. – Margaret Mead (1901-1978), cultural anthropologist and author of Coming of Age in Samoa
She got her looks from her father. He’s a plastic surgeon. – Julius Henry (“Groucho”) Marx (1890-1977), humorist who, along with his brothers, was pushed into comedy by his mother
How can one say ‘no’ to a child? How can one be anything but a slave to one’s own flesh and blood? – Henry Miller (1891-1980), American painter author of Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn
It is much easier to become a father than to be one. – Kent Nerburn (born 1946), author, sculptor, theologian and educator interested in Native American things
It’s no use saying do this, do that, don’t do that … it’s very easy when children want something to say no immediately. I think it’s quite important not to give an unequivocal answer at once. Much better to think it over. Then, if you eventually say no, I think they really accept it. – Prince Philip (born June 10, 1921), Duke of Edinburgh, father of Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward of England
There is a story in the Talmud about a king who had a son who had gone astray from his father. The son was told, “Return to your father.” The son said, “I cannot.” His father sent a messenger to say, “Return as far as you can, and I will come to you the rest of the way.” – last words in the film version of The Chosen by Chaim Potok, rabbi, educator and novelist
The fundamental defect with fathers is that they want their children to be a credit to them. – Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), British philosopher and social reformer. His grandfather John Russell was Prime Minister in the 1840s and 1860s, and his father John Russell, sixth Duke of Bedford, was an atheist who consented to his mother’s affair with his tutor, the biologist Douglas Spalding.
It doesn’t matter who my father was; it matters who I remember he was. – Anne Sexton (1928-1984), Pulitzer Prize-winning poet
It is a wise father that knows his own child. – William Shakespeare (1564-1616), the Bard of Avon
I won’t lie to you, fatherhood isn’t easy like motherhood. – Homer Simpson (born 1987 in the Tracey Ullman short, Good Night),
named after the show’s creator, Matt Groening’s father
Kids, just because I don't care doesn't mean I'm not listening. – Homer Simpson
I
think the saddest day of my life was when I realized I could beat my
Dad at most things, and Bart experienced that at the age of four. –Homer Simpson
It's not easy to juggle a pregnant wife and a troubled child, but somehow I managed to fit in eight hours of TV a day. – Homer Simpson
Now, son, you don’t want to drink beer. That’s for daddies, and kids with fake I.D.s. – Homer Simpson
Kids
are the best, Apu. You can teach them to hate the things you hate. And
they practically raise themselves, what with the Internet and all. – Homer Simpson
Children nowadays are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food and tyrannize their teachers. – Socrates (469-399 BCE), the Confucius of the West
That is the thankless position of the father in the family – the provider for all, and the enemy of all. – August Strindberg (1849-1912), Swedish playwright, author and painter; one of the fathers of modern theater
That’s
my dad. He was coming up in the pro-stock circuit. Last race of the
season, he was coming into the final turn when a driver named Kenny
Linder tapped his bumper and put him into the wall at a hundred and
twenty miles an hour. I watched my father burn to death. I can still
remember him screaming. The people who were there said my father died
long before the tanks blew. They said it was me that was screaming.
– Vin Diesel, speaking as Dominic Toretto in the film The Fast and the
Furious, written by Gary Scott Thompson, Erik Bergquist and David Ayer
No man is responsible for his father. That was entirely his mother’s affair. – Margaret Turnbull, astronomer
My father was an amazing man. The older I got, the smarter he got. – Mark Twain (1835-1910), the father of American literature
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 the old man had learned in seven years. – Mark Twain
Dad taught me everything I know. Unfortunately, he didn’t teach me everything he knows. – Al Unser, Jr. (born 1962), racecar driver, son of racecar driver Al
Unser, nephew of race car driver Bobby Unser and father of racecar
driver Alfred Unser
My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me. – Jim Valvano (1946-1993), American college basketball coach
By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he’s wrong. – Charles Wadsworth, pianist, musical director and father of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
One word of command from me is obeyed by millions … but I cannot get my three daughters, Pamela, Felicity and Joan, to come down to breakfast on time. – Viscount Archibald Wavell (1883-1950), field marshal and commander of British army forces during World War II
The
other night I was walking down the stairs behind one of my daughters.
I was tired, and she was goofing around, you know, like kids do, doing
all this stupid stuff on the stairs. And I was thinking, “Please just
go down the stairs and let’s get you to bed. It’s after your bedtime.
I’ve had enough for one day.” And then I sort of caught myself. I
snapped out of it. I was like, “Dude, you should be dancing down the
stairs behind her!” – Forest Whitaker (born July 15, 1961), actor, producer and father of four: Autumn, Ocean, Sonnet and True
The time not to become a father is eighteen years before a world war. – E.B. White (1899-1985), essayist, literary stylist, Pulitzer
prize-winning author, and staff writer of The New Yorker for more than
60 years
My friend has a baby. I'm recording all the noises he makes so later I can ask him what he meant. – Stephen Wright (born December 6, 1955), actor, writer and esoteric comedian
