When a man becomes a father, the world he knew is turned upside down and changes more than a man without children can understand. Having children brings joy to every aspect of a person’s life, bringing happiness, pride, fatigue, confusion, frustration, and complications but enriching it all the way through. Although many guides, advice columns, and websites are available, nothing can truly prepare you for fatherhood. These guides don’t tell you that you’ll have to figure it out on your own most of the time.
The full appreciation of how it feels to have children may be almost impossible for those without them, and the proverbial “How to Be a Dad” book may not exist. Still, reading through some famous quotes regarding fatherhood may give you a sense of the chaos of the experience. With Father’s Day approaching, here’s a list the best quotes about fatherhood. Hopefully, they’ll make some dads feel like they’re doing the best they can.
“Anyone who tells you fatherhood is the greatest thing that can happen to you, they are understating it.” – Michael Myers
“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
“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 M. Schirra, Sr.
“I believe that what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments, when they aren’t trying to teach us. We are formed by little scraps of wisdom.” – Umberto Eco
“Any fool can have a child. That doesn’t make you a father. It’s the courage to raise a child that makes you a father.” – Barack Obama
“The nature of impending fatherhood is that you are doing something that you’re unqualified to do, and then you become qualified while doing it.” – John Green
“[Man adopts] 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
“When my son looks up at me and breaks into his wonderful toothless smile, my eyes fill up, and I know that having him is the best thing I will ever do.”— Dan Greenberg
“Some dads liken the impending birth of a child to the beginning of a great journey.” –Marcus Jacob Goldman
“One of the greatest things a father can do for his children is to love their mother.” –Howard W. Hunter
“To a father growing old, nothing is dearer than a daughter.” –Euripides
“If there is any immortality to be had among us human beings, it is certainly only in the love that we leave behind. Fathers like mine don’t ever die.” –Leo Buscaglia
“That is the thankless position of the father in the family-the provider for all and the enemy of all.” –J. August Strindberg
“Every father should remember one day his son will follow his example, not his advice.” –Charles Kettering
“Son, there are times a man has to do things he doesn’t like to, in order to protect his family.” –Ralph Moody
“A boy needs a father to show him how to be in the world. He needs to be given swagger, taught how to read a map so that he can recognize the roads that lead to life and the paths that lead to death, how to know what love requires, and where to find steel in the heart when life makes demands on us that are greater than we think we can endure.” –Ian Morgan Cron
“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” –Frederick Douglass
“A girl’s father is the first man in her life, and probably the most influential.” –David Jeremiah
“Fathers, like mothers, are not born. Men grow into fathers, and fathering is a very important stage in their development.” –David Gottesman
“Until you have a son of your own . . . you will never know the joy beyond 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
“Dads are most ordinary men turned by love into heroes, adventurers, story-tellers, and singers of song.” –Pam Brown
“‘Father’ is the noblest title a man can be given. It is more than a biological role. It signifies a patriarch, a leader, an exemplar, a confidant, a teacher, a hero, a friend.” –Robert L. Backman
“No man can possibly know what life means, what the world means, what anything means, until he has a child and loves it.” –Lafcadio Hearn
Unfortunately, fathers tend to be taken for granted. Society habitually makes more of a fuss over mothers on Mother’s Day than fathers on Father’s Day. Dads are like the sun in our familial sky; they warm us and give us life, but people don’t think about them unless they go missing.
Still, fathers have a significant impact on their children. His nurturing may differ from that of a mother’s, but his influence is still important. The existence of a loving father increases a child’s chances of confidence, success, and resilience. The next time you want to show appreciation for your dad and tell him how much he means to you, share one of these quotes with him. You could even include one in your Father’s Day card. Similar to only having one mom, you only get one dad. Treasure him and tell him how much he means to you.
