I am a huge fan of quotes. There is something about the ability to convey a powerful message in a short phrase or sentence that I admire.  I’ve always found inspiration in words, so I wanted to share with you some of the most meaningful quotes that have helped me think about ways to become a better Dad.

Father/Dad

“Any man can be a Father but it takes someone special to be a dad.” -Anne Geddes

“It is much easier to become a father than to be one.” -Kent Nerburn

“One father is worth more than a hundred Schoolmasters.” -George Herbert

“Blessed indeed is the man who hears many gentle voices call him father!” -Lydia M. Child

“Bringing a child into the world is the greatest act of hope there is.” -Louise Hart

“A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty.” -Unknown

“By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he’s wrong.” -Charles Wadsworth

“I’m a father; that’s what matters most. Nothing matters more.” -Gordon Brown

Parenting/Key Responsibilities

“I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father’s protection.” -Sigmund Freud

“The father who does not teach his son his duties is equally guilty with the son who neglects them.” -Confucius

“The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.” -David O. McKay

“My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me.” -Jim Valvano

“When I was a kid, my father told me every day, ‘You’re the most wonderful boy in the world, and you can do anything you want to.’” -Jan Hutchins

“A little praise goes a great ways.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Cannot we let [children] be themselves, and enjoy life in their own way? You are trying to make another you. One’s enough.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

“So long as little children are allowed to suffer, there is no true love in this world.” -Isadora Duncan

“Our children give us the opportunity to become the parents we always wished we’d had.” -Louise Hart

“Never do for a child what he is capable of doing for himself.” -Elizabeth G. Hainstock

“There are times when parenthood seems like nothing but feeding the mouth that bites you.” -Peter de Vries

“The most assiduous task of parenting is to divine the difference between boundaries and bondage.” -Barbara Kingsolver

“Reading to children at night, responding to their smiles with a smile, returning their vocalizations with one of your own, touching them, holding them – all of these further a child’s brain development and future potential, even in the earliest months.” -T. Berry Brazelton

“Only by being permitted to experience the consequences of his actions will the child acquire a sense of responsibility; and within the limits marked by the demands of his safety this must be done.” -Robert Lindner

“He who does not teach his son an occupation is as one who has taught his son to rob.” -Talmud

“How true Daddy’s words were when he said, ‘All children must look after their own upbringing.’ Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a [child's] character lies in their own hands.” -Anne Frank

“It is my pleasure that my children are free and happy, and unrestrained by parental tyranny. Love is the chain whereby to bind a child to its parents.” -Abraham Lincoln

Understanding & Dealing with the Kids

“Disobedience is the infant’s first step toward autonomy.” -Lewis Mumford

“A baby is an inestimable blessing and bother.” -Mark Twain

“The toddler craves independence but…fears desertion.” -Dorothy Corkville Briggs

“There must always be a struggle between a father and son, while one aims at power and the other at independence.” -Samuel Johnson

“No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings.” -William Blake

“Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.” -James Baldwin

“The defects of the children mirror the defects of the parents.” -Herbert Spencer

“Tiny children want to learn to the degree that they are unable to distinguish learning from fun. They keep this attitude until we adults convince them that learning is not fun.” -Glenn Doman

“It is not attention that the child is seeking but love.” -Sigmund Freud

“What causes adolescents to rebel is not the assertion of authority but the arbitrary use of power, with little explanation of the rules and no involvement in the decision-making.” -Laurence Steinberg and Ann Levine

“Let your child be the teenager he or she wants to be, not the adolescent you were or wish you had been.” -Laurence Steinberg and Ann Levine

“Children love repetition, but not when it’s overdone. They will lose interest if you progress too slowly, and if you go too quickly the materials will be beyond their comprehension.” -Elizabeth G. Hainstock

“If we continually try to force a child to do what he is afraid to do, he will become more timid, and will use his brains and energy not to explore the unknown, but to find ways to avoid pressures we put on him.  If, however, we are careful not to push a child beyond the limits of his courage, he is almost sure to get braver.” -John Holt

“If for only half an hour a day, a child should do something serviceable to the community.” -George Bernard Shaw

“What the father kept silent the son speaks out.” -Friedrich Nietzsche

“If there is anything we wish to change in our children, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves.” -Carl G. Jung

“Because children see parents as authority figures and gods, they think that the way you treat them is the way they deserve to be treated: ‘What you say about me is what I am’ is a literal truth to your child. Consequently, when children are treated with respect, they conclude that they deserve respect and hence develop self-respect.” -Stephanie Marston

“Honor your father and your mother.” -Moses

“Children thrive when parents set before them increasingly difficult, but always meetable, challenges.” -Unknown

Relating to Mom & Family

“Many men can make a fortune, but very few can build a family.” -J.S. Bryan

“It takes a family to raise a child.” -Bob Dole

“It takes a village to raise a child.” -African proverb

“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

“In a democratic family, those with superior knowledge and resources (i.e. power) use them to strengthen others in the family. In an authoritarian family, power is used to ‘tame’ and control others.” -Letty Cottin Pogrebin

“School is an invaluable adjunct to the home, but it is a wretched substitute for it.” -Theodore Roosevelt

“Come mothers and fathers throughout the land, and don’t criticize what you can’t understand. Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command – your old road is rapidly agin’.  Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand, for the times they are a-chagin’.” -Bob Dylan

“Blood’s thicker than water, and when one’s in trouble best to seek a relative’s open arms.” -Euripides

“The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family.” -Thomas Jefferson

“There’s no tragedy in life like the death of a child. Things never get back to the way they were.” -Dwight D. Eisenhower

Values & Being a Role Model

“The greatest gifts my parents gave to me…were their unconditional love and a set of values.” -Colin Powell

“Children have more need of models than of critics.” -Joseph Joubert

“Never lose your temper, except intentionally.” -Dwight D. Eisenhower

“Anger is never without a reason, but seldom with a good one.” -Benjamin Franklin

“When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, an hundred.” -Thomas Jefferson

“Patience is the greatest of all virtues.” -Dionysius Cato

“Virtue consists in actions, and not in words.” -William Godwin

“Take more pleasure in giving what is best to another than in having it for yourself, and then all the world will love you.” -Thomas Jefferson

“When our kids are young, many of us rush out to buy a cute little baby book to record the meaningful events of our young child’s life…but I’ve often thought there should be a second book, one with room to record the moral milestones of our child’s lives.” -Fred G. Gosman

“If you want a sense of personal values we should be communicating to children…Healthy societies send signals to their children and to those who have become temporarily confused at any age.” -Newt Gingrich

“Respect yourself if you would have others respect you.” -Baltasar Gracian

“True strength lies in submission which permits one to dedicate his life, through devotion, to something beyond himself.” -Henry Miller

“What does not kill me makes me stronger.” -Friedrich Nietzsche

Dad Humor

“A father carries pictures where his money used to be.” -Unknown

“Two little girls, on their way home from Sunday school, were solemnly discussing the lesson. ‘Do you believe there is a devil?’ asked one. ‘No,’ said the other promptly. ‘It’s like Santa Claus: it’s your father.’” -Ladies’ Home Journal

“There are three stages of a man’s life: He believes in Santa Claus, he doesn’t believe in Santa Claus, he is Santa Claus.” -Unknown

“Fatherhood is pretending the present you love most is soap-on-a-rope.” -Bill Cosby

“Adolescence begins when children stop asking questions – because they know all the answers.” -Evan Esar

“Always obey your parents, when they are present.” -Mark Twain

“The father is always the Republican toward his son, and his mother’s always a Democrat.” -Robert Frost

“When I was a kid, I said to my father one afternoon, ‘Daddy, will you take me to the zoo?’ He answered, ‘If the zoo wants you, let them come and get you.’” -Jerry Lewis

“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

“Never raise your hand to your kids. It leaves your groin unprotected.” -Red Buttons

I hope you found this collection of quotes and ideas to be a good resource.  My goal was to share key thoughts that inspire me to learn more about what it means to be a good Dad.

What is your favorite quote that inspires you to be a better dad/parent? Please add it in the comments!

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