48 Heartfelt Father Quotes

Fathers hold a special place in our lives, often serving as our first heroes, mentors, and steadfast supporters. Their love and guidance shape us in innumerable ways, from the lessons they teach to the unwavering support they provide. In honor of these remarkable men, we’ve gathered a selection of the top 48 heartfelt quotes about fathers. Whether you're looking to express your gratitude, reminisce about shared moments, or simply celebrate the bond you share, these quotes are sure to resonate and inspire. Dive into this collection and find the perfect words to honor the fathers in your life.

1. “Without the support from religion--remember, we talked about it--no father, using only his own resources, would be able to bring up a child.” - Leo Tolstoy

2. “You wanted to kill your father in order to be your father yourself. Now you are your father, but a dead father.” - Sigmund Freud

3. “And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. But we may hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away all this artificial scaffolding...{Letter to John Adams, April 11, 1823}” - Thomas Jefferson

4. “From that point of view, I realized that my hole was not miles deep after all. My father, in fact, could stand on the bottom and it only reached up to his chest.Darkness, you know, is relative.” - Jodi Picoult

5. “The referee told me this league has never had a brawl of that magnitude," said Mr. Penderwick after a long, painful silence. "Of course, at the time I was pretending to be a casual passerby and not a father at all.” - Jeanne Birdsall

6. “I'm supposed to be a man but I can't help thinking no one ever showed me what that is supposed to look like. Maybe that is why I ride the middle all the time—never offending anyone, never getting a hard time, but never much standing out either.” - Heather Duffy Stone

7. “Fathers. Mothers. With all their caring and attention. They will f--- you up, every time.” - Chuck Palahniuk

8. “I knew he was unreliable, but he was fun to be with. He was a child’s ideal companion, full of surprises and happy animal energy. He enjoyed food and drink. He liked to try new things. He brought home coconuts, papayas, mangoes, and urged them on our reluctant conservative selves. On Sundays he liked to discover new places, take us on endless bus or trolley rides to some new park or beach he knew about. He always counseled daring, in whatever situation, the courage to test the unknown, an instruction that was thematically in opposition to my mother’s.” - E.L. Doctorow

9. “They'd listen silenty, with grave faces: but once they'd turn to each other they'd smile cruelly. He couldn't have it both ways. He'd put himself outside and outside they'd make him stay. Neither brutality nor complaining could force a way in.” - John McGahern

10. “Acheron kissed her lightly on the cheek. "Rest. We'll be back when he needs you." He watched herclimb into bed before he took his nephew down to his room."Well, it appears to be just the two of us, little one. What say you we get naked, drunk and find us somewenches?"The baby actually smiled up at him as if he understood.Acheron nodded. "So that's it, eh? Barely a month old and you're already lecherous. You are your father's son.” - Sherrilyn Kenyon

11. “Just take me with you. Please.I cant.Please, Papa.I cant. I cant hold my son dead in my arms. I thought I could but I cant.” - Cormac McCarthy

12. “He lied all the time even when there was no need to lie [...] He needed a _history_, a sense of self. [Burnside on his father, p. 22]” - John Burnside

13. “But I got through the review, for all their Latin and French; I did, and if you doubt me, you just look at the end of the great ledger, turn it upside down, and you'll find I've copied out all the fine words they said of you: "careful observer," "strong nervous English," "rising philosopher."Oh! I can nearly say it all off by heart, for many a time when I am frabbed by bad debts, or Osborne's bills, or moidered with accounts, I turn the ledger wrong way up, and smoke a pipe over it, while I read those pieces out of the review which speak about you, lad!” - Elizabeth Gaskell

14. “I got an A on the third quiz in American history, an A, dammit. Last time I got a Bup from a Cand my father said,"if you can get a Cyou can get a B,if you can get a Byou can get an A."-I got an Aand my father said,"grades don't mean anything.” - Thalia Chaltas

15. “A man who is not a father to his children can never be a real man,” - Mario Puzo

16. “Chess is all about getting the king into check, you see. It's about killing the father. I would say that chess has more to do with the art of murder than it does with the art of war.” - Arturo Pérez-Reverte

17. “Every Autumn now my thoughts return to snow. Snow is something I identify myself with. Like my father, I am a snow person.” - Charlie English

18. “My father didn't tell me how to live;he lived, and let me watch him do it” - Clarence B. Kelland

19. “Joshie has always told Post Human Services Staff to keep a diary, to remember who we were because every moment, our brains and synapses are being rebuilt and rewired with maddening disregard for our personalities, so that each year, each month, each day, we transfer into a different person, an utterly unfaithful iteration of our original selves, of the drooling kid in the sandbox. But not me. I am still a facsimile of my early childhood. I am still looking for a loving dad to lift me up and brush the sand off my ass and to hear English, calm and hurtless, fall off his lips.” - Gary Shteyngart

20. “He had a charm about him sometimes, a warmth that was irresistible, like sunshine. He planted Saffy triumphantly on the pavement, opened the taxi door, slung in his bag, gave a huge film-star wave, called, "All right, Peter? Good weekend?" to the taxi driver, who knew him well and considered him a lovely man, and was free."Back to the hard life," he said to Peter, and stretched out his legs.Back to the real life, he meant. The real world where there were no children lurking under tables, no wives wiping their noses on the ironing, no guinea pigs on the lawn, nor hamsters in the bedrooms, and no paper bags full of leaking tomato sandwiches.” - Hilary McKay

21. “Her father sat her down and spoke to her with great seriousness. "You are not a witch, Katerina. There is magic in the world, and some of it is wholesome, and some of it is not, but it is a thing that is in the blood, and it is not in yours."The foolish will always treat you badly, because they think you are not beautiful," he said, and she knew this was true. Plain Kate. She was a plain as a stick and thin as a stick and flat as a stick. Her nose was too long and her brows too strong. Her father kissed her twice, once above each brow. "We cannot help what fools think. But understand, it is your skill with a blade that draws this talk. If you want to give up your carving, you have my blessing.""I will never give it up," she answered.” - Erin Bow

22. “Dear Heavenly Father, We pray for those who are living silence, locked in the room of depression to where they are taking their own lives. This is the enemy trying to take souls away before they can hear "The Word" and accept it. We pray for a breakthrough, and a releasing from the enemies grip, and that the spirit of depression is sent back into the pits of hell where it belongs! We call it done right now in the MIGHTY name of Jesus we pray, amen.” - Author Anita R. Sneed-Carter

23. “...My dad, may he rest in peace, taught me many wonderful things. And one of the things he taught me was never ask a guy what you do for a living. He said "If you think about it, when you ask a guy, what do you do you do for a living," you’re saying "how may I gauge the rest of your utterances." are you smarter than I am? Are you richer than I am, poorer than I am?" So you ask a guy what do you do for a living, it’s the same thing as asking a guy, let me know what your politics are before I listen to you so I know whether or not you’re part of my herd, in which case I can nod knowingly, or part of the other herd, in which case I can wish you dead.” - David Mamet

24. “When a father gives to his son, both laugh; when a son gives to his father, both cry.” - Yiddish Proverb

25. “I drift off for a while. I don't know how long, but when I open my eyes, the Oscars are still on and Alex tells me that Sid has gone and this makes me a little sad. Whatever the four of us had is over. He is my daughter's boyfriend now, and I am a father. A widower. No pot, no cigarettes, no sleeping over. They'll have to find inventive ways to conduct their business, most likely in uncomfortable places, just like the rest of them. I let him and my old ways go. We all let him go, as well as who we were before this, and now it's really just the three of us. I glance over at the girls, taking a good look at what's left.” - Kaui Hart Hemmings

26. “Listen to God with a broken heart. He is not only the doctor who mends it, but also the father who wipes away the tears.” - Criss Jami

27. “Ugly and ungainly. The least dependable creature you ever met. Just when you think you understand her, she changes. If only I had a son," he said bitterly.Over and over he disparaged her, and George would have thought that Beatrice would be so used to it, she could not be hurt further. But he saw her neck grow stiffer and stiffer.” - Mette Ivie Harrison

28. “Look at that," he said. "How the ink bleeds." He loved the way it looked, to write on a thick pillow of the pad, the way the thicker width of paper underneath was softer and allowed for a more cushiony interface between pen and surface, which meant more time the two would be in contact for any given point, allowing the fiber of the paper to pull, through capillary action, more ink from the pen, more ink, which meant more evenness of ink, a thicker, more even line, a line with character, with solidity. The pad, all those ninety-nine sheets underneath him, the hundred, the even number, ten to the second power, the exponent, the clean block of planes, the space-time, really, represented by that pad, all of the possible drawings, graphs, curves, relationships, all of the answers, questions, mysteries, all of the problems solvable in that space, in those sheets, in those squares.” - Charles Yu

29. “Family myths are cherished by the people who--however unwittingly--have brought them into being. In my own situation, what my father was really saying to me during that last unfortunate phone call was that I had shattered our family's myth: the myth of a close and tight-knit family in which everyone was in complete agreement about everything, that is, in complete agreement with my father. I had violated one of the tenets of this myth in a way that was unforgivable to him. For that my punishment was to be expelled from the family.” - Mark Sichel

30. “Yes, our Father has a plan, Ciminae,” he said. “But he leaves it up to his children to accept his will. It is their agency. He cannot force his will upon them. If he did, he would cease to be God. They . . . we must choose for ourselves to accept his will with unbreakable faith in our Father. That is when the Father moves us to do his will.” (The Spirit. From Book 2, "Worlds Without End: Aftermath," coming September 1, 2012)” - Shaun F. Messick

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

32. “Sunny - If you can explain yourself before someone kicks your ass, count your blessings and give some thought to going back to the priesthood.Nick - I would, but now-a-days that vow of chastity might be a problem.” - J. A. Dennam

33. “بين اسمي و اسم عائلتي رجل لا حياة لي دونه” - ali shahrouri

34. “ ... family men, Claude.""Then why aren't they home with their families?""You haven't been listening to me, Claude. It takes lots of honey to raise a family these days..." No, it isn't even that, these teddy bears don't like honey as much as they think they do. They think they're supposed to like it, the way they're supposed to like women and children. They think they're supposed to act like real grizzlies, but they don't feel it. You can't blame them, they just don't have it inside them. What they have, what they love most, is their memories: how the Coach used to shout niceworkpal whenever they caught the big ball or somehow hit the little one, how Dad used to wink when they caught one of his jokes, how when they repeated them he almost died laughing, so they told them and told them - if they told one really well he might do it. They memorized all the conversations verbatim, that about the pussies and the coons, the homers and the balls, the cams and the bearings. They're still memorizing. You can see them almost anytime you're out driving, there in the slow car just ahead, the young man at the wheel, the old man talking, the young man leaning a little to the right in order to hear better, the old man pointing out the properties, the young man looking and listening earnestly, straining to catch the old man's last word, the last joke verbatim, the last bit of know-how about the deals and the properties and the honey. When he thinks he's learned all he can from the old man, he'll shove him out of the car. You watch, next time you're out driving. "...these are the cream, Claude." These are the all-American fairies.” - Douglas Woolf

35. “For Sayonara, literally translated, 'Since it must be so,' of all the good-bys I have heard is the most beautiful. Unlike the Auf Wiedershens and Au revoirs, it does not try to cheat itself by any bravado 'Till we meet again,' any sedative to postpone the pain of separation. It does not evade the issue like the sturdy blinking Farewell. Farewell is a father's good-by. It is - 'Go out in the world and do well, my son.' It is encouragement and admonition. It is hope and faith. But it passes over the significance of the moment; of parting it says nothing. It hides its emotion. It says too little. While Good-by ('God be with you') and Adios say too much. They try to bridge the distance, almost to deny it. Good-by is a prayer, a ringing cry. 'You must not go - I cannot bear to have you go! But you shall not go alone, unwatched. God will be with you. God's hand will over you' and even - underneath, hidden, but it is there, incorrigible - 'I will be with you; I will watch you - always.' It is a mother's good-by. But Sayonara says neither too much nor too little. It is a simple acceptance of fact. All understanding of life lies in its limits. All emotion, smoldering, is banked up behind it. But it says nothing. It is really the unspoken good-by, the pressure of a hand, 'Sayonara.” - Anne Morrow Lindbergh

36. “Discernment is the son of good judgment and the father of self-control. When mixed with an already clear conscience, the ability to read the true motives of a critic keeps one's conscience both clear and at ease.” - Criss Jami

37. “Xavier, you have given me more grey hairs than all my sons put together.’ Saul frowned, then corrected himself. ‘To be fair, you and Zed. Just try not to add to them tonight.” - Joss Stirling

38. “New rules. If you are smart enough to live, you won’t hit Charles’s mate in front of his father.” - Patricia Briggs

39. “I think one of the biggest reasons people have difficulty believing in God is because they do not understand Him. I often hear doubting comments like “if there is a God then why this and why that?” and “how could He allow…?” Perhaps if people were to invest true effort getting to know Him, they would discover a mindful Father who remains with us every step of the way through trials and tribulations that, though painful, are crucial experiences meant to teach and mold His children for a higher purpose.” - Richelle E. Goodrich

40. “To my father, who told me the stories that matter. To my mother, who taught me to remember them.” - Marita Golden

41. “The typical atheist rebels against God as a teenager rebels against his parents. When his own desires or standards are not fulfilled in the way that he sees fit, he, in revolt, storms out of the house in denial of the Word of God and in scrutiny of a great deal of those who stand by the Word of God. The epithet 'Heavenly Father' is a grand reflection, a relation to that of human nature.” - Criss Jami

42. “If you’re not seeing God at the climax, it’s not worth doing. Sex is the bridge that connects heaven and earth.” - Darnell Lamont Walker

43. “Behind every great man is a man greater, his father.” - Habeeb Akande

44. “God is merciful to all, as he has been to you; he is first a father, then a judge.” - Alexandre Dumas

45. “The sudden loss of her father was like living with a wound that would never heal, yet her memories of him were fading more and more every day.” - Frank Beddor

46. “The thing I miss most from home, is having a home.” - Anthony Liccione

47. “I decided I would go with them, but it would be at my father's house that I would eat. I would share his food, and his poverty.” - Phoolan Devi

48. “Judgment, then, is not an impersonal, legalistic process. It is a matter of love, and it is something we choose for ourselves. Nor is punishment a vindictive act. God's "curses" are not expressions of hatred, but of fatherly love and discipline. Like medicinal ointment, they hurt in order to heal. They impose suffering that is remedial, restorative, and redemptive. God's wrath is an expression of His love for His wayward children.” - Scott Hahn