For many of us, our father is the 1 man who truly made a difference in this world. Who made it special. Who was there for us in our times of need. And sometimes it’s hard to find the words to express that.
So I’ve compiled a list of great Father’s Day quotes to help us find the words to express to Dad this year, like this one which I love:
“You don’t really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around — and why his parents will always wave back.” – William D. Tammeus
So here in this article, I’ve compiled a list of 31 of my favorite Father’s Day quotes.
If your dad or husband likes tools, make sure and check out my Recommended Tools Page. I take the mystery out of picking the very best tools for homeowners and DIY enthusiasts by checking out all the options and only recommending stuff that either I own, have used, or have top reviews on Amazon.
What are your plans for this Father’s Day?
Do you have something special in mind for your Dad or Husband? If you have kids, are you getting them involved in the plans? Among the many ideas out there, finding great Father’s Day quotes can really make his day.
It’s sometimes hard work being a Good Father, so let us know you care! I did a recent post on Mother’s Day Quotes and it was VERY well received.
Thus I wanted to do the same thing for us Middle Class Dads!
You can post these Father’s Day quotes about him on social media. Or have the kids make handmade Father’s Day cards.
These beautifully written Father’s Day quotes can really convey just how special your Dad or Husband really is.
Also, don’t forget the Perfect Gifts for the Dad Who Has Everything!
What qualities make a good father?
A good father is the best job I’ve ever had and I say that having done a lot of cool stuff (like having been on stage with the B-52’s, for instance).
But being a good father doesn’t just happen and it’s not always easy.
I have to show up for work as a dad every day, no matter how I feel, what the day’s priorities are, or even if my wife and I are having a rough spell.
The qualities of a good father include spending time actively involved with your kids, modeling the behavior you expect in them, taking ownership when you make mistakes, limiting their time on technology, treating their mother with dignity.
But that’s just scratching the surface of what it takes to be a good father.
So if you’re ready to dive in deeper, check out all 23 of my Qualities of a Good Father and see which ones resonate with you and where you might want to improve your game.
What should I write in my husband’s fathers day card?
With 3 young-ish kids, obviously, my wife has written me plenty of Father’s Day cards and planned most of what we have done on Father’s Day since I first became a Dad in 2007.
While we dads often have an idea of who we are as a father, no one really sees us quite like our spouse.
That’s because aside from ourselves, our spouse is the 1 other person on the planet who loves our kids as much as we do, and so they pay close attention to how we parent and interact with our kids.
So they’re in a great place to see the kind of parent we are; the good, the bad, and the ugly.
I know my love language, both with my wife and my kids is through action. I fix stuff that’s broken. Sometimes I don’t even know if anyone notices when I fix a toilet paper holder that’s loose or nails that are sticking up on the deck boards.
But I do it because I care and don’t want anyone to get hurt or be inconvenienced.
So wives, for your husband on Father’s Day, just appreciate him for who he is and what he does. All too often in this world, all of us get wrapped up in expectations of what we think other’s should be saying or doing.
Strive to cast aside expectations and realize that our expectations of someone else may not have anything to do with who they really are. It’s also out of our control to change someone else, only our own actions, words, and thoughts.
So just let him know you love, appreciate, and SEE everything he does for you and the kids. That alone is enough.
What’s the difference between a father and a dad?
ANYONE can father a child. It doesn’t really take that much.
But to be a Dad is so much more, AND so vitally important. Make no mistake, 1 loving parent is better than 2 who fight all the time, and 2 loving Moms raising a child is also better than 2 parents who fight all the time.
BUT, a good Dad has a vitally important role to play when possible.
Often times Mom rules the roost, takes care of the child’s needs and provides that nurturing that is so important, but it’s Dad who instills that sense of adventure, playfulness, and fun.
I’m stereotyping and generalizing, of course, and certainly don’t mean to imply anything to the contrary as there are obviously going to be exceptions.
Even with men who are present with their kids, there can still be a difference between a father and a dad.
Some of the things I do to show up for my kids every day are:
- Play with them on their level
- I protect them, but not to the degree where they don’t learn how to pick themselves up again
- Apologize when I make a mistake
- I listen to them and put myself in their shoes
- If I promise to do something or show up for an event, THAT is the #1 priority
- I put their needs ahead of my own, about 98% of the time
- Encourage, don’t squash, playfulness, and imagination
But don’t take my word for it.
I recently had Jennifer Hayes O’Neill, LMSW, former Executive Director of the Early Childhood Counseling Center, write an article for me about the Benefits of Father Involvement, and it’s truly worth your time for a quick read.
What should I write for Father’s Day?
It’s sometimes hard to know what to say to your father or your children’s father.
A lot of Dads tend to be the strong, silent type where you don’t always know exactly what they’re feeling, and don’t always connect deeply on an emotional level.
So these great Father’s Day quotes are the perfect solution for your Father’s Day plans this year!
I literally scoured the web, looking at dozens of sites and hundreds of Father’s Day quotes.
If you just Google great Father’s Day quotes, a lot comes up. Unfortunately, a lot of them are not great. Too basic, too generic, too sarcastic, overused or about as emotional as a physics textbook.
Thus the list I’ve got here represents the best of the best. I’ve culled the mediocre and boring to bring you only the . . .
31 Great Father’s Day Quotes for Your Best Father’s Day!
1. “I’ve said it before, but it’s absolutely true: My mother gave me my drive, but my father gave me my dreams. Thanks to him, I could see a future.” – Liza Minnelli
2. “I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father’s protection.” – Sigmund Freud
3. “What makes Will the best father in the world to me is that he’s there, not just there in a way that’s traditional. The emotional support he offers his children is immeasurable.” – Jada Pinkett Smith
4. “He adopted a role called Being a Father so that his child would have something mythical and infinitely important: a Protector.” – Tom Wolfe
5. “My father used to say that it’s never too late to do anything you wanted to do. And he said, ‘You never know what you can accomplish until you try.” – Michael Jordan
6. “I mean, I look at my dad. He was twenty when he started having a family, and he was always the coolest dad. He did everything for his kids, and he never made us feel like he was pressured. I know that it must be a great feeling to be a guy like that.” – Adam Sandler
7. “When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.” – Mark Twain
8. “Great fathers don’t find fault. Great fathers find solutions.” – Reed Markham
9. “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.” – President Barack Obama (I rarely get political but this is a great quote no matter what side of the aisle you prefer)
10. “He was a father. That’s what a father does. Eases the burdens of those he loves. Saves the ones he loves from painful last images that might endure for a lifetime.” – George Saunders
11. “I have rarely ever met a person more fearless and courageous than my father … The thing that I admire most about my dad is his genuine Christian character. He is a man of real integrity, deeply committed to moral and ethical principles. He is conscientious in all of his undertakings … If I had a problem I could always call Daddy.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
12. “A good father is one of the most unsung, unpraised, unnoticed, and yet one of the most valuable assets in our society.” – Billy Graham
13. “So remember that when (your daughter) pushes hard against your rules, flailing, crying that you are mean or unfair, she is really asking you a question: “Am I worth the fight, Dad? Are you strong enough to handle me?” Make sure she knows the answer is yes.” – Dr. Meg Meeker
14. “Be a dad. Don’t be Mom’s Assistant…Be a man…Fathers have skills that they never use at home. You run a landscaping business and you can’t dress and feed a four-year-old? Take it on. Spend time with your kids…It won’t take away your manhood, it will give it to you.” – Louis C.K.
15. “None of you can ever be proud enough of being the child of such a Father who has not his equal in this world – so great, so good, so faultless. Try, therefore, to be like him in some points, and you will have acquired a great deal.” – Queen Victoria of England
16. “My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. My 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
17. “By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he’s wrong.” – Charles Wadsworth
18. “One of the greatest things about daughters is how they adored you when they were little; how they rushed into your arms with electric delight and demanded that you watch everything they do and listen to everything they say. Those memories will help you through less joyous times when their adoration is replaced by embarrassment or annoyance. And yet, you will adore your daughter every day of her life, hoping to be valued again, but realizing how fortunate you were even if you only get what you already got.” – Michael Josephson
19. “You don’t really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around — and why his parents will always wave back.” – William D. Tammeus
20. “Your father gives you many things in a lifetime… most of which you will not appreciate until way after he is gone.” – Linda Poindexter
21. “Being a great father is like shaving. No matter how good you shaved today, you have to do it again tomorrow.” – Reed Markham
22. “A daddy is someone who wants to catch you before you fall, but instead, picks you up, brushes you off, and lets you try again.” – unknown
23. “Having a kid is like falling in love for the first time when you’re 12, but every single day.” – Mike Meyers
24. “My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person: he believed in me.” – Jim Valvano
25. “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 the little scraps of wisdom.” – Umberto Eco
26. “I am not ashamed to say that no man I ever met was my father’s equal, and I never loved any other man as much.” – Hedy Lamarr (no, that’s not Hedley)
27. “It’s only when you grow up and step back from him—or leave him for your own home—it’s only then that you can measure his greatness and fully appreciate it.” – Margaret Truman
28. “Dads are most ordinary men turned by love into heroes, adventurers, story-tellers, and singers of song.” – Pam Brown
29. “It is easier for a father to have children than for children to have a real father.” – Pope John XXIII
30. “We never know the love of the parent until we become parents ourselves.” – Henry Ward Beecher
31. “One of the greatest titles in the world is parent, and one of the biggest blessings in the world is to have parents to call mom and dad.” – Jim DeMint
If your dad or husband likes tools, make sure and check out my Recommended Tools Page. I take the mystery out of picking the very best tools for homeowners and DIY enthusiasts by checking out all the options and only recommending stuff that either I own, have used, or have top reviews on Amazon.
Want a free copy of these great Father’s Day quotes on a handy PDF cheat sheet you can pull up on your phone or download and print?
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