Father And Son Quotes

“There is nothing like wounded affection for giving poignancy to anger.”
― Elizabeth Gaskell, Wives and Daughters

“I'm so sorry, Henri," I whisper in his ear. I close my eyes. "I love you. I wouldn't have missed a second of it, either. Not for anything," I whisper. "I'm going to take you back yet. Somehow I am going to get you back to Lorien. We always joked about it but you were my father, the best father I could have ever asked for. I'll never forget you, not for a minute for as long as I live. I love you, Henri. I always did.”
― Pittacus Lore, I Am Number Four

“No love is greater than that of a father for His son.”
― Dan Brown, Angels & Demons

“I knew my father had done the best he could, and I had no regrets about the way I'd turned out. Regrets about journey, maybe, but not the destination.”
― Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook

“We may never speak about this again. But I hope you’ll never hold it against me that we did. I will have been a terrible father if, one day, you’d want to speak to me and felt that the door was shut or not sufficiently open.”
― André Aciman, Call Me by Your Name

“It's a father's duty to give his sons a fine chance.”
― George Eliot, Middlemarch

“The heroin flowing through me, I thought about the last time I saw my father alive. He was drunk and overweight in a restaurant in Beverly Hills, and curling into myself on the bed I thought: What if I had done something that day? I had just sat passively in a restaurant booth as the midday light filled the half-empty dining room, pondering a decision. The decision was: should you disarm him? That was the word I remember: disarm. Should you tell him something that might not be the truth but would get the desired reaction? And what was I going to convince him of, even though it was a lie? Did it matter? Whatever it was, it would constitute a new beginning. The immediate line: You’re my father and I love you. I remember staring at the white tablecloth as I contemplated saying this. Could I actually do it? I didn’t believe it, and it wasn’t true, but I wanted it to be. For one moment, as my father ordered another vodka (it was two in the afternoon; this was his fourth) and started ranting about my mother and the slump in California real estate and how “your sisters” never called him, I realized it could actually happen, and that by saying this I would save him. I suddenly saw a future with my father. But the check came along with the drink and I was knocked out of my reverie by an argument he wanted to start and I simply stood up and walked away from the booth without looking back at him or saying goodbye and then I was standing in sunlight. Loosening my tie as a parking valet pulled up to the curb in the cream-colored 450 SL. I half smiled at the memory, for thinking that I could just let go of the damage that a father can do to a son. I never spoke to him again.”
― Bret Easton Ellis, Lunar Park

“[My father] loved me tenderly and shyly from a distance, and later on took a naive pride in seeing my name in print.”
― Arthur Koestler

“To be calm when you've found something going on”
― Yusuf Islam

“Fine. We can make it a combination Christmas and birthday present. You decide. I'll leave it up to you".

If it were up to him, he would give him everything: sun and moon, eternal happiness, serene and uncomplicated.”
― Judith Guest, Ordinary People

“...why can't I stop all the moving and look out over the vast arrangements and find by the contours and colors and qualities of light where my father is, not to solve anything but just simply even to see it again one last time, before what, before it ends, before it stops. But it doesn't stop; it simply ends. It is a final pattern scattered without so much as a pause at the end, at the end of what, at the end of this.”
― Paul Harding

“Son, we are all products of operant conditioning. By daring to think outside the box, you'll be judged. Stay the course. Heightened cognizance is meaningful only when freely sought out and discovered. Not when it is incrementally spoon-fed to you throughout your lifetime.”
― A.K. Kuykendall

“Sometimes, well into middle age, I composed letters to my father. In my dreams, I would meet him on a busy street, after many lost years, and he would receive me with the same old warmth. We would get into a little train together, or sit in a dark hall, watching a screen lit up with bright, moving images. 'Where were you all these years?' I would ask him, and he would ruffle my hair. My father hadn't died; he was a traveller in a different dimension, and he would turn up every now and then, just to see if I was all right.”
― Ruskin Bond, Lone Fox Dancing

“Then Fëanor ran from the Ring of Doom, and fled into the night; for his father was dearer to him than the Light of Valinor or the peerless works of his hands; and who among sons, of Elves or of Men, have held their fathers of greater worth?”
― J. R.R. Tolkien

“But Virgil had departed, leaving us bereft:
Virgil, sweetest of fathers,
Virgil, to whom I gave myself for my salvation.”
― Dante Alighieri, Purgatorio

“He doesn't love you," she said matter-of-factly. "He didn't love your mother, either, and I don't want you to spend your whole life waiting for something he can't give. Men like that, people are things to them. That's why he can pick you up and drop you as easily. But you're not a thing, Brandon. You're wonderful, and if he can't see that, he's broken. Not you. Don't ever forget that.”
― Kiersten White, Hide

“Så tenkte jeg, og derfor sa jeg det. Men sørg ikke over dette; ti jeg selv har voldt at slik måtte det ende. Og Gud bedre det for deg, sønn, så du ikke arver vår lykke. Gjør nu som din mor vil; lenge har jeg lengtet etter at mitt hode skulle ligge i hennes fang.”
― Sigrid Undset, Gunnar's Daughter

“Dad?' 'Yeah?' 'Could you tell me a story?' 'Sure.' 'A good one.' 'As opposed to all the boring ones I tell.' 'Right.' I tucked my body incredibly close into his, so my nose pushed into his armpit. 'And you won't interrupt me?' 'I'll try not to.' 'Because it makes it hard to tell a story.' 'And it's annoying.' 'And it's annoying.'

The moment before he started was my favorite moment.”
― Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

“A Demon Over Crumpets by Stewart Stafford

While taking tea with my physician father,
He pressed me on what was ailing me,
I imparted my supernatural experiences,
Laughing, he recommended fresh air and rest.

Just then, he stopped chewing his crumpet,
A demon’s image scorched the wall beside us,
I rushed over and scraped the hot soot away,
And saw two bloodshot eyes surveying the room.

I invoked the name of my protector, Jesus Christ,
And bade the dark spirit leave us and, with that,
The blackened image vanished from the wall,
Crackling fireplace flames were the only sound.

My father leapt up, made his excuses, and left,
I last saw his stooping gait and balding pate,
As they fled down the garden path by the hedge,
Darting looks over his shoulder, he was gone.

© Stewart Stafford, 2022. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“I am sorry that I was never there for you, you know? Weak men can become fathers too.”
― Noah Van Sciver, The Lizard Laughed

“Why was he so sad? His son was his son no matter his breeks. But he looked so grown-up in his trousers. Had he tried to keep him a boy and why had he tried it? I wasn't being thick, nor mean, he wanted to say. It's not the time for a boy to be a man. Wait till the war was over.”
― Jamie O'Neill, At Swim, Two Boys

“Sometimes it takes a bleeding ulcer, to bring together a near-fatal relationship of a father and son, that has gone when the fists couldn't break through a seventeen year mirror, anymore.”
― Anthony Liccione, Symmetry

“প্রদীপ্ত সূর্য ছিল আমার পিতার কাছে ম্লান।”
― Humayun Ahmed, বাদশাহ নামদার

“It’s unfortunate that I’m just now living. Don’t be like me. Live and soak up every single moment. Lean into them, even the moments that terrify you. That’s how you know you’re alive.”
― A.E. Valdez, Colliding With Fate

“With the last of my magic, I pledge to help Pinocchio become a real boy." She extended her hand to Chiara. "You remember what happened when our magics came together and struck your dove?"
As if on cue, Chiara's white dove flew past them and landed on Ilaria's arm.
"She came to life," Chia murmured. "Thanks to the two of us."
"It takes two to make miracles happen," said Ily. "Will you do the honors?"
Taking in a deep breath, Chiara nodded, and together, hand in hand, the sisters approached the lifeless Pinocchio.
Prove yourself brave, truthful, and unselfish, and someday you will be a real boy.She touched her wand to Pinocchio's head. "Awake, Pinocchio. Awake."
Magic brimmed across the young boy's still body, bringing him to life. His cheeks turned rosy, and his wooden nose became one made of flesh, the nails in his knees and elbows turning into joints and bone and muscle. Gone were his donkey ears and tail.
"Papa!" he spoke. "Papa, I'm alive!"
Geppetto rose from the sand, unable to believe his ears. But when he saw his dearest Pinocchio a real boy, his tears of sorrow turned to joy. He scooped his boy into his arms. "My son," he whispered. "You've come home."
Chiara watched them, her heart full of relief and gladness. This was what made her love being a fairy--- the tender moments of joy, the proof that hope was never in vain.”
― Elizabeth Lim, When You Wish Upon a Star

“Everything is a target, says the hunter. No matter where you look. The hunter's son says nothing, and closes his eyes.”
― Richard Siken, War of the Foxes

“Lewis's father rises, puts a hand on his son's shoulder, and squeezes hard. This is the closest the two men have ever come to embracing.”
― Emily Habeck, Shark Heart

“I persuade Dad to take me to Miguel's.
At dinner his favorite topic of conversation is the space-time continuum.
This is interesting because
space
and
time
are the only two things
I actually wish he would give me.
I just don't know how to tell him that.”
― Rebecca Caprara, Worst-Case Collin

“It's too late. I'll never forgive you for that. Apologize all you want, but you can't erase the past. You should know that better than anyone, father.”
― Emily Grace, River Of Sorrows

“See Me In One by Stewart Stafford

Crave not aged flight,
Your titian crown ringed,
With cherubim cheeks,
In child's play, winged.

I shed this life's skin,
My texts echoing guide,
Find flesh through them,
Righteous wordage sighed.

In forest dark, I found you,
All before, a stillborn nought,
Of everything in ardour rendered,
Your form, pride's ransom bought.

© Stewart Stafford, 2024. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford