Fatherhood Quotes

“Every child grows up thinking their father is a hero or villain until they are old enough to realize that he is just a man”
― Mark Maish

“A father should do more - a father should give more to his children than he takes.”
― Rick Riordan, The Hidden Oracle

“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.

“...having a child is like casting off your own childhood forever. It's as if it's only then that you really grasp what it means to be a man. You're scared too that all your weaknesses will be laid bare, because fatherhood demands more than you can give.... I always felt I had to earn your love, because I loved you so, so much.”
― Nina George, The Little Paris Bookshop

“A father is only capable of giving what he has, and what he knows. A good father gives all of himself that is good.”
― Vincent Carrella

“Anyone can make a baby, but it takes a man to be a father.”
― Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me

“When a boy feels as if no one cares about him, or as if he will never amount to anything, he truly believes it doesn’t matter what he does.”
― Clayton Lessor MA, LPC

“The gangs filled a void in society, and the void was the absence of family life. The gang became a family. For some of those guys in the gang that was the only family they knew, because when their mothers had them they were too busy having children for other men. Some of them never knew their daddies. Their daddies never look back after they got their mothers pregnant, and those guys just grew up and they couldn’t relate to nobody.
When they had their problems, who could they have talked to? Nobody would listen, so they gravitated together and form a gang. George Mackey, the former representative for the historic Fox Hill community in The Bahamas.”
― Drexel Deal, The Fight of My Life is Wrapped Up in My Father

“Fathers
Are
The
Humble
Everyday
Real
Servicemen”
― Richelle E. Goodrich, Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year

“Implicit [in the psychiatric literature] is a set of normative assumptions regarding the father's prerogatives and the mother's obligations within the family, The father, like the children, is presumed to be entitled to the mother's love, nurturance, and care. In fact, his dependent needs actually supersede those of the children, for if a mother falls to provide the accustomed intentions, it is taken for granted that some other female must be found to take her place. The oldest daughter is a frequent choice... The father's wish, indeed his right, to continue to receive female nurturance, whatever the circumstances, is accepted without question.”
― Judith Lewis Herman, Father-Daughter Incest

“We were immortal, did you know that? Did you feel it like me? We had the world at our feet and we were going to live forever. Then came life – growing inside you – and I became mortal.”
― Dianna Hardy, Summer's End

“[Lear] is the universal image of the unwisdom and destructiveness of paternal love at its most ineffectual, implacably persuaded of its own benignity, totally devoid of self-knowledge, and careening onward until it brings down the person it loves best, and its world as well.”
― Harold Bloom

“The father who would taste the essence of his fatherhood must turn back from the plane of his experience, take with him the fruits of his journey and begin again beside his child, marching step by step over the same old road.”
― Angelo Patri

“In a patriarchal society, one of the most important functions of the institution of the family is to make feel like a somebody whenever he is in his own yard a man who is a nobody whenever he is in his employer’s yard.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“I’m there for my son 24/7, because I don’t want him to take the road we took. I believe if I had a father around, I would’ve learned plenty things. There was no father there to tell me look here son, this is the wrong way to go. When we were coming up, we learned through trial and error. Anthony ‘Ada’ Allen, one of the former leaders and founders of the Rebellion Raiders street gang.”
― Drexel Deal, The Fight of My Life is Wrapped Up in My Father

“It took to lose my father,
To see the toll of being a rock,
A solid rock - The one solid rock...
Someone can depend on, rely on, base on!

But he never said, he is tired,
Tired of being that solid rock,
The secret behind his persistence,
Maybe i will never know...

For he is not here anymore,
To show how to keep on being a solid rock,
I will have to learn the hard way,
Just like he learned it - I guess!

It took to lose my father,
To see the toll of being a rock,
A rock - The one solid rock...
Everyone can depend on, rely on, base on!”
― Rafia Shujaat

“Men were often far different in their roles as fathers than they were as suitors, the memories of which kept them, out of necessity, both vigilant and violent, and even in tender moments, to their daughters.”
― James Anderson, The Never-Open Desert Diner

“Very bad joke,” Obi-Wan muttered. “D’you know, there are times when you and Bail Organa are uncannily alike.”

Anakin kept a straight face, just. “Thank you.”

“That wasn’t a compliment,” growled Obi-Wan,”
― Karen Miller, Stealth

“Passion stimulates you, love intoxicates you, marriage sobers you, and parenthood tries you.”
― Matshona Dhliwayo

“Despite what you might believe right now, your son’s future is bright. You only
need the right tools to help him get there.”
― Clayton Lessor MA, LPC

“Make me the father, O Lord, who will show my sons enough of a sense of humor, so that they will always be serious, but never take themselves too seriously. Give them humility, so they will always remember the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true strength.”
― Thom S. Rainer

“Mom hadn't met Ramon; her advocacy was more arm's length - petitions, the website, letter writing, meetings with politicians. Her friend Hanna had formed a close friendship with Ramon though, visiting him as often as she could. Hanna told me that Ramon's greatest regret was that he wouldn't get to see his daughter grow up.

And Jeremy's dad, who had that opportunity, was just throwing it away.

It made me furious, and I couldn't let it go.”
― Robin Stevenson, The World Without Us

“It is our job as parents, to instill principles and values in our children. So that when they depart from you, those principles and values won’t depart from them. Mallory Bullard, a street soldier from the old school.”
― Drexel Deal, The Fight of My Life is Wrapped Up in My Father

“This book consists not only of my stories of mistakes, rather it’s all our stories of mistakes and heart aches. It’s the plight of all of us who were rebelling, and kicking against the social messes we found ourselves in. Yet there are so many others who are not alive today, and I feel obligated in not allowing the lessons of their mistakes to lie in the grave with them.
It was the United States Senator, Al Franken, who stated, “Mistakes are a part of being human. Precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way unless it's a fatal mistake, which, at least, others can learn from.” I’m revealing all of those mistakes and more, sadly a lot of them are fatal. In an attempt to have these real life lessons obtained in blood, prevent the blood-shedding of so many others. These stories are ones that young people can understand and identify with. While at the same time empowering them, to make better decisions about their choice of friends, the proper use of their time and how one wrong move can be fatal. I guess the major question that we all have to ask ourselves at the end of the day would be: how could I and so many others have been prevented from becoming monsters? You be the judge.
I now extend my hand to you, and personally invite you to take a journey with me into the heartlands of innocence to menacing, from a youngster to a monster, and the making of a predator. I will safely walk you down the deserted and darkened street corners which were once my world of crime, gang violence and senseless murders.
It’s a different world unto itself, one which could only be observed up close by invitation only. Together we will learn the motivation behind hard-core gangsters, and explore the minds of cold-blooded murderers. You will discover the way they think about their own lives, and why they are so remorseless about the taking of another’s life. So, if you will, please journey with me as we discover together how the fight of our lives were wrapped up in our fathers.”
― Drexel Deal, The Fight of My Life is Wrapped Up in My Father

“Soldiers of capitalism are the fathers of dissent.”
― kevin mcpherson eckhoff

“I knew a lot of fellas who live in Lizzy and never got involved in some of the stuff that we were getting into. This was because they had a strong father figure at home, so they couldn’t have gotten involved. The few of those who did end up in the gang even though their father was in the home, their father was just there as a provider, but he was not directly involved in their lives. Shelton ‘Apples’ Burrows reform gang leader”
― Drexel Deal, The Fight of My Life is Wrapped Up in My Father

“Before I was born my father disowned me. You know those ones who get the females pregnant, and then say the baby is not theirs? He rejected me, told my mother that I am not his child, so I never had a relationship with my father. Shelton ‘Apples’ Burrows reform gang leader”
― Drexel Deal, The Fight of My Life is Wrapped Up in My Father

“In the history of American fatherhood, there have been roughly three stages, each a response to economic change. In the first, agrarian stage, a father trained and disciplined his son for employment, and often offered him work on the farm, while his wife brought up the girls. (For blacks, this stage began after slavery ended.) As economic life and vocational training moved out of the family in the early nineteenth century, fathers left more of the child-rearing to their wives. According to the historian John Nash, in both these stages, fathers were often distant and stern. Not until the early twentieth century, when increasing numbers of women developed identities, beyond brief jobs before marriage, in the schoolhouse, factory, and office, did the culture discover the idea that "father was friendly". In the early 1950s, popular magazines began to offer articles with titles such as "Fathers Are Parents Too" and "It's Time Father Got Back into the Family". Today, we are in the third stage of economic development but the second stage of fatherhood.”
― Arlie Hochschild, The Second Shift

“I know that not every family is a clean-cut nuclear Mom and Dad at home situation - but I think every father needs to do whatever he can to be present in the lives of his kids. If you are in a situation where you have not been - fight for it. Don’t give up till you get it. Don’t be a jerk about it - don’t “fight” mom - but “fight” whatever things tell you to just give up. Send cards, make phone calls, pay your support, and do whatever you can to be present in the lives of your children.”
― Josh Hatcher, Manlihood: The 12 Pillars of Masculinity

“It’s time to stop dreaming about who you want your son to be and help him become the healthy, happy, and successful man he’s supposed to be.”
― Clayton Lessor MA, LPC