Fathers
Quotes - I lost my father this past year
“Some
of us were brought into this troubled world primarily or only to increase our
fathers’ chances of not being left by our mothers, or vice versa.”
―
Mokokoma Mokhonoana, The Use and Misuse of Children
“Sundays
too my father got up early
and
put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then
with cracked hands that ached
from
labor in the weekday weather made
banked
fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.
I'd
wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When
the rooms were warm, he'd call,
and
slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing
the chronic angers of that house,
speaking
indifferently to him,
who
had driven out the cold
and
polished my good shoes as well.
What
did I know, what did I know
of
love's austere and lonely offices?”
―
Robert Hayden, Collected Poems
“Hadley
realises that even though everything else is different, even though there's
still an ocean between them, nothing really important has changed at all.
He's
still her dad. The rest is just geography.”
―
Jennifer E. Smith, The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight
“I'd
love to know how Dad saw me when I was 6. I'd love to know a hundred things.
When a parent dies, a filing cabinet full of all the fascinating stuff also
ceases to exist. I never imagined how hungry I'd be one day to look inside it.”
―
David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks
“Being
a role model is the most powerful form of educating...too often fathers neglect
it because they get so caught up in making a living they forget to make a
life.”
―
John Wooden, Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the
Court
“Children
are gifts. They are not ours for the breaking. They are ours for the making.”
―
Dan Pearce, Single Dad Laughing: The Best of Year One
“The
monsters are gone."
"Really?"
Doubtful.
"I
killed the monsters. That's what fathers do.”
― F
K Wallace
“A
father’s tears and fears are unseen, his love is unexpressed, but his care and
protection remains as a pillar of strength throughout our lives.”
―
Ama H.Vanniarachchy
“There
is no teacher equal to mother and there's nothing more contagious than the
dignity of a father.”
―
Amit Ray, World Peace: The Voice of a Mountain Bird
“Father!
My
father knows the proper way
The
nation should be run;
He
tells us children every day
Just
what should now be done.
He
knows the way to fix the trusts,
He
has a simple plan;
But
if the furnace needs repairs,
We
have to hire a man.
My
father, in a day or two
Could
land big thieves in jail;
There's
nothing that he cannot do,
He
knows no word like "fail."
"Our
confidence" he would restore,
Of
that there is no doubt;
But
if there is a chair to mend,
We
have to send it out.
All
public questions that arise,
He
settles on the spot;
He
waits not till the tumult dies,
But grabs
it while it's hot.
In
matters of finance he can
Tell
Congress what to do;
But,
O, he finds it hard to meet
His
bills as they fall due.
It
almost makes him sick to read
The
things law-makers say;
Why,
father's just the man they need,
He
never goes astray.
All
wars he'd very quickly end,
As
fast as I can write it;
But
when a neighbor starts a fuss,
'Tis
mother has to fight it.
In
conversation father can
Do
many wondrous things;
He's
built upon a wiser plan
Than
presidents or kings.
He
knows the ins and outs of each
And
every deep transaction;
We
look to him for theories,
But
look to ma for action”
―
Edgar Albert Guest
“When
he died, I went about like a ragged crow telling strangers, "My father
died, my father died." My indiscretion embarrassed me, but I could not
help it. Without my father on his Delhi rooftop, why was I here? Without him
there, why should I go back? Without that ache between us, what was I made of?”
―
Kiran Desai
“I
lost my father this past year, and the word feels right because I keep looking
for him. As if he were misplaced. As if he could just turn up, like a sock or a
set of keys.”
―
Mark Slouka
“I
wondered what my father had looked like that day, how he had felt, marrying the
lively and beautiful girl who was my mother. I wondered what his life was like
now. Did he ever think of us? I wanted to hate him, but I couldn't; I didn't
know him well enough. Instead, I wondered about him occasionally, with a
confused kind of longing. There was a place inside me carved out for him; I
didn't want it to be there, but it was. Once, at the hardware store, Brooks had
shown me how to use a drill. I'd made a tiny hole that went deep. The place for
my father was like that.”
―
Elizabeth Berg, We Are All Welcome Here
“Papa
was a man with silver eyes, not dead ones.
Papa
was an accordion!
But
his bellows were all empty.
Nothing
went in and nothing came out.”
―
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
“I
should no longer define myself as the son of a father who couldn’t or hasn’t or
wouldn’t or wasn’t.”
―
Cameron Conaway, Caged: Memoirs of a Cage-Fighting Poet
“They
were talking more distantly than if they were strangers who had just met, for
if they had been he would have been interested in her just because of that, and
curious, but their common past was a wall of indifference between them. Kitty
knew too well that she had done nothing to beget her father's affection, he had
never counted in the house and had been taken for granted, the bread-winner who
was a little despised because he could provide no more luxuriously for his
family; but she had taken for granted that he loved her just because he was her
father, and it was a shock to discover that his heart was empty of feeling for
her. She had known that they were all bored by him, but it had never occurred
to her that he was equally bored by them. He was as ever kind and subdued, but
the sad perspicacity which she had learnt in suffering suggested to her that,
though he probably never acknowledged it to himself and never would, in his
heart he disliked her.”
― W.
Somerset Maugham, The Painted Veil
“Dads.
It’s time to tell our kids that we love them. Constantly. It’s time to show our
kids that we love them. Constantly. It’s time to take joy in their
twenty-thousand daily questions and their inability to do things as quickly as
we’d like. It’s time to take joy in their quirks and their ticks. It’s time to
take joy in their facial expressions and their mispronounced words. It’s time
to take joy in everything that our kids are.”
―
Dan Pearce, Single Dad Laughing: The Best of Year One
“She
didn't have a daddy?" I asked.
"No."
"Did
you have a daddy?"
"You're
all questions, aren't you? No, love. We never went in for that sort of thing.
You only need men if you want to breed more men.”
―
Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane
