Dad is easy to celebrate. After all, he’s the guy who makes things happen, from coaching Little League and playing chauffeur to grilling up dinner and performing all of the thankless chores around the house. Still, sometimes it’s hard to find the words to tell him just how much you appreciate him. But, even if he’s not the most emotional guy, he’ll appreciate the sentiment. We’re here to help with these Father’s Day quotes for every type of dad. Write these in a Father’s Day card or use them as your instagram caption on June 19.
So, what can you find in our list? Well, you’ll come across dad quotes both funny and profound. “Lately all my friends are worried they’re turning into their fathers. I’m worried I’m not,” quips Dan Zevin, while Liza Minnelli digs a bit deeper: “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.” We concur. (Want more humor? Check out the best dad jokes right here!)
1Jimmy Fallon
” ‘ Have fun’ is my message. Be silly. You’re allowed to be silly. There’s nothing wrong with it.”
“The only way I can describe it…at the end of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, you know how his heart grows, like, five times its size? Everything is full. It’s just full all the time.”
“Being a dad isn’t just about eating a huge bag of gummy bears as your wife gives birth. It means being comfortable with the word ‘hero.’”
“The heart of a father is the masterpiece of nature.”
“You’re simply the best.”
“Raising kids may be a thankless job but at least the pay sucks.”
“It’s the most profound gift and the most daunting challenge.”
“Every son’s first superhero is his father.”
“There should be a children’s song: If you’re happy and you know it, keep it to yourself and let your dad sleep.”
“Everyone talks about the joy of having kids—blah, blah, blah. But I never knew how much I could love something until I looked in the faces of my children.”
“The biggest lesson for my kids is that they know they are the most important things I have. No matter what is going on in my life, your kids are forever.”
“Having a baby is just living in the constant unexpected. You never know when you’re gonna get crapped on or when you’re gonna get a big smile or when that smile immediately turns to hysterics.”
“Sleep at this point is just a concept, something I look forward to investigating in the future.”
“It doesn’t matter what time of the night it is or how tired you are, they make you smile, they make you happy.”
“It’s not easy being a mom. If it were easy, fathers would do it.”
“Why don’t kids understand that their nap is not for them, it’s for us?”
“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.’ ”
“She did not stand alone, but what stood behind her, the most potent moral force in her life, was the love of her father.”
“When you’re young, you think your dad is Superman. Then you grow up, and you realize he’s just a regular guy who wears a cape.”
“I talk and talk and talk, and I haven’t taught people in 50 years what my father taught by example in one week.”
“My favorite thing about being a father is just seeing my kids grow and do some of the same things that I did when I was a kid, man.”
“Lately all my friends are worried they’re turning into their fathers. I’m worried I’m not.”
“Baby I paint the sky blue / My greatest creation was you.”
“To a father growing old, nothing is dearer than a daughter.”
“Fatherhood is the great thing that could ever happen. You can’t explain it until it happens—it’s like telling someone what water feels like before they’ve ever swam in it.”
“If the relationship of father to son could really be reduced to biology, the whole earth would blaze with the glory of fathers and sons.”
“I remember a very important lesson that my father gave me when I was twelve or thirteen. He said, ‘You know, today I welded a perfect seam and I signed my name to it.’ And I said, ‘But, Daddy, no one’s going to see it!’ And he said, ‘Yeah, but I know it’s there.’ So when I was working in kitchens, I did good work.”
“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.”
“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.”
“The older I get, the smarter my father seems to get.”
“A father carries pictures where his money used to be.”
“The greatest tribute a boy can give to his father is to say, ‘When I grow up, I want to be just like my dad.'”
“Having a kid is like falling in love for the first time when you’re 12, but every single day.”
“In my career, there’s many things I’ve won and many things I’ve achieved, but for me, my greatest achievement is my children and my family. ”
“When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant, I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”
“I’m a father; that’s what matters most. Nothing matters more.”
“To me, having kids is the ultimate job in life. I want to be most successful at being a good father.”
“Fatherhood is the best thing that could happen to me, and I’m just glad I can share my voice.”
“Anyone can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a dad, and that’s why I call you dad, because you are so special to me.”
41Christopher Meloni
“I had no expectations about fatherhood, really, but it’s definitely a journey I’m glad to be taking.”
“Becoming a dad means you have to be a role model for your son and be someone he can look up to.”
“My dad’s my best mate, and he always will be.”
“A good father is one of the most unsung, unpraised, unnoticed, and yet one of the most valuable assets in our society.”
“By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he’s wrong.”
“Lookin’ back all I can say about all the things he did for me is I hope I’m at least half the dad that he didn’t have to be.”
“A father is a man who expects his children to be as good as he meant to be.”
48George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings
“There’s no shame in fear, my father told me, what matters is how we face it.”
“Daddies don’t just love their children every now and then, it’s a love without end.”
“What you teach your children, you also teach their children.”
“An almost perfect relationship with his father was the earthly root of all his wisdom.”
“On behalf of every man looking out for every girl, you are the God and the weight of her world.”
“I only hope when I have my own family that everyday I see a little more of my father in me.”
“When my father didn’t have my hand, he had my back.”
“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.”
“A father is the one friend upon whom we can always rely.”
“He adopted a role called being a father so that his child would have something mythical and infinitely important: a protector.”
“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.”
59Johann Friedrich Von Schiller
“It is not flesh and blood, but the heart which makes us fathers and sons.”
“A father is someone you look up to no matter how tall you grow.”
“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.”
62Clarence Budington Kelland
“My father didn’t tell me how to live. He lived and let me watch him do it.”
“My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person: He believed in me.”
“A father is neither an anchor to hold us back nor a sail to take us there, but a guiding light whose love shows us the way.”
“Dads are most ordinary men turned by love into heroes, adventurers, story-tellers, and singers of song.”
“Sometimes the poorest man leaves his children the richest inheritance.”
“Any man can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a Dad.”
