Finding the right words can be difficult–we’ve all been there. Whether you’re adding a personalized inscription to a generic Father’s Day card, or crafting up the perfect text message or Instagram caption, it’s worth spending a little extra time to ensure your words are meaningful. In order to help you prepare for the holiday (Sunday, June 19), we’ve rounded up some of the best quotes for Father’s Day, ranging from light-hearted and silly to sweet and sentimental.
“A father is someone you look up to no matter how tall you grow.”
– Unknown
“[My father] always provided me a safe place to land and a hard place from which to launch.”
– Chelsea Clinton
“When my father didn’t have my hand, he had my back.”
– Linda Poindexter
“Dads are most ordinary men turned by love into heroes, adventurers, storytellers, and singers of song.”
– Unknown
“No man I ever met was my father’s equal, and I never loved any other man as much.”
– Hedy Lamarr
“My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me.”
– Jim Valvano
“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
“My dad’s my best mate, and he always will be.”
– Cher Lloyd
“My father didn’t tell me how to live. He lived, and let me watch him do it.”
– Clarence Budington Kelland
“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. You taught me the game and you taught me how to play it right.”
– Wade Boggs
“She did not stand alone, but what stood behind her, the most potent moral force in her life, was the love of her father.”
– Harper Lee, Go Set a Watchman
“To a father growing old nothing is dearer than a daughter.”
– Euripides
“I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father’s protection.”
– Sigmund Freud
“An almost perfect relationship with his father was the earthly root of all his wisdom.”
– C.S. Lewis
“A father carries pictures where his money used to be.”
– Steve Martin
“One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters.”
– George Herbert
“No man stands taller than when he stoops to help a child.”
– Abraham Lincoln
“When a father gives to his son, both laugh; when a son gives to his father, both cry.”
– William Shakespeare
“To her, the name of father was another name for love.”
– Fanny Fern
“A father is the one friend upon whom we can always rely.”
– Emile Gaboriau
“Some people don’t believe in heroes, but they haven’t met my dad.”
– Unknown
“Having a kid is like falling in love for the first time when you’re 12, but every single day.”
– Mike Myers
“Daddies don’t just love their children every now and then, it’s a love without end.”
– George Strait
“By profession I am a soldier and take great pride in that fact, but I am also prouder, infinitely prouder, to be a father. A soldier destroys in order to build; the father only builds, never destroys.”
– General Douglas MacArthur
“He adopted a role called being a father so that his child would have something mythical and infinitely important: a protector.”
– Tom Wolfe
“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”
– Frederick Douglass
“Lately all my friends are worried they’re turning into their fathers. I’m worried I’m not.”
– Dan Zevin
“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 little scraps of wisdom.”
– Umberto Eco, Foucault’s Pendulum
“It was times like these when I thought my father, who hated guns and had never been to any wars, was the bravest man who ever lived.”
– Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird
“There’s no shame in fear, my father told me, what matters is how we face it.”
– George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings
“Every son’s first superhero is his father”
– Tiger Schroff
“The heart of a father is the masterpiece of nature.”
– Antoine François Prévost, Manon Lescaut
“Sometimes I think my papa is an accordion. When he looks at me and smiles and breathes, I hear the notes.”
– Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
“The older I get, the smarter my father seems to get.”
– Tim Russert
“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.”
– Unknown
“If there is any immortality to be had among us human beings, it is certainly only in the love that we leave behind. Fathers like mine don’t ever die.”
HARMON KILLEBREW
“My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, ‘You’re tearing up the grass.’ ‘We’re not raising grass,’ Dad would reply. ‘We’re raising boys.'”
CHARLES KETTERING
“Every father should remember one day his son will follow his example, not his advice.”
DAVID JEREMIAH
“A girl’s father is the first man in her life, and probably the most influential.”
CHER LLOYD
“My dad’s my best mate, and he always will be.”
LIZA MINNELLI
“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.”
LINDA POINDEXTER
“When my father didn’t have my hand, he had my back.”
C.S. LEWIS
“An almost perfect relationship with his father was the earthly root of all wisdom.”
MARGARET TRUMAN
“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.”
FRANK A. CLARK
“A father is a man who expects his son to be as good a man as he meant to be.”
UNKNOWN
“A father is someone you look up to no matter how tall you grow.”
CHARLES WADSWORTH
“By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he’s wrong.”
DAN ZEVIN
“Lately all my friends are worried they’re turning into their fathers. I’m worried I’m not.”
STEVE MARTIN
“A father carries pictures where his money used to be.”
TOM WOLFE
“He adopted a role called Being a Father so that his child would have something mythical and infinitely important: a Protector.”
ATOINE-FRANÇOIS PRÉVOST
‘The heart of a father is the masterpiece of nature.”
GLORIA NAYLOR
“Old as she was, she still missed her Daddy sometimes.”
RUTH E. RENKEL
“Sometimes the poorest man leaves his children the richest inheritance.”
TERRI GUILLEMETS
“I love my father as the stars — he’s a bright shining example and a happy twinkling in my heart.”
MARINELA REKA
“Being a daddy’s girl is like having permanent armor for the rest of your life.”
EURIPIDES
“To a father growing old, nothing is dearer than a daughter.”
UNKNOWN
“The only thing better than having you for a husband is our children having you for a dad.”
WADE BOGGS
“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. You taught me the game and you taught me how to play it right.”
“The quality of a father can be seen in the goals, dreams, and aspirations he sets not only for himself, but for his family.”
CLARENCE BUDINGTON KELLAND
“My father didn’t tell me how to live. He lived and let me watch him do it.”
HEDY LAMARR
“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.”
JIM VALVANO
“My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person: He believed in me.”
UMBERTO ECO
“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.”
PAM BROWN
“Dads are most ordinary men turned by love into heroes, adventurers, story-tellers, and singers of song.”
JOHANN FRIEDRICH VON SCHILLER
“It is not flesh and blood, but the heart which makes us fathers and sons.”
SIGMUND FREUD
“I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father’s protection.”
UNKNOWN
“Some people don’t believe in heroes, but they haven’t met my dad.”
UNKNOWN
“To the world you are a dad. To our family you are the world.”
BARACK OBAMA
“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.”
CHRIS PRATT
“I’ve jumped out of helicopters and done some daring stunts and played baseball in a professional stadium, but none of it means anything compared to being somebody’s daddy.”
ANNE SEXTON
“It doesn’t matter who my father was; it matters who I remember he was.”
DENZEL WASHINGTON
“The strongest, toughest men all have compassion. They’re not heartless and cold. You have to be man enough to have compassion — to care about people and about your children.”
RYAN GOSLING
“When you meet your kids you realize that they deserve great parents. And then you have your marching orders and you have to try and become the person that they deserve.”
