My father taught me that the only way you can make good at anything is to practice, and then practice some more.
His mother called such people ignorant and superstitious, but his father only shook his head slowly and puffed his pipe and said that sometimes old stories had a grain or two of truth in them and it was best not to take chances. It was why, he said, he crossed himself whenever a black cat crossed his path.
My son, a perfect little boy of five years and three months, had ended his earthly life. You can never sympathize with me; you can never know how much of me such a young child can take away. A few weeks ago I accounted myself a very rich man, and now the poorest of all.
A righteous man hates lying, But a wicked man is loathsome and comes to shame.
He was a father. That's what a father does. Eases the burdens of those he loves. Saves the ones he loves from painful last images that might endure for a lifetime.
There's something like a line of gold thread running through a man's words when he talks to his daughter, and gradually over the years it gets to be long enough for you to pick up in your hands and weave into a cloth that feels like love itself.
Love and fear. Everything the father of a family says must inspire one or the other.
Parenting is about being competent and responsible. It's not about gender, necessarily.
I don't know what I'm doing, but my incompetence has never stopped my enthusiasm.
Life was a lot simpler when what we honored was father and mother rather than all major credit cards.
For thousands of years, father and son have stretched wistful hands across the canyon of time, each eager to help the other to his side, but neither quite able to desert the loyalties of his contemporaries. The relationship is always changing and hence always fragile; nothing endures except the sense of difference.
Many a man wishes he were strong enough to tear a telephone book in half - especially if he has a teenage daughter.
One of the greatest gifts my father gave me - unintentionally - was witnessing the courage with which he bore adversity. We had a bit of a rollercoaster life with some really challenging financial periods. He was always unshaken, completely tranquil, the same ebullient, laughing, jovial man.
Having a kid is like falling in love for the first time when you're 12, but every day.
Growing up, I've enjoyed hunting with my father.
The father who does not teach his son his duties is equally guilty with the son who neglects them.
Dads don't need to be tall and broad-shouldered and clever. Love makes them so.
A man never stands as tall as when he kneels to help a child.
My father always wanted to be the corpse at every funeral, the bride at every wedding and the baby at every christening.
Of course my father was a great influence on me. He taught me how to read.