A PICTORIAL HOMAGE
Fathers are characteristically unobvious expressers of love. Unlike moms who bear children in their womb and feed from their bosom, the dads support from a bit further away. Typically the breadwinner, Dad contributes strong silent masculine leadership in contrast with Mommy’s intimacy and feminine expressiveness. But make no mistake—the unconditional love is there.
Common Ground is proud to showcase this multifaceted homage of quotes and images reflecting the unsung grace and beauty of papa love. To all the valiant and self-sacrificing fathers—thank you!
The greatest gift I ever had came from God;
I call him Dad!
—John Walter Bratton
The heart of a father is the
masterpiece of nature.
—Antoine-François
My father gave me the greatest
gift anyone could give another
person, he believed in me.
—Jim Valvano
I cannot think of any need in
childhood as strong as the need for a
father’s protection.
—Sigmund Freud
Fathering is the most masculine
thing a man can do.
—Frank Pittman
Dads don’t need to be tall and
broad-shouldered and clever.
Love makes them so.
—Pam Brown
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.”
—Harmon Killebrew
It is a wise father that
knows his own child.
—William Shakespeare
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
Until you have a son of your own… you will never
know the joy, the love beyond feeling that resonates
in the heart of a father as he looks upon his son. You
will never know the sense of honor that makes a man
want to be more than he is and to pass something
good and hopeful into the hands of his son. And you
will never know the heartbreak of the fathers who
are haunted by the personal demons that keep them
from being the men they want their sons to be.
—Kent Nerburn
Every father should remember one
day his son will follow his example,
not his advice.
—Charles Kettering
My heart is happy, my mind is free. I
had a father who talked with me.
—Hilde Bigelow
Noble fathers have noble children.
—Euripedes
You will find that if you
really try to be a father, your
child will meet you halfway.
—Robert Brault
Not every successful man is
a good father. But every good
father is a successful man.
—Robert Duvall
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
One father is more than a
hundred schoolmasters.
—George Herbert