Life

14 Father's Day Quotes To Share In 2017
by Madeleine Aggeler
A father picks up his son, holding him aloft. The boy is laughing and shouting, mouth wide open, loo...
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Dear Dads,

Every third Sunday in June, America comes together to celebrate you. Whether you’re present or absent, biological or adopted, gay or straight, funny or soul-crushingly embarrassing, you have a huge influence on the choices we make, the lives we lead, and the people we become. This year, Father’s Day is June 18th, and while we wrack our brains for what presents to get you (why are you so hard to shop for?!) here are some Father's Day quotes to share to celebrate you, the father figures in our lives.

The relationships between fathers and their children is complicated. If we're lucky, you raised us, loved us, taught us how to yoyo and parallel park. You let us eat pancakes for dinner, and wipe our noses on your shirtsleeves, and advised us to remove our middle school babysitting gig from our CV’s. In exchange, we fix your iPad, explain pop culture slang, and pretend not to hear when you fart.

These quotes are reminder of how beautiful, complicated, infuriating, and uplifting this relationship can be, and to honor that, we’re going to use them as captions for Facebook throwback pictures of your carrying us on your shoulders while rocking a '90s-tastic mustache and t-shirt.

So here’s to you, Dads. We’ll try to Facetime you on your “gizmo” later.

“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

“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

"To be the father of growing daughters is to understand something of what Yeats evokes with his imperishable phrase 'terrible beauty.' Nothing can make one so happily exhilarated or so frightened: It's a solid lesson in the limitations of self to realize that your heart is running around inside someone else's body." - Christopher Hitchens

"My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person; he believed in me." -Jim Valvano

"Dads are most ordinary men turned by love into heroes, adventurers, story-tellers, and singers of song." - Pam Brown

“Raising kids may be a thankless job with ridiculous hours, but at least the pay sucks.” - Jim Gaffigan

"A few days after we came home from the hospital, I sent a letter to a friend, including a photo of my son and some first impressions of fatherhood. He responded, simply, 'Everything is possible again.' It was the perfect thing to write because that was exactly how it felt." - Jonathan Safran Foer

"Fathers, like mothers, are not born. Men grow into fathers and fathering is a very important stage in their development." - David Gottesman

"The only way I can describe [fatherhood] — it sounds stupid, but — at the end of 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas,' you now how his heart grows, like, five times its size? Everything is full; it's full all the time." - Matt Damon

"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." -John Gregory Brown

“Anyone can make a baby, but it takes a man to be a father.” - Ta-Nehisi Coates

"What I've realized is that life doesn't really count for much unless you're willing to do your small part to leave our children — all of our children — a better world. Even if it's difficult... that's our responsibility as fathers and parents. We try. We hope." - Neil Patrick Harris

“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

"Remember: What dad really wants is a nap. Really." - Dave Barry