Dads may be one of the closest things we have to real-life superheroes. They are strong and brave, total legends. They can also be some of the best teachers, coaches and mentors we’ll ever have, full of wisdom and always there to cheer us on. This Father’s Day, show your dad or the fatherly figure in your life how much you love and appreciate him with these 25 heartwarming quotes about fatherhood.
Father’s Day quotes about being a dad
“A good father is one of the most unsung, unpraised, unnoticed, and yet one of the most valuable assets in our society.”
—Billy Graham
“A father is a man who expects his son to be as good a man as he meant to be.”
—Frank A. Clark
“I realized being a father is the greatest job I have ever had and the greatest job I will ever have.”
—Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
“[Fatherhood is] the greatest thing that could ever happen. You can’t explain it until it happens—it’s like telling somebody what water feels like before they’ve ever swam in it.”
—Michael Bublé
“You think you know how much you can love another person and then you have a child and you realize you didn’t know. It’s infinitely rewarding.”
—Ashton Kutcher
“What I’ve realized is that life doesn’t count for much unless you’re willing to do your small part to leave our children—all of our children—a better world. 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.”
—Barack Obama
“Anyone who tells you fatherhood is the greatest thing that can happen to you, they are understating it.”
—Mike Myers
“I love being a dad; it’s one of the joys of life. In fact, you can take it all away from me tomorrow, but don’t take away my children.”
—Idris Elba
“It’s the one thing I’ve always wanted to be. Never is a man more of a man than when he is the father of a newborn.”
—Matthew McConaughey
“In my career there’s many things I’ve won, and many things I’ve achieved. But my greatest achievement is my family. What matters is being a good father and a good husband—just being connected to family as much as possible.”
—David Beckham
“No matter what drama I deal with at work, when I get home and hear them scream, ‘Daddy!’ I forget whatever it was I was stressed about.”
—Mario Lopez
“I love being a dad. Fatherhood is the best thing that could happen to me, and I’m just glad I can share my voice.”
—Dwayne Wade
A father’s love
“For the first time he realized that the man before him was not an aging father but a boy, a boy much like himself, a boy who grew up and had a child of his own and, as best he could, out of a sense of duty and, perhaps, love, adopted a role called Being a Father so that his child would have something mythical and infinitely important: a Protector, who would keep a lid on all the chaotic and catastrophic possibilities of life.”
—Tom Wolfe, The Bonfire of the Vanities
“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
“What I do with my children, that I feel that the greatest gift that I can give my children is the freedom to be who they are.”
—Will Smith
“My father turned my life around insisting I be more than I was and by believing I could be more.”
—Oprah Winfrey
“The quality of a father can be seen in the goals, dreams and aspirations he sets not only for himself, but for his family.”
—Reed Markham
“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.”
—Margaret Truman
“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
“I love my father as the stars—he’s a bright shining example and a happy twinkling in my heart.”
—Terri Guillemets
Father’s Day quotes about dads
“My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me.”
—Jim Valvano
“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
“A father carries pictures where his money used to be.”
—Steve Martin
“The heart of a father is the masterpiece of nature.”
—Antoine-François Prévost
“Dads are most ordinary men turned by love into heroes, adventurers, story-tellers and singers of song.”
—Pam Brown
This article was updated June 2023. Photo by eggeegg/Shutterstock
