“‘Walk a little slower, Daddy,’ said a little child so small. I’m following in your footsteps and I don’t want to fall.  Sometimes you steps are very fast, sometimes they’re hard to see; so walk a little slower Daddy, for you are lead me. Someday when I’m all grown up, you’re what I want to be, then I will have a little child who’ll want to follow me. And I would want to lead just right, and know that I was true; so walk a little slower, Daddy, for I must follow you!’” [Author unknown]

“Small boys become big men through the influence of big men who care about small boys.” [Author unknown]

"Any fool can be a Father, but it takes a real man to be a Daddy!" [Unknown]

"The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother." [Unknown]

"Fathers, be good to your daughters … You are the god and the weight of her world. So fathers, be good to your daughters. Daughters will love like you do. Girls become lovers who turn into mothers, so mothers, be good to your daughters, too." [Johan Mayer, singer-songwriter]

"He didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it." [Clarence Budington Kelland (1881 – 1964), an American fiction writer]

"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 (1936-2011), was an American professional baseball player]

"Fatherhood is pretending the present you love most is soap-on-a-rope." [Bill Cosby, American comedian and actor]

"A father carries pictures where his money used to be." [Unknown]

"When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years." [Mark Twain (1835-1910), born Samuel Clemens, was an American author and humorist]

"Spread the diaper in the position of the diamond with you at bat. Then fold second base down to home and set the baby on the pitcher's mound. Put first base and third together, bring up home plate and pin the three together. Of course, in case of rain, you gotta call the game and start all over again." [Jimmy Piersal, American professional baseball player]

"By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he's wrong." [Unknown]

"Small boys become big men through the influence of big men who care about small boys." [Unknown]

"A man never stands as tall as when he kneels to help a child." [Unknown]

"I watched a small man with thick calluses on both hands work fifteen and sixteen hours a day. I saw him once literally bleed from the bottoms of his feet, a man who came here uneducated, alone, unable to speak the language, who taught me all I needed to know about faith and hard work by the simple eloquence of his example." [Mario Cuomo, former governor of NY from 1983 to 1994]

"Be a dad. Don’t be "Mom’s Assistant".... Be a man.... Fathers have skills that they never use at home. You run a landscaping business and you can’t dress and feed a four-year-old? Take it on. Spend time with your kids.... It won’t take away your manhood, it will give it to you." [Louis C.K., Mexican-American comedian, screenwriter, producer, film director, actor, voice actor, and film editor]

"Every father should remember that one day his son will follow his example instead of his advice." [Unkonwn]

"By profession I am a soldier and take pride in that fact. But I am prouder--infinitely prouder--to be a father. A soldier destroys in order to build; the father only builds, never destroys." [Douglas MacArthur, (1880 –  1964), American five-star general and field marshal of the Philippine Army who was Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II]

"Any fool can be a Father, but it takes a real man to be a Daddy!" [Unknown]

"The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother." [Unknown]

"Fathers, be good to your daughters … You are the god and the weight of her world. So fathers, be good to your daughters. Daughters will love like you do. Girls become lovers who turn into mothers, so mothers, be good to your daughters, too." [Johan Mayer, singer-songwriter]

"My father didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it." [Clarence Budington Kelland (1881–1964), an American fiction writer]

"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 (1936-2011), was an American professional baseball player.]

“Being a father is a choice. Staying true to fatherhood is a duty. [Joan Ambu (1980 - ) is a Cameroon born American writer and poet.]

“A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms, even when his hands are empty.” [Unknown]

“Fatherhood is a vocation in God’s service, to be not held lightly or frivolously, but with the serious determination of serious men.” [Father Lawrence Lovasik (1913 - ) was a Catholic priest, missionary and author of more than thirty books on spiritual life and duty.]

“When you teach your son, you teach your son’s son.” [The Talmud]

“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” [Frederick Douglass (1818 – 1895) was an African-American social reformer, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement.]

“By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he’s wrong.” [Charles Wadsworth, American clergyman]

“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]

“One night a fatter overheard his son pray: Dear God, make me the kind of man my daddy is. Later that night, the father prayed, Dear God, make me the kind of man my son wants me to be.” [Unknown]

“It doesn’t matter who my father was; it matter who I remember he was.” [Ann Sexton (1928 – 1974) was an American poet, known for her highly personal, confessional verse.]

“Having kids doesn’t make you a father; raising them does.” [Unknown]

“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.’ Then dad would reply, ‘We’re no raising grass. We’re raising boys.’” [Harmon Killebrew (1936 – 2011), nicknamed "The Killer" and "Hammerin' Harmon", was an American professional baseball first baseman, third baseman, and left fielder.]

“The father who would taste the expense office fatherhood must turn back from the plane office 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 (1876 – 1965) was an Italian-American author and educator.]

“There are three stages of a man’s life: He believes in Santa Claus; he doesn’t believe in Santa Claus; he IS Santa Claus.” [Unknown]

“Fatherhood is great because you can ruin someone from scratch.” [Jon Stewart (1962 - ) is an American comedian, writer, filmmaker, actor, media critic, and television host. He is the host of The Daily Show, a satirical news program that airs on Comedy Central.]

“Do I want to be a hero to my son? No. I would like to be a very real human being. That’s hard enough.” [Robert Downey Jr. (1965- ) is an American actor, producer most famous for his role as the superhero Ironman.]

“I believe that what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments, when they aren’t tying to teach us. We are formed by little scraps of wisdom.” [Umberto Eco (1932 - ) is an Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist.]

“Why is it that you hardly ever see mothers throwing their children in the air? Fathers are special.” [Michael Josephson (1942 - ) is a former law professor and attorney who founded the nonprofit Joseph and Edna Josephson Institute of Ethics.]

Sometimes we can fear showing even very simple, clear acts of love. Many fathers rarely tell their children that they love them. The National Center for Fathering reports, from the informal surveying of fathers that only about 3-4% of fathers tell their children that they love them on a consistent basis. It’s not that they don’t love their children, they do, and they often desperately want to tell their children that they love them. But they don’t because they’re afraid of how their children might respond.

According to the Center:

Our words—or sometimes our lack of words—can either bless or discourage our children for their entire lives. And we’ve heard all the excuses: 'They know how much I love them.' 'I don’t want my son to get a big head.' 'It just isn’t what we do in our family.' But those are just excuses. If we know how much it benefits our children, there’s really no reason we shouldn’t say it.

Fear often causes us to shrink back from doing what we know we "ought" to do, causing us to lean into excuses.

But the Center assures us:

... [T]hose three words, spoken with sincerity and backed up by behavior, can demonstrate support, encouragement, tenderness, and caring as much as anything else we do as fathers.