Father’s Day – in quotes

So, dads, your big day is here… and Weekender has gathered some quotations in your honour. Some funny, some daft, some literary but all for you guys. Good work, chaps! 

Never raise your hand to your kids. It leaves your groin unprotected. 

Red Buttons 

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 Piersall, on How to Diaper a Baby 

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To be a successful father, there’s one absolute rule: when you have a kid, don’t look at it for the first two years. 

Ernest Hemingway 

If the new American father feels bewildered and even defeated, let him take comfort from the fact that whatever he does in any fathering situation has a 50 per cent chance of being right. 

Bill Cosby 

The thing to remember about fathers is… they’re men. A girl has to keep it in mind: They are dragon-seekers, bent on improbable rescues. Scratch any father, you find someone chock-full of qualms and romantic terrors, believing change is a threat, like your first shoes with heels on, like your first bicycle… 

Phyllis McGinley 

Sir Walter, being strangely surprised and put out of his countenance at so great a table, gives his son a damned blow over the face. His son, as rude as he was, would not strike his father, but strikes over the face the gentleman that sat next to him and said, “Box about: twill come to my father anon.” 

John Aubrey 

If the relationship of father to son could really be reduced to biology, the whole earth would blaze with the glory of fathers and sons. 

James Baldwin 

When Charles first saw our child Mary, he said all the proper things for a new father. He looked upon the poor little red thing and blurted, “She’s more beautiful than the Brooklyn Bridge.” 

Helen Hayes 

My father hated radio and he could not wait for television to be invented so that he could hate that too. 

Peter De Vries 

Life was a lot simpler when what we honoured was father and mother rather than all major credit cards. 

Robert Orben