Fatherland
“When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”
Attributed to Mark Twain
The Reader’s Digest, September 1939
“As fathers commonly go, it is seldom a misfortune to be fatherless; and considering the general run of sons, as seldom a misfortune to be childless.”
Lord Chesterfield
Letters, 1751
“Fathers should be neither seen nor heard. That is the only proper basis for family life.”
Oscar Wilde
An Ideal Husband, 1895
“A father is a banker provided by nature.”
Unknown
Quoted in The Oxford Book of Aphorisms, 1983
“What a dreadful thing it must be to have a dull father.”
Mary Mapes Dodge
Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates, 1865
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
It took such months to get.
Phyllis McGinley
Times Three, 1960
