Father Daughter Quotes

Sexually active? Sexually active? Patrick and I hadn't even learned the fine points of kissing yet!
I marched on down. 'For your information,' I said from the doorway, as both Dad and Lester jerked to attention, 'I am about as sexually active as a bag of spinach, and if you want to keep me on the porch and not out in the park somewhere behind the bushes, you'll keep the stupid porch light off when I come home with a boy. ~ Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Ordinary father-daughter love had a charge to it that generally was both permitted and indulged. There was just something so beautiful about the big father complementing the tiny girl. Bigness and tininess together at last – yet the bigness would never hurt the tininess! It respected it. In a world in which big always crushes tiny, you wanted to cry at the beauty of big being kind of and worshipful of and being humbled by tiny. You couldn't help but think of your own father as you saw your little girl with hers. ~ Meg Wolitzer

My father in the film - which we probably haven't seen in previous movies, and in British Asian movies you could probably count on one hand - he says exactly why, actually why he's frightened for his daughter. He came to this country, England, and had a bit of a crappy time. ~ Parminder Nagra

She remembers these as happy times - tomboy days, when she still glittered like quartz in her father's eye. Until puberty came along, as puberty will, and shattered the cosy sense of conspiracy. ~ Alison Fell

People say, 'Oh, to be the daughter of Picasso!' But it's not as extravagant as it seems. He was very special, very vibrant, but he was my father. I didn't have another. ~ Paloma Picasso

I'm Muhammad Ali's daughter, but my father and I are very different in that area. I don't necessarily try to put on a show. That's what my father's thing was, and he was great at it. Everything I say is because I feel it, and it comes out of my mouth. It's not scripted. ~ Laila Ali

Many times a woman can find herself latching on to the wrong kind of man because she's never experienced a healthy loving relationship with a man before. The initial example should come from a father/daughter relationship. A father's love teaches a girl how a man's love should feel. A father's love, protects, provides security and let's her know she's valued. ~ Stephan Labossiere

He died at the wrong time, when there was much to be clarified and established. They hadn't even started to be grown-ups together. There was this piece of heaven, this little girl he'd carried around the shop on his shoulders; and then one day she was gone, replaced by a foreigner, an uncooperative woman he didn't know how to speak to. Being so confused, so weak, so in love, he chose strength and drove her away from himself. The last years he spent wondering where she'd gone, and slowly came to realise that she would never return, and that the husband he'd chosen for her was an idiot. ~ Hanif Kureishi

As with the bud, so with the blossom. A boy is the only thing known from which a man can be made. I hope that we as parents are teaching our children that they are the sons and daughters of God, and that they have the capacity to become like him. It was the old Edinburgh weaver who prayed, 'O God, help me to hold a high opinion of myself.' Likewise I would counsel young people to hold a high opinion of themselves, to remember who they really are, and to put their faith in their Heavenly Father. ~ Paul H. Dunn

I am not ashamed to say that no man I ever met was my father's equal, and I never loved any other man as much. ~ Hedy Lamarr

Eldora smiled up at Paulo cunningly, her dark eyes twinkling. "You are old, Father."
"Not as old as I shall be, before I have finished with the universe. ~ Mary-Jean Harris

'Master Harold' is about me as a little boy, and my father, who was an alcoholic. There's a thread running down the Fugard line of alcoholism. Thankfully I haven't passed it on to my child, a wonderful daughter who's stone-cold sober. But I had the tendency from my father, just as he had had it from his father. ~ Athol Fugard

Why do fathers look ungainly in their daughter's bedrooms? Like mythical beasts wandered in from the forest of another world? ~ Mira Jacob

A good father loves his daughter with no strings attached. He is available. He is both strong and tender. Being big and strong doesn't mean being separate from one's feelings; to the contrary, it means being very much in touch with them. Women who experienced fathers like that know that a strong man can cry, and that a man who can cry can also be very strong. ~ Marlin S. Potash

I am a father. My son's name is Max and my daughter's name is Billie Grace. Twelve years ago Max was born with Down Syndrome. His journey has been complicated by infantile seizures, sleep apnea, dietary challenges and now, puberty! ~ John C. McGinley

Who ever he is, I agree with your mother," said Dad as he entered the kitchen. "Stay away from him. Stay away from them all until you're of marrying age. Once you reach a nice, mature fifty-four, gentlemen callers will be welcomed here. ~ Sarah Rees Brennan

Westerns were all daddy liked to watch. Give me some Clint Eastwood, some Charles Bronson, and I was a happy girl. It was our father-daughter bonding. ~ Melissa Marr

Spikes first had been our code. Our mantra in life, the thought that you dove full force into confrontation, damn the repercussions to others, should they be too dumb to move out of the way. Sometimes you made it there safely. Sometimes you didn't, the enormous effort a waste. But if you had the opening, you had to try. ~ Alessandra Torre

And my dad, you're a great actor but you're a better father. ~ Angelina Jolie

As long as fathers rule but do not nurture, as long as mothers nurture but do not rule, the conditions favoring the development of father-daughter incest will prevail. ~ Judith Lewis Herman

Fathers never have exactly the daughters they want because they invent a notion a them that the daughters have to conform to. ~ Simone De Beauvoir

Gradually, it began to dawn on me that the image of God as Father, Son and Spirit was at the root of the problem. No matter what I did, I would never be ¨in his image.¨ While I had hoped to find in God a father who would love and accept my female self, it seemed that ¨he,¨ like my father and most of my professors, liked boys better. I decided that unless we could call God Mother as well as Father, Daughter as well as Son, women and girls would never be valued. ~ Carol P. Christ

You want something enough that you're going to hurt, then you stay, and keep it. ~ Sam Crescent

She smiled at him, that same look of shared understanding, then reached in again to touch his hand, pinching his palm between her thumb and index finger. 'You OK?'

'I could be on fire, but seeing you would make it all OK,' he replied, his voice as brittle as a three-pack-a-day smoker. ~ Sean Black

Ódinn couldn't tear his gaze from the small featured face, the red cheeks and delicate lips that she pursed shut as if to ensure she wouldn't say anything to disappoint her father. ~ Yrsa Sigurðardóttir

The CIA created, armed and financed the Contras. My father backed them with everything he had. It was my father's war, and almost everyone in Nicaragua has lost somebody as a result of it. I couldn't go down there, being his daughter, and expect not to feel those people's wrath. ~ Patti Davis

My daughter has always had a strong sense of her own identity. From the day she was born her father and I were in love with and in awe of her and still are. ~ Jenny Eclair

I feel like that's a way people can change the way music is - to be guided by someone they believe in and trust. Larson and I really believed in each other. It was like brother/sister, father/daughter, we were laughing and yelling, that's how it is when you make an album! Essentially the trust was there and I got something great. ~ Laura Bell Bundy

Stars crown the world, she said, but the lights in your eyes, those are stars, too.
They make up your crown, he said. ~ Jeannine Atkins

I remember looking at my daughter for the first time and wondering if that's the way my father looked at me. I could cry, because she's everything to me. I feel so blessed to be taught so much by her. ~ Alicia Coppola

Daughter, we didn't need your note - or a prince's visit - to tell us you'd done nothing wrong. We know the daughter we raised. We fear for your future, but never for your character. You take our love and our trust wherever you wander.
Father. ~ Gail Carson Levine

My father was a diplomatic officer. As a diplomat's daughter, you have to learn to present yourself very early on. ~ Kathleen Turner

Regardless of your marital status, your age, or the language you speak, you are a beloved spirit daughter of Heavenly Father who is destined to play a critical part in the onward movement of the gospel kingdom. ~ Sheri L. Dew

I have done everything I can to make sure my daughter knows her father because you form your own identity by rebelling against your parents - but first you have to know them. ~ Greta Scacchi

Father-daughter relationship, is something that I think is so unique and it can't really be explained unless you have a daughter. ~ Michael B. Jordan

She hated him for all her might. She hated him for leaving her all those years ago, she hated him for all the stares he'd given her every single time – the one that you had with a stranger; emotionless and cold – she hated him for forcing her to stay in the house with all the nasty souls, she hated him because she simply hadn't known him very well. ~ Diyar Harraz

He wipes tears off my face and then snot. He uses his hands. He loves me that much. ~ Nina LaCour

She smoothes the front of the dress, looking down at her hands, at her bitten fingernails, at her big feet in the pointy-toes shoes. This is a woman's dress, she thinks, a young woman's dress. It is not a girl's dress. It is solidly on the other side of the line outside of girlhood. It is a dress that says something big in a very quiet way; it is a dress that is talking to Alice right now, a dress that is making her feel possibilities never before considered, the possibility of perfume and pretty and dancing and boys. This dress is who she might be, only more so. ~ Laura Harrington

It's very difficult, I would imagine, to distinguish father and daughter. And maybe some of it comes as I'm doing my thing and my father being a very strong political African figure for so many years. Whatever he does is almost like some kind of cloud on top. ~ Isabel Dos Santos

He begins to sing to her, very softly, almost not singing at all, just a whisper of a tune. He spins out the tune like it is a tale he is telling her, until he feels her body relax, until he feels her falling into sleep. He sings to let her know he's there, to stay anchored to the earth, to keep from laughing or crying in amazement that he is lying with Alice in his arms, he sings as if music could keep her alive, as if music could feed her soul, as if music could weave a protective spell around her to survive these days and these weeks and these months and these years, he sings as if he could give her a piece of himself, which will ring inside of her like a bell, like a promise, like hope whenever she needs him; and in his singing, he promises her every single thing he can think of, and more. ~ Laura Harrington

Women are not tools, strong women move mountain. Treat them with respect the way you would treat your president, father, daughter, son, sister or mom. Because without them humanity perish. ~ Henry Johnson Jr

Daughters aren't trash you can toss away, Dad. I had to deal with the mess you left. ~ Katherine McIntyre

You must understand, that for a daughter to protect her father's image is natural; Freud built a whole career around it. ~ Arnon Goldfinger

She stared up at him, and her eyes were so large they looked like blue mint candies. 'I get to stay?'
'You're damn right you're staying, and I don't want to hear another word of disrespect.' His voice broke. 'I'm your father, and you damn well better love me the same way I love you, or you'll be sorry.'
The next thing he knew, he was grabbing her, and she was grabbing him, and all the bozos coming down the jerway trying to get past them were jabbing them with bags and briefcases, but he didn't care. He was holding tight to this daughter he loved so desperately, and he wasn't ever going to let her go. ~ Susan Elizabeth Phillips

If you call a gypsy a vagabond, I think you do him wrong,
For he never goes a-travelling but he takes his home along.
And the only reason a road is good, as every wanderer knows,
Is just because of the homes, the homes, the homes to which it goes. ~ Joyce Kilmer

....he has done nothing but prove to me that not only is he a good man, he's a man madly in love with my daughter, and will do anything to protect her. ~ Sam Crescent

I was 20 when my daughter was born, and making all these plans during my wife's pregnancy. I was going to be the perfect father. Once she was born, it was suddenly, 'Oh, my God! I'm a parent!' ~ Kiefer Sutherland

A father who sees his daughter leave in the arms of another man does not feel the same as a mother. It is heartrending for her, too. But it is not the same. ~ Claire Denis

Your son and your daughter needs an excellent father more than an excellent college. ~ Nick Vujicic

I was in no way ready when my daughter was born. But I want to be a good father to her. ~ El DeBarge

I didn't know my dad in person and I never got to say goodbye to him at his funeral and I thought it would be nice to say a few words now that I sort of feel I know him a bit better.' She gave a nervous smile, and pushed a strand of hair from her face.

'So. Will … Dad. When I first found out you were my real father, I'll be honest, I was a bit freaked out. I'd hoped my real dad was going to be this wise, handsome man, who would want to teach me stuff and protect me and take me on trips to show me amazing places that he loved. And what I actually got was an angry man in a wheelchair who just, you know, killed himself. But because of Lou, and your family, over the last few months I've come to understand you a bit better.

'I'll always be sad and maybe even a bit angry that I never got to meet you, but now I want to say thank you too. ". You gave me a lot, without knowing it. I think I'm like you in good ways – and probably a few not-so-good ways. You gave me blue eyes and my hair colour and the fact that I think Marmite is revolting and the ability to do black ski runs and … Well, apparently you also gave me a certain amount of moodiness – that's other people's opinion, by the way. Not mine.'

'But mostly you gave me a family I didn't know I had. And that's cool. Because, to be honest, it wasn't going that well before they all turned up.' Her smile wavered.

' So, um, Will … Dad, I'm not going to go on and on because speeches are bo ~ Jojo Moyes

It's a father's place to hate the son-in-law. It's our place to put them through h*ll just to make sure they know what they're doing. ~ Sam Crescent

Just because your father's present, doesn't mean he isn't absent. ~ Elizabeth Acevedo

.....if he's not man enough to stand up to your father, and take the crap he has to dish out, then he's not good enough to be with you. ~ Sam Crescent

My daughter loves to do art stuff. As a father, I like to play with her. We break out the big pads of paper and the glitter and all the stuff. She likes to do what she likes to do. I want to do something, too. So I've just started using her same materials - a lot of crayons, a lot of sparkle, charcoal, pencils, markers and glue. ~ Stone Gossard

The Quetzal Motel was a father/daughter operation, and they hurt for money but with just enough to stay in groceries. But who could tell? After tonight, their fortunes might perk up. It was better to look on the bright side. She took a deep breath and plunged back into Philip Nostrum's realm of futuristic
doings. ~ Ed Lynskey

My son and daughter lost their father quite young, so we keep him present with us. It's just a daily practice. ~ Patti Smith

But I want her to grow up knowing that I was the first man ever to fall in love with her. I'd always thought the father/daughter thing was overstated. But I can tell you, sometimes, she looks at me and I just become a puddle. ~ Randy Pausch

She sighed and put on a good sulk. Actually, she had no desire to get her nose pierced but she did
want a third piercing in her left earlobe. Working down to it, or over to it, from the nose was good
strategy. The kind, she thought, her father would appreciate if he knew about it.
"It's my body."
"Not until you're eighteen, it's not. Until that happy day, it's mine. Go nag your brother."
"I can't. I'm not speaking to him."
She rolled onto her back on her father's ~ Nora Roberts

There has come to you as your birthright something beautiful and sacred and divine. Never forget that. Your Eternal Father is the Great master of the Universe. He rules over all, but He also will listen to your prayers as His daughter and hear you as you speak with Him. He will answer your prayers. He will not leave you alone. ~ Gordon B. Hinckley

I always felt like there wasn't a blueprint for father-daughter relationships - for them or for us. Because what are they supposed to do with us, treat us like boys, or small women, or what? Father-daughter relationships are so unique from family to family, and I'd love to watch it explored more onstage. ~ Lucy Alibar

Men were often far different in their roles as fathers than they were as suitors, the memories of which kept them, out of necessity, both vigilant and violent, and even in tender moments, to their daughters. ~ James Anderson

I am a daughter. My father is an example for me. ~ Malala Yousafzai

I'm here, Papa," she whispered, saying the words she had longed to say for her entire life. "I'm here, and I'm never going to leave you again."
He made a sound of contentment and closed his eyes. Just as Evie thought he had fallen asleep, he murmured, "Where shall we walk first today, lovey? The biscuit baker, I s'pose..."
Realizing that he imagined this was one of her long-ago childhood visits, Evie replied softly, "Oh, yes." Hastily she knuckled away the excess moisture from her eyes. "I want an iced bun... and a cone of broken biscuits... and then I want to come back here and play dice with you."
A rusty chuckle came from his ravaged throat, and he coughed a little. "Let Papa take forty winks before we leaves... there's a good girl..."
"Yes, sleep," Evie murmured, turning the cloth over on his forehead. "I can wait, Papa. ~ Lisa Kleypas

She opened a beer and took a sip. "You'd really go all the way to Greece, and run a covert operation again, just so I can have the satisfaction of capturing Nick Fox?" "Sure," he said. "We don't get nearly enough quality father-daughter time. ~ Janet Evanovich

I did not give my daughter the kind of childhood anybody would want. The vision of the divided loyalty between a mother and father who don't live together and don't share in decisions is a great depravation for children. ~ Gail Sheehy

It's about a father and daughter and the daughter's friend and her relationship with her current husband. ~ Ismail Merchant

She told her father Mr. Abram Colhard that she did not like it at all being one being living then. He never said anything. She was afraid then, she was one needing charming stories and happy telling of them and not having that thing she was always trembling. ~ Gertrude Stein

My family and friends were definitely the key to my recovery. One thing that I do suggest is that anyone dealing with a life-threatening illness like cancer choose a point person for people to call to find out how you are doing - a sister, brother, mother, father, daughter, son, or close friend. ~ Olivia Newton-John

If you always meditate on sin, "I am a sinner, I am a sinner," actually you will become a sinner. The psychological approach is, you should forget it - even if you are a sinner, you should think, "I am the son of a Great Father, I am the daughter of a Great Father." Thus you are meditating on the Great Father, and a day is sure to come when you will become one with your Great Father. ~ Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar

Hinde Esther Singer was born in Poland on March 31, 1881, the daughter of Bathsheva and Pinchos Mendel Singer. Bathsheva was an intellectual, but both Bathsheva's father and her husband disapproved of erudite women. ~ Clive Sinclair

This was puzzling, as the standard textbook of psychiatry at the time stated that incest was extremely rare in the United States, occurring about once in every million women.8 Given that there were then only about one hundred million women living in the United States, I wondered how forty seven, almost half of them, had found their way to my office in the basement of the hospital. Furthermore, the textbook said, "There is little agreement about the role of father-daughter incest as a source of serious subsequent psychopathology." My patients with incest histories were hardly free of "subsequent psychopathology" - they were profoundly depressed, confused, and often engaged in bizarrely self-harmful behaviors, such as cutting themselves with razor blades. The textbook went on to practically endorse incest, explaining that "such incestuous activity diminishes the subject's chance of psychosis and allows for a better adjustment to the external world."9 ~ Bessel A. Van Der Kolk

Confident women are raised by loving dads. ~ Nitya Prakash

One may not be able to fulfill a fatherly role with one's own child, but on the other hand, and this goes for me as well, one might still be a "father of choice" to someone else out there in the world. Fatherhood is something that can be shared worldwide. Meaning that in terms of the substance of a father's role, perhaps we are all pseudo-fathers. ~ Mamoru Hosoda

Harry Mount hints at the possibility that I was admitted to Magdalen in 1960 because my father had been senior scholar there a quarter of a century earlier. I was, in fact, the winner of an open scholarship; Mr Mount should learn the difference between genetics and nepotism. ~ Michael Beloff

Then those silver eyes dimmed, like the sun vanishing behind a cloud, and he crumpled to the ground
- Iron Daughter ~ Julie Kagawa

As a teenager, my father took me to the shows at the Architectural Association and to places like Milton Keynes back when it was first being built. But I couldn't find anything for me. There seemed to be despair at the possibility of the built environment possessing any imagination in the real world. ~ Thomas Heatherwick

All of the kids are closely paired up in ages ... Our daughters, Bianca, Tristan's rowdy boys are going to try to take our daughters! I had to get it off my chest. It was too much for any father to have to bear alone. ~ R.K. Lilley

We are not preaching the Gospel of a dead Christ, but of a living Christ who sits exalted at the Father's right hand, and is living to save all who put their trust in Him. That is why those of us who really know the Gospel never have any crucifixes around our churches or in our homes. The crucifix represents a dead Christ hanging languid on a cross of shame. But we are not pointing men to a dead Christ; we are preaching a living Christ. He lives exalted at God's right hand, and He "saves to the uttermost all who come to God by Him." ~ Henry Allen Ironside

My old father used to have a saying: If you make a bad bargain, hug it all the tighter. ~ Abraham Lincoln

Linda Boone; Intimate Life Lessons: developing the intimacy with God you already have. ~ Linda Boone

My father grew up in a life of extreme privilege. ~ Kevin Kwan

Jarod Kintz was born in Salt Lake City to a family of five. One father, and four mothers. Jarod moved around a lot as a kid, but eventually ended up in the middle bedroom. Being an only child, Jarod has been known to tell people, "I'm genetically half non-existent, on my brother's side."

Well, enough about me, let me tell you about my work. Actually, I'll let it speak for myself. So read it and find out what it says. Or, rather, what I say it says. ~ Jarod Kintz

As I said, I had this fabulous college education. At college I met the man to whom I've been married for 34 years and who is the father of those three kids. I seriously considered going to another college, and my life would have been completely different in every way. ~ Anna Quindlen

He put his hands down slowly, saying something to Leigha in a language she didn't understand. His eyes glassed over. "My little angel," he repeated in English.
Her nerves came undone at the sight before her. Was this the him her father warned her about? She tried to mask her fear. "How can I help you?" Her soft voice didn't carry far in the empty space.
He stretched out his hand, motioning her to two chairs. "Please, come. Sit down. We have much to talk about. I mean you no harm."
"Who are you?" The words forced out of her mouth of their own volition. She started to freak out. Her hands shook as she smoothed them over the top of her head. ~ Kenzie Macallan

I am no more than a child, but my Father lives for ever and I have a Protector great enough to save me. ~ Augustine Of Hippo

The father was dry-eyed but the mother kept erupting, like loudly, unprovoked, in a keening foreign wail that was almost like song; it sounded strangely ceremonial and impersonal, like a lament for an idea. Walter went alone to the morgue, without any idea. His love was resting beneath a sheet on a gurney of an awkward height, too high to be knelt by. Her hair was as ever, silky and black and thick, as ever, but there was something wrong with her jaw, some outrageously cruel and unforgivable injury, and her forehead, when he kissed it, was colder than any just universe could have allowed such a young person's forehead to be. The coldness entered him through his lips and didn't leave. What was over was over. His delight in the world had died, and there was no point in anything. ~ Jonathan Franzen

About the twelfth year of my age, my father being abroad, my mother reproved me for some misconduct, to which I made an undutiful reply. The next first-day, as I was with my father returning from meeting, he told me that he understood I had behaved amiss to my mother, and advised me to be more careful in future. I knew myself blamable, and in shame and confusion remained silent. Being thus awakened to a sense of my wickedness, I felt remorse in my mind, and on getting home I retired and prayed to the Lord to forgive me, and I do not remember that I ever afterwards spoke unhandsomely to either of my parents, however foolish in some other things. ~ Various

Wouldn't it be kinder to say that a lie is a short work of fiction? 'A story' as my daughter says? ~ Helen McCloy

Mathias remembered that once when he was a boy, he'd gone up to a pile of red apples that lay in the market cart, in the market near Stolberg where his father often took him. He'd always loved apples, and he couldn't resist the temptation of grabbing one out of the pile. He chose the closest, a splendid red piece of fruit that he would never forget because of his overwhelming desire to take it and hide it in the folds of his clothing. A moment after Mathias reached out and snatched it, the pile slid and applies tumbled down all around him. The farmer, who knew his father, would have been satisfied with an apology. But his father, a successful craftsman who was well-known and respected in the town, had insisted on purchasing an entire basketful of apples, because of the trouble Mathias had caused. Mathias got the worst scolding his father had ever given him. Not because of the money, but for the small act of petty thievery, which an upright man like his father would never tolerate. He shouldered his punishment, and in the end was only allowed to eat as single apple from the basket. He spent the night thinking about the pile. He had to remove only one and the whole thing had come down. He wondered if the same thing might happen with any tower, no matter how majestic and imposing it might seem, were someone to remove the right stone from the base.

The thought stayed with him throughout his life. Venice now seemed a lot like that pile of apples. If three murders truly ~ Riccardo Bruni

My father was a logger. He cut timber and hauled it out of the woods and had a sawmill. They sawed it into lumber. And, you know, the mines needed things they call timbers and collars and so forth, and they used collars on the railroad track that they put the rails on. And he - that was his occupation, just a sawmill man and a logger. ~ Ralph Stanley

God our Father, Lord and Savior, thank you for your love and favor, bless this food and drink we pray, and Irene who shares with me today. Amen. ~ Jan Karon

I ask why you decided to follow Jesse back to Chicago?"
"I want to find a happy ending, for my father and I," Angela said. "And, I suppose, for the rest of the world as well."
"That's what she thinks," said Jesse. "But I think she already had a pretty happy life, and grew bored of it."
"I was a little bored," Angela admitted. "But you can't have a happy ending without first reading the full story, ~ K.R.S. McEntire

My father thought that if I was to go into the army, at the least I would have a reliable paycheck at the end of each month with which to feed my family. Music is less assured. One could say more dangerous! ~ Vieux Farka Toure

Her father sagged as relief spread through him. "I thought
something awful was happening."
She frowned. "Something awful was happening. It could have
got stuck in my hair. ~ Derek Landy

There is no mark on the wall to measure the precise height of women. There are no yard measures neatly divided into the fractions of an inch that one can lay against the qualities of a good mother or the devotion of a daughter or fidelity of a sister or the capacity of a housekeeper. ~ Virginia Woolf

When the soul knows the love of God by the Holy Spirit, then he clearly feels that the Lord is our own Father, the closest, dearest Father, the best. And there is not greater happiness that to love God with all the mind and heart, and our neighbor as ourself. And when this love is in the soul, then all things bring joy to the soul. ~ Silouan The Athonite

In school they told us the president was the best man in the whole country but I knew my father was the best man in the whole country; the country didn't know it, that's all. ~ Rita Mae Brown

Let us not despise the woman who is neither mother nor daughter nor wife. Let us not limit our esteem to family life, narrow our tolerance to simple egotism. Given that heaven rejoices more at the repentance of one sinner than over a hundred good men who have never sinned, let us endeavor to make heaven rejoice. We may be rewarded with interest. Let us leave along the path the alms of our forgiveness for those whose earthly desires have marooned them, so that a divine hope may save them, and, as the wise old women say when they prescribe a remedy of their own invention, if it doesn't help, at least it can't hurt. ~ Alexandre Dumas Fils

The people who know God well - the mystics, the hermits, those who risk everything to find God - always meet a lover, not a dictator. God is never found to be an abusive father or a tyrannical mother, but always a lover who is more than we dared hope for. How different than the "account manager" that most people seem to worship. God is a lover who receives and forgives everything. ~ Richard Rohr