33 Quotes About Horrible Fathers

Healing from childhood trauma can leave you feeling desolated and alone. Recovering from the emotional distress left behind can take years to recover. These quotes about horrible fathers capture the damage and vulnerabilities that happen as a result of their parenting.

“A father is a man who expects his son to be as good a man as he meant to be.”

“A good father is one of the most unsung, unpraised, unnoticed, and yet one of the most valuable assets in our society.”

“A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty.”

“Be kind to thy father, for when thou were young, who loved thee so fondly as he? He caught the first accents that fell from thy tongue, and joined in thy innocent glee.”

“Being a bad parent is a sign of not having learned from experience.”

“Being a great father is like shaving. No matter how good you shaved today, you have to do it again tomorrow.”

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

“Fatherhood is pretending the present you love most is “soap-on-a-rope.”

“Fathers are biological necessities, but social accidents.”

“He didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.”

“I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father’s protection.”

“I love my father as the stars – he’s a bright shining example and a happy twinkling in my heart.”

“I was unhappy there and going through a rough transition, so I was desperate for any friend I could find that I could talk to. I thought that’s what he was.”

“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 percent chance of being right.”

“Instead of treating your child like how you were treated. Treat them with the same love and attention you wanted from your parents while growing up.”

“It is a wise father that knows his own child.”

“It is easier for a father to have children than for children to have a real father.”

“It is much easier to become a father than to be one. ”

“It was my father who taught me to value myself. He told me that I was uncommonly beautiful and that I was the most precious thing in his life.”

“My dad had limitations. That’s what my good-hearted mom always told us. He had limitations, but he meant no harm. It was kind of her to say, but he did do harm”

“My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me.”

“Natural philosophy is the genius that has regulated my fate; I desire, therefore, in this narration, to state those facts which led to my predilection for that science. ”

“Respect must be earned. Love must be inspired. Honor, however, is a set of actions that we have some control over.”

“She saw it in her mind’s eye like a movie playing, the haunting memories from her childhood she couldn’t seem to shake blending together into one raw, aching image. ”

“The father who does not teach his son his duties is equally guilty with the son who neglects them.”

“The father who would taste the essence of his fatherhood must turn back from the plane of his experience, take with him the fruits of his journey and begin again beside his child, marching step by step over the same old road.”

“The fundamental defect with fathers is that they want their children to be a credit to them.”

“The nature of impending fatherhood is that you are doing something that you’re unqualified to do, and then you become qualified while doing it.”

“The older I get, the smarter my father seems to get.”

“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.”

“When my kids were younger, I used to avoid them. I used to sit on the toilet ’til my legs fell asleep. You want to know why your father spends so long in the toilet? Because he’s not sure he wants to be a father.”

“Why are men reluctant to become fathers? They aren’t through being children. ”

“You will find that if you really try to be a father, your child will meet you halfway. ”

Many people have experiences they can share of abuse from fathers and the pathway of forgiveness that had to be walked to move forward in their life.