Happy Fathers' Day!

It’s Fathers’ Day—and to express our best wishes to all fathers, we present what we thought were some of the finest (and funniest) quotations about fathers and fatherhood. Hope you enjoy the read:

Father!—To God himself we cannot give a holier name.

—William Wordsworth

Directly after God in heaven comes Papa.

—Mozart

Some day you will know that a father is much happier in his children’s happiness than in his own. I cannot explain it to you: it is a feeling in your body that spreads gladness through you.

—Honoré de Balzac, Père Goriot

They say that from the instant he lays eyes on her, a father adores his daughter. Whoever she grows up to be, she is always to him that little girl in pigtails. She makes him feel like Christmas. In exchange, he makes a secret promise not to see the awkwardness of her teenage years, the mistakes she makes or the secrets she keeps.

—Author unknown (BoardsOfWisdom.com)

Middle Age
At forty-five,
What next, what next?
At every corner,
I meet my Father,
My age, still alive.

—Robert Lowell

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, on how to diaper a baby, 1968 (QuoteGarden.com)

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

—Robert Orben

Related: When 'The Rock' Came to Eagle Rock (Reflections on life and a father's passing, by Eagle Rock Patch Music and Culture columnist Dan Kimpel)