The first time I ever held a baby was several years ago when my cousin gave birth to a wonderful baby boy. It was the first child my family has seen in decades. Naturally, I wanted to bring an appropriate present. The first step to making the perfect gift involved finding the best quotes about sons.
My plan was to create a handmade “baby’s first year” scrapbook, with words of wisdom scattered throughout. In the end, I had way too many quotes that never made it into my little DIY project. You’re about to see the result of my hard work, with some extra quotes added for good measure!
In addition to the affectionate words people have said about their sons, there are also some harsh truths below. After all, the true relationships we have with our children can be incredibly complicated. That’s especially prominent in the father/son dynamic. With that in mind, let’s see what people throughout history have had to say about raising boys.
Raising Boys: Quotes About Sons and How They Change Us
#1. “You don’t raise heroes; you raise sons. And if you treat them like sons, they’ll turn out to be heroes, even if it’s just in your own eyes.” ― Walter M. Schirra, Sr.
#2. “The most important mark I will leave in this world is my son.” — Sarah Shahi
#3. “Raising boys has made me a more generous woman than I really am.” — Mary Kay Blakely
#4. “What greater aspiration and challenge are there for a mother than the hope of raising a great son or daughter?” — Rose Kennedy
#5. “Even more than the time when she gave birth, a mother feels her greatest joy when she hears others refer to her son as a wise, learned one.” ― Thiruvalluvar
#6. “Sons are the anchors of a mother’s life.” — Sophocles
#7. “To be a mother of a son is one of the most important things you can do to change the world. Raise them to respect women, raise them to stand up for others, raise them to care for the earth, raise them to be kind, compassionate, and honest. If you do these things, you are raising a leader — someone that will affect the lives of countless people with their morality.” ― Shannon L. Alder
#8. “As mothers raising sons, we have the power to change the trajectory of not only our own sons’ lives but also of the culture at large.” ― Melia Keeton Digby
To Mom, With Love: Appreciative Quotes About Sons and the Most Important People in Their Lives
#9. “My mom was the person that I most looked up to for her point of view, her humor.” — Ben Stiller
#10. “My mother never gave up on me. I messed up in school so much they were sending me home, but my mother sent me right back.” — Denzel Washington
#11. “All that I am or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.” — Abraham Lincoln
#12. “I remember my mother’s prayers, and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.” — Abraham Lincoln
#13. “My mother said to me, ‘If you are a soldier, you will become a general. If you are a monk, you will become the Pope.’ Instead, I was a painter, and became Picasso.” — Pablo Picasso
#14. “Moms are as relentless as the tides. They just don’t drive us to practice; they drive us to greatness.” — Steve Rushin
#15. “Men are what their mothers made them.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
#16. “A mother’s love doesn’t make her son more dependent and timid; it actually makes him stronger and more independent.” — Cheri Fuller
#17. “Happy is the son whose faith in his mother remains unchallenged.” — Louisa May Alcott
Make Your Old Man Proud: Quotes About Sons Connecting With Their Fathers
#18. “No love is greater than that of a father for His son.” ― Dan Brown
#19. “I live in a binary star system — my two suns being my two sons.” ― Corrado Ghinamo
#20. “Sons are born to make their fathers better men.” ― Mekael Shane
#21. “A father is a teacher, a singer, a doctor, a lawyer & every heroic character to his son. But a son is only a son to a father.” ― Sajal Sazzad
#22. “A father never gives up on a son — not really, no matter how poorly he behaves at times or how many stupid decisions he makes. He tries to help that son learn how to become the man he was meant to be.” ― Aleksandra Layland
#23. “Perhaps it’s true that all men love their fathers, no matter how terrible the things they do to their sons: there is a part of us that remains forever in debt to those responsible for our existence.” ― John Connolly
#24. “I finally made friends with my father when I entered my twenties. We had so little in common when I was a boy, and I am certain I had been a disappointment to him. He did not ask for a child with a book of its own world. He wanted a son who did what he had done: swam and boxed and played rugby and drove cars at speed with abandon and joy, but that was not what he had wound up with.” ― Neil Gaiman
It’s Complicated: Quotes About Sons Being Critical of Their Dads
#25. “You can know a thing to death and be for all purposes completely ignorant of it. A man can know his father or his son, and there might still be nothing between them but loyalty and love and mutual incomprehension.” ― Marilynne Robinson
#26. “Sons aspire to either become their father or vie to be his exact opposite.” ― Kilroy J. Oldster
#27. “If a son has a peaceful relationship with his father, if neither of them ever shows contempt for the other, then either the father is a fool or the son is.” ― Abhaidev
#28. “Sons are justifiably critical of their fathers because their crucial judgments will reflect on the type of husband and fathers that they aspire to become.” ― Kilroy J. Oldster
#29. “Well, fathers and sons… one way or the other, they always disappoint each other.” ― Robert Ferrigno
#30. “I should no longer define myself as the son of a father who couldn’t or hasn’t or wouldn’t or wasn’t.” ― Cameron Conaway
#31. “But you know how it is with fathers and sons. We can’t say what we want to say. We think a nod is a paragraph and a sentence is a book, and, in the end, all that’s important is left unspoken.” ― Peter Kirby
To Conclude
Since my nephew’s birth, my extended family has gotten quite a few new members — boys and girls alike. Of course, we love them all equally! However, the way we all felt about that first baby is something that can never be replicated.
Ultimately, these quotes about sons highlight the love we have for our precious boys. And if you happen to need them to make a sentimental baby scrapbook, they’ll be right here waiting for you!
