These Daughter Quotes Will Have You Hugging Yours

One of the most immutable bonds in the world is one between a mother and her daughter. The very moment a woman finds out she’s going to be having a little mini-me, something inside of her shifts. Call it excitement, call it the anticipation, call it love. The bottom line remains the same; the strength of emotion a mother feels toward her daughter is fierce. Is it sometimes a rollercoaster? Oh, you betcha. It’s one heck of a ride, though.

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As you can see, it’s hard to describe the special connection shared by mothers and daughters — but that doesn’t mean people haven’t tried. The following daughter quotes speak to that unique dynamic, from the good (built-in BFF) to the challenging (hello, teen years).

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1. “A daughter is someone you laugh with, dream with, and love with all your heart.” — Unknown

2. “Words are not enough to express the unconditional love that exists between a mother and a daughter.” — Caitlin Houston

3. “What the daughter does, the mother did.” — Jewish Proverb

4. “A daughter is just a little girl who grows up to be your best friend.” — Unknown

5. “So, after much observation, I realized that our daughters needed the same things we lacked in our younger years… wisdom. Without wisdom, we continue to blunder through life repeating the same mistakes.” — Laura Alexander

6. “Mothers of daughters are daughters of mothers and have remained so, in circles joined to circles, since time began.” — Signe Hammer

7. “Raising a daughter is like growing a flower. You give it your best. If you’ve done your job well, she blooms. And after that, she leaves.” — Unknown

8. “The best music I have ever heard is the sound of my daughter’s giggling.” — Deasish Mridha

9. “What I wanted most for my daughter was that she be able to soar confidently in her own sky, wherever that might be, and if there was space for me as well, I would, indeed, have reaped what I had tried to sow.” — Helen Claes

10. “Mother and daughter are like spoons in a drawer.” — Maggie Stiefvater

11. “He who has daughters is always a shepherd.” — Thomas Jefferson

12. “A daughter may outgrow your lap, but she will never your heart.” — Unknown

13. “Daughters can sometimes be too serious, teach them to laugh and not take life too seriously.” — Catherine Pulsifer

14. “Never grow a wishbone, daughter, where your backbone ought to be.” — Clementine Paddleford

15. “Good daughters make good mothers.” — Abigail G. Whittlesey

16. “Who can describe the transports of a beam truly parental on beholding a daughter shoot up like some fair and modest flower, and acquire, day after day, fresh beauty and growing sweetness, so as to fill every eye with pleasure and every heart with admiration?” — George Fordyce

17. “Mothers and daughters are closest when daughters become mothers.” — Unknown

18. “It’s your job as a parent to help your daughter identify her purpose, develop her talents, and learn how to get along with people. It’s not a high-paying or cushy job, but it is extremely rewarding and, in our opinion, one of the most important jobs you’ll ever do.” — Mary Anne Richey

19. “The golden rule of parenting is to always show your children the kind of person you want them to be. Remember that children are impressionable. If you wish to have a well-mannered, kind and honest daughter, do your best to show these characteristics to her.” — Elizabeth Roxas

20. “No mother and daughter ever live apart, no matter what the distance between them.” — Christie Watson

21. “A daughter is a treasure and a cause of sleeplessness.” — Ben Sirach

22. “A daughter is a bundle of firsts that excite and delight, giggles that come from deep inside and are always contagious, everything wonderful and precious and your love for her knows no bounds.” — Barbara Cage

23. “The more a daughter knows the details of her mother’s life, the stronger the daughter.” — Anita Diamant

24. “I hope that my daughter grows up empowered and doesn’t define herself by the way she looks but by qualities that make her an intelligent, strong and responsible woman.” — Isaiah Mustafa

25. “I will let my daughter do whatever her heart wants. I will support her and guide her and give her all the knowledge that I have because I want her to succeed in whatever she loves.” — The Miz

26. “To a father growing old nothing is dearer than a daughter.” — Euripides

27. “Our daughters are the most precious of our treasures, the dearest possessions of our homes and the objects of our most watchful love.” — Margaret E. Sangster

28. “We gotta start teaching our daughters to be somebodies instead of somebody’s.” — Kifah Shah

29. “What’s important for my daughter to know is that… if you are fortunate to have opportunity, it is your duty to make sure other people have those opportunities as well.” — Kamala Harris

30. “A daughter is a miracle that never ceases to be miraculous… full of beauty and forever beautiful, loving and caring and truly amazing.” — Deanna Beisser

31. “Maybe it’s just a daughter’s job to piss off her mother.” — Chuck Palahniuk

32. “Father has a strengthening character like the sun and mother has a soothing temper like the moon.” — Amit Kalantri

33. “Your daughter’s coming of age, you ought to let her see the world a little.” — Susumu Katsumata, Red Snow

34. “Her mother’s injunction on competing with other girls is a challenge, a gauntlet thrown down: ‘You just have to be smarter than the ones who are prettier and prettier than the ones who are smarter.'” — Cherry: A Memoir

35. “I can encourage my daughter to love her body, but what really matters are the observations she makes about my relationship with my own body.” — Brené Brown

36. “What greater aspiration and challenge are there for a mother than the hope of raising a great son or daughter?” — Rose Kennedy

37. “It’s the sweetest thing to be a parent of a daughter. When they hit their twenties, they become these lovebugs that come back. It’s just so sweet.” — Garth Brooks

38. “There is no amount of money I can make which could buffer my daughter from the horrors that will explode in our society if we do not address the huge amount of suffering in our midst.” — Marianne Williamson

39. “When you have a daughter, you want to protect her from the things that I’ve seen out there, you know, the things that’s out there that ain’t good for her. It’s a crazy world we live in.” — Nas

40. “At the end of the day, don’t forget that you’re a person, don’t forget you’re a mother, don’t forget you’re a wife, don’t forget you’re a daughter.” — Indra Nooyi

41. “It’s quite difficult for a parent to know that their daughter is in great danger.” — Malala Yousafzai

42. “I was raised by a strong woman, and that DNA is in my daughter and wife.” — Dwayne Johnson

43. “And the moon said to me — my darling daughter, you do not have to be whole in order to shine.” — Nichole McElhaney

44. “In order to be successful as a woman, teach your daughter to never apologize for her success. Men never have to apologize for it, why should the women who earned it?” — Finlay Gow JD and Kailin Gow MA, Raising A Strong Daughter: What Fathers Should Know

45. “There will always be a little girl searching for love, pushing against the outstretched hand of someone who can only love her so much.” — Piper Payne

46. “Because my mother couldn’t change my present, I decided to change my daughter’s future.” — Manal al-Sharif

47. “A daughter is a rainbow — a curve of light through scattered mist that lifts the spirit with her prismatic presence. Is a shadow — a reminder of something brilliant ducking out of sight, too easily drawn away. She is an aria, swelling within the concern chamber, an echo reverberating across a miniature sea. She is a secret, whispered, a hint of what we cannot know until it finds us. She is a sliver of her father, a shard of her mother. A daughter is a promise, kept.” — Ellen Hopkins, Triangles

48. “A daughter is chiseled to chisel the world.” — Karishma Gajipara

49. “The most precious jewels you’ll have around your neck are the arms of your daughter.” — Altaf ul qadri

50. “Fly free, my daughter. Be what I could never be and leave the cage forever.” — Nalini Singh, Archangel’s Enigma

Father Daughter Quotes

1. “I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father’s protection.” — Sigmund Freud
2. “To her, the name of father was another name for love.” — Fanny Fern
3. “A man’s daughter is his heart. Just with feet, walking out in the world.” — Mat Johnson
4. “It is admirable for a man to take his son fishing, but there is a special place in heaven for the father who takes his daughter shopping.” — John Sinor
5. “If you ever want to torture my dad, tie him up and right in front of him, refold a map incorrectly.” — Cathy Ladman
6. “You fathers will understand. You have a little girl. She looks up to you. You’re her oracle. You’re her hero. And then the day comes when she gets her first permanent wave and goes to her first real party, and from that day on, you’re in a constant state of panic.” — Stanley T. Banks
7. “A daughter is a treasure and a cause of sleeplessness.” — Ben Sirach
8. “Being a daddy’s girl is like having permanent armor for the rest of your life.” — Marinela Reka
9. “Daddy, thanks for being my hero, chauffeur, financial support, listener, life mentor, friend, guardian, and simply being there every time I need a hug.” — Agatha Stephanie Lin
10. “No one in this world can love a girl more than her father.” — Michael Ratnadeepak
11. “When I come home, my daughter will run to the door and give me a big hug, and everything that’s happened that day just melts away.” — Hugh Jackman
12. “Old as she was, she still missed her daddy sometimes.” — Gloria Naylor
13. “It was my father who taught me to value myself.” — Dawn French
14. “A good father will leave his imprint on his daughter for the rest of her life.” — Dr. James Dobson
15. “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
16. “Fathers, be good to your daughters. You are the god and the weight of her world.” — John Mayor
17. “He was a father. That’s what a father does. Eases the burdens of those he loves. Saves the ones he loves from painful last images that might endure for a lifetime.” — George Saunders

1. “What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family.” — Mother Teresa
2. “Some people don’t believe in heroes but they haven’t met my dad.” — Unknown
3. “My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me.” — Jim Valvano
4. “When my father didn’t have my hand, he had my back.” — Linda Poindexter
5. “A father’s tears and fears are unseen, his love is unexpressed, but his care and protection remain as a pillar of strength throughout our lives.” — Ama H. Vanniarachchy
6. “My Daddy was my hero. He was always there for me when I needed him. He listened to me and taught me so many things. But most of all he was fun.” — Bindi Irwin
7. “When my daughter says ‘Daddy I need you!’ I wonder if she has any idea that I need her billion times more.” — Stanley Behrman
8. “To a father growing old, nothing is dearer than a daughter.” — Euripides
9. “The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other’s life.” — Richard Bach
10. “There’s something like a line of gold thread running through a man’s words when he talks to his daughter, and gradually over the years it gets to be long enough for you to pick up in your hands and weave into a cloth that feels like love itself.” — John Gregory Brown
11. “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.” — Dawn French
12. “Certain is it that there is no kind of affection so purely angelic as of a father to a daughter. In love to our wives there is desire; to our sons, ambition; but to our daughters, there is something which there are no words to express.” — Joseph Addison
13. “I love my daddy. My daddy’s everything. I hope I can find a man that will treat me as good as my dad.” — Lady Gaga
14. “Having a daughter makes you see things in a different way. This is my only girl. So I don’t care what it takes to protect her. You can call it what you want to call it. As long as you treat her the same way I treat her, like my princess, I don’t mind.” — Tracy Morgan
15. “My father didn’t tell me how to live. He lived, and let me watch him do it.” — Clarence Budington Kelland

1. “There will always be a few people who have the courage to love what is untamed inside us. One of those men is my father.” — Alison Lohman
2. “I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father’s protection.” — Sigmund Freud
3. “To her the name of father was another name for love.” — Fanny Fern
4. “A man’s daughter is his heart. Just with feet, walking out in the world.” — Mat Johnson
5. “By the time I was ten, playing baseball got to be like eating vegetables or taking out the garbage. So when I was 14, I started to refuse. Could you believe that? An American boy refusing to play catch with his father?” — Field of Dreams
6. “You will make my strength your own. You will see my life through your eyes, as your life will be seen through mine. The son becomes the father and the father becomes the son.” — Superman Returns
7. “I never thought my dad would be my best friend.” — Meet the Robinsons
8. “Nobody asks to be a hero; it just sometimes turns out that way.” — Black Hawk Down
9. “Every Dad is entitled to one hideous shirt and one horrible sweater. It’s part of the Dad code.” — Cheaper By the Dozen 2
10. “I couldn’t catch a ball if it had Elmer’s Glue all over it. And my father had to be this ex-football star. He didn’t know what to tell his friends, so he told them all I had Polio. On Father’s Day, I used to limp for him.” — A Chorus Line
11. “I’ve made it my business to observe fathers and daughters. And I’ve seen some incredible, beautiful things. Like the little girl who’s not very cute — her teeth are funny, and her hair doesn’t grow right, and she’s got on thick glasses — but her father holds her hand and walks with her like she’s a tiny angel that no one can touch. He gives her the best gift a woman can get in this world: protection. And the little girl learns to trust the man in her life. And all the things that the world expects from women — to be beautiful, to soothe the troubled spirit, heal the sick, care for the dying, send the greeting card, bake the cake — all of those things become the way we pay the father back for protecting us.” — Adriana Trigiani
12. Any man can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a dad.
13. Daddy and daughter, not always eye to eye, but always heart to heart.
14. Behind every great daughter is a truly amazing dad.
15. I smile because you’re my father, I laugh because there’s nothing you can do about it.
16. Some people don’t believe in heroes, but they haven’t met my dad.
17. “You might never know a man’s vulnerable place until you see him with his daughter, because with her, he seems capable of more human emotions than he will ever share with anyone else.” — Unknown
18. “When I look at her, it’s like when I was in 7th grade and fell in love for the first time, where it’s debilitating.” — Dax Shepard
19. “When I hear people talk about juggling or the sacrifices they make for their children, I look at them like they’re crazy because ‘sacrifice’ infers that there was something better to do than being with your children.” — Chris Rock
20. “Moms should know that even the manliest guys will become softies when they have daughters. Dads immediately fall in love with their little girls and will let them get away with everything. So moms are going to have to be the disciplinarians when it comes to daughters.” — Jimmy Fallon
21. “Watching your daughter being collected by her date feels like handing over a million-dollar Stradivarius to a gorilla.” — Jim Bishop
22. “My father died many years ago, and yet when something special happens to me, I talk to him secretly not really knowing whether he hears, but it makes me feel better to half believe it.” — Natasha Josefowitz
23. “A daughter is a little girl who grows up to be a friend.” — Unknown
24. “Clever father, clever daughter; clever mother, clever son.” — Russian Proverb
25. “Many a man wishes he were strong enough to tear a telephone book in half — especially if he has a teenage daughter.” — Guy Lombardo
26. “There is no place higher than on Daddy’s shoulders.” — Unknown
27. “Because my instincts have been shaped by a man who knew that family was everything… my family will always be where I strive most for success.” — Gwyneth Paltrow, My Father’s Daughter
28. “Your daughter wants your guidance and support; she wants and needs a strong bond with you. And, as all successful fathers know, you need a strong bond with her.” — Meg Meeker
29. “[My dad] taught me that there is no shame in breaking something, only in not being able to fix it.” — Hope Jahren
30. “It doesn’t matter who my father was; it matters who I remember he was.” — Anne Sexton
31. “When a daughter is born, the ordinary life of a man turns into the extraordinary life of a father.” — Unknown
32. “Your father, Jo. He never loses patience, never doubts or complains, but always hopes, and works and waits so cheerfully that one is ashamed to do otherwise before him.” — Louisa May Alcott, Little Women
33. “When daughters have engaged dads, they benefit from that relationship for a lifetime.” — Kevin Leman
34. “Big fathers, complimenting their tiny daughters, are so beautiful.” — Unknown
35. “I think a dad has to make his daughter feel that he’s genuinely interested in what she’s going through.” — Harry Connick, Jr.
36. “The laugh of a daughter is a favorite symphony of a father.” — Unknown
37. “She did not stand alone, but what stood behind her, the most potent moral force in her life, was the love of her father.” — Harper Lee, Go Set a Watchman
38. “You’ve had me wrapped around your finger since the day you were born.” — Tim McGraw, “My Little Girl”
39. “It won’t be like this for long

One day soon we’ll look back laughin’ At the week we brought her home This phase is gonna fly by So baby just hold on It won’t be like this for long.” — Darius Rucker

1. “Goodnight my angel, time to close your eyes

And save these questions for another day I think I know what you’ve been asking me I think you know what I’ve been trying to say I promised I would never leave you Then you should always know Wherever you may go, no matter where you are I never will be far away.” — Billy Joel

1. “The happiest moment of my life was probably when my daughter was born.” — David Duchovny
2. “I am a princess not because I have a prince, but because my father is a king.” — Author Unknown
3. “A daughter needs a dad to be the standard against which she will judge all men.” — Gregory E. Lang
4. “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.” — Unknown
5. “It is not flesh and blood but the heart which makes us father and daughter.” — Unknown
6. “He sweeps her hair back from her ears and he swings her above his head. He says she is his émerveillement, he says he will never leave her, not in a million years.” — Anthony Doerr
7. “A father is someone you look up to no matter how tall you grow.” — Unknown
8. “They don’t make men like my daddy anymore.” — Loretta Lynn
9. “There’s two things I know for sure: She was sent here from heaven and she’s Daddy’s little girl.” — Bob Carlisle
10. “On behalf of every man looking out for every girl, you are the God and weight of her world.” — John Mayer
11. “The greatest thing a father can do for his daughter is to love her mother.” — Elaine S. Dalton
12. “The father of a daughter is nothing but a high-class hostage. A father turns a stony face to his sons, berates them, shakes his antlers, paws the ground, snorts, runs them off into the underbrush, but when his daughter puts her arm over his shoulder and says, ‘Daddy, I need to ask you something,’ he is a pat of butter in a hot frying pan.” — Garrison Keillor