Dad Sayings - Words of Wisdom

[Cupped]

A lifelong farmer, my dad had all kinds of weather info and sayings. I knew these were probably coming whenever anyone complained about dry, hot weather;

"A drought will scare you to death, but a flood will starve you to death."

And, "It can get too wet a lot faster than it can get too dry!"

 

[Cyclonepride]

My dad has a million of them (and I've heard most of them dozens of times). Many of them borrowed, altered, etc of course.

"He wants to be a big shot, but he's not big shot material"
"I thought I was poor because I had no shoes, then I met a man that had no class"
"You arrived at a battle of wits without a weapon"

 

[Bipolarcy]

My adult daughter and her fiance were having trouble with getting a car started last night so they called for advice. While they were on FaceTime I was trying to educate them on what to look for. Out of nowhere I spewed out one of the things my dad always said, "An engine needs two things to start: gas and spark. If it's not starting it's one of those two things." It was one of those two things and it's running fine now. But it got me thinking about what other things I need to be sharing with my kids.

What are the pieces of "wisdom" your dad bestowed on you that you find yourself saying aloud?

I was always told it was three things, gas, spark and air. Have I been misled all this time?

 

[Bipolarcy]

My adult daughter and her fiance were having trouble with getting a car started last night so they called for advice. While they were on FaceTime I was trying to educate them on what to look for. Out of nowhere I spewed out one of the things my dad always said, "An engine needs two things to start: gas and spark. If it's not starting it's one of those two things." It was one of those two things and it's running fine now. But it got me thinking about what other things I need to be sharing with my kids.

What are the pieces of "wisdom" your dad bestowed on you that you find yourself saying aloud?

My dad rarely said a word when he was home, which was not often because he was in the military and was stationed where we couldn't follow him most of my childhood. The rare times I did see him on a 30 day leave, it was like a stranger came to visit for a while. It was my mother who had all the sayings. For instance, when life was getting you down, she used to say, "they can kill you but they can't eat you."

 

[Ankency]

“The older you get the smarter we’ll get”
Talking about him and my mom. This one definitely came true

“If his brain was dynamite he couldn’t blow his nose”

“Always tell the truth no matter how hard it may be”

 

[NorthCyd]

My dad said, "Son, the gates are down and the lights are flashing... but there's no train coming"

Would you or one of your siblings happen to be Loren Meyer?

 

[isucy86]

My mom had more sayings over the course of a day, but my dad had some gems for advice:

• Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right
• If Ifs Were Skiffs, We'd All Be Fisherman (Don't make excuses)
• Never Up, Never In (putting on golf course)

 

[isucy86]

Whenever my old man was going somewhere, he would always tell my sister and I that he was "Going to see a man about a horse". Which meant as we later found out going golfing or drinking with his buddies. I still never got a horse.

When my dad headed to a bar and one of us kids asked where he was going, he'd say, "Getting Air in the Tires". Needless to say, I grew up thinking tires lost air pretty easily. And that my dad was pretty conscientious about taking care of his car.

 

[nfrine]

"I don't smoke, I don't drink and I don't chase women.
I may not live to be 100 but it will seem like it."

 

[inCyteful]

My grandpa always reminded me - "Things are never as good or bad as they seem."

Which has been particularly true as a Cyclone fan.

There is rarely a week that goes by that I don't refer back to his take.

 

[cyclones500]

My dad had quite a few ... punctuality-related stuff has stuck with me as much as anything.

"Leave a little time on the other end." (Better to depart a little early, so even if there are unexpected delays along the way, you still arrive on time).

"Don't keep people waiting.' (i.e., if you're going somewhere as a group, don't dawdle).

I'm sure I'll think of a few others outside of that theme.

 

[BleedCycloneRed]

My father had two sayings that I particularly remember:
1) Whatever you do today, make sure it is something you can be proud of tomorrow.
2) If you don't have time to do it right, when are you going to have time to do it over?

Wish he was still around to say those sayings to me.

 

[KnappShack]

The boys will also be sick of me throwing this at them. My last team knew it by heart. Not because they wanted to....

"The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!"

 

[cytor]

Some of my faves from my dad:

"That guy could screw up a 1 car funeral"
"He's about effective as a one legged man in an ass kicking contest."

 

[MeanDean]

One I remember is "You don't always get what you pay for but you always pay for what you get." Which meant just because something has a big price on it doesn't mean its better than something similar with a lower price.

When he got caught in a traffic jam: "Why don't some of these people, just STAY HOME!" Then he'd sometimes go on to speculate what the other drivers clogging up the road were doing and why they didn't need to be out on the road when it was busy. "She's just getting her hair done." or "They look like they're just out for a lark."

Another one when someone would pull out in front of him or was driving annoyingly slow. While giving the steering wheel a pounding, "I'll RAM the FOOL!" Of course he never did.

 

[pourcyne]

"The heart has its reasons, which reason knows nothing of"

Your dad was Blaise Pascal? I'm impressed.

Le cœur a ses raisons que la raison ne connaît point — Wikipédia

fr.wikipedia.org

 

[Ms3r4ISU]

“Shut the barn door or the horse will get out.” He was talking to my brother, but I was trying to figure out how that could even happen because my brother was wearing underwear.

 

[dafarmer]

Dad had 2, He’s so dumb he couldn’t find his butt with both hands. The other was, he doesn’t know enough to pour warm p### out of his boots.

 

[Isualum13]

"Don't marry for money. You can borrow it cheaper.

This reminds me of my high school graduation. The principal would get their hands on some what I want to be when I grow up letters and read some of the better ones. The last one was "I want to marry someone with a lot of money. They don't have to be good looking but it would be nice."

 

[Pragmatic_Clone]

It might not be right, but it's righteous.