“Wisdom is like a bottomless pond. You throw stones in and they sink into darkness and dissolve. Her eyes looking back do not reflect anything.

I think this to myself even though I love my daughter. She and I have shared the same body. There is a part of her mind that is a part of mine. But when she was born she sprang from me like a slippery fish, and has been swimming away ever since. All her life, I have watched her as though from another shore.”

― Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club

“As mothers and daughters, we are connected with one another. My mother is the bones of my spine, keeping me straight and true. She is my blood, making sure it runs rich and strong. She is the beating of my heart. I cannot now imagine a life without her.”

― Kristin Hannah, Summer Island

“To be the father of growing daughters is to understand something of what Yeats evokes with his imperishable phrase 'terrible beauty.' Nothing can make one so happily exhilarated or so frightened: it's a solid lesson in the limitations of self to realize that your heart is running around inside someone else's body. It also makes me quite astonishingly calm at the thought of death: I know whom I would die to protect, and I also understand that nobody but a lugubrious serf can possibly wish for a father who never goes away.”

― Christopher Hitchens, Hitch 22: A Memoir

“Even as a small child, I understood that woman had secrets, and that some of these were only to be told to daughters. In this way we were bound together for eternity.”

― Alice Hoffman, The Dovekeepers

“But what is the father of the child supposed to do with his hands? His big open hands. Where were they supposed to go when all they wanted was to reach out for this child, hug her, hide her from the world?”

― Jacqueline Woodson, Red at the Bone

“I sometimes feel as though we are all daughters of the same mythical mother. Some of us are super direct, funny. Others are pensive, inquisitive, maudlin, bitter, sarcastic, or a combination of all those things. Yet we have all been orphaned, except by our words, which we eventually turn to in order to make sense of the impossible, the unknowable.”

― Edwidge Danticat, The Art of Death: Writing the Final Story

“You are not too much. You have never been too much. You will never be too much. The very idea is preposterous. Because you were born to be you. All of you. Not a tiny acceptable sliver. Not a watered down version with colors dulled and edges softened. No. You were meant to be every last pulsing-bleeding-loving-crying-feeling bit.”

― Jeanette LeBlanc

“Wise man. Kids from the moment they’re born, they fill your heart with love… and terror. Especially little girls. You want to protect them from everything. And they you can’t, you feel like you’ve failed as a father. You’ve saved yourself a lot of pain by not having children.”

― C.J. Tudor, The Chalk Man

“Our daughters grow up with the same possibilities as our sons.”

― Betty Friedan

“The more a daughter knows about the details of her mother's life — without flinching or whining — the stronger the daughter.”

― Anita Diamant, The Red Tent

“Fathers be good to your daughters. Daughters will love like you do. Girls become lovers, who turn in mothers. So, mothers be good to your daughters too.”

― John Mayer

"I'm gonna watch you shine

Gonna watch you grow

Gonna paint a sign

So you always know

As long as one and one is two

Ooh ooh

There could never be a father (mother)

Love his daughter more than I love you"

"Father and Daughter," by Paul Simon

"That's my daughter in the water

Everytime she fell, I caught her

Everytime she fell

That's my daughter in the water

I lost every time I fought her

Yeah, I lost every time."

"Daughter," written by Peter Blevard, popularized by Loudon Wainwright.

"Each day I feel so blessed to be looking at you

'Cause when you open your eyes, I feel alive

My heart beats so damn quick when you say my name

When I'm holding you tight, I'm so alive

Now let's live it up"

"Blue," by Beyonce

“Now I have a daughter to think about. It's really the first time I've thought about the future and what it could be.”

― Johnny Depp

Grace: She couldn't stay your little girl forever, Jim.

President James Marshall: I know. But I was hoping she could wait until she was 14 or 15... or 50.

— Air Force One

"When Charles first saw our child Mary, he said all the proper things for a new father. He looked upon the poor little red thing and blurted, 'She's more beautiful than the Brooklyn Bridge.'" ― Helen Hayes

Dr. John Dolittle: Your daughter's turning into a little wise-ass.

Lisa Dolittle: Worse. She's turning into a little you.

— Dr. Dolittle

Admiral Greer: Excuse me, Jack, tell me one thing in life that is absolutely for certain.

Jack Ryan: My daughter's love.

— Patriot Games

“I remember, I was more afraid of my little daughter than I ever was of being in prison.” — Mystic River

“You know fathers don't like to admit it when their daughters are capable of running their own lives. It means we've become spectators.” — 10 Things I Hate About You

"Be there, Be there, Be there

Be there, Be there, Be there

Where the sun shines

I will be there

You are the light

That follows you everywhere

And look for my love

Where the sun shines…"

"Be There," by Tori Amos

"You don't need directions

You know which way to go

And I don't want to hold you back

I just want to watch you grow

You're the one who taught me

You don't have to look behind

Oh, yes sweet darling

So glad you are a child of mine

Child of mine

Child of mine

Oh, yes sweet darling

So glad you are a child of mine"

"Child of Mine," by Carole King