When a father gives to his son, both laugh; when a son gives to his father, both cry.

As I work on ShakeShare, my Shakespeare Quotes app for the iPhone, I’m constantly scanning for new quotes. It is, as you might imagine, very important to me to cite every quote correctly. How could I look myself in the mirror if I let a Not By Shakespeare slip in there?

Today I found this one. Honestly I don’t even understand it. And I am a father to a son. 🙂

All I can find are references to this one as a “Jewish proverb.” Anybody got a definitive database of those??

2 thoughts on “When a father gives to his son, both laugh; when a son gives to his father, both cry.

  1. I do not know whether this is by Shakespeare or not, but here’s what I think is the most probable meaning of this quote:
    “When a father gifts some toys, sweets, etc to his son, its a matter of joy for both and they both laugh. Thats what every father does, bring gifts to his son.
    When the son grows independent and finally starts earning, and he decides, probably from his first salary, to gift something to his father, its a matter of pride as well as joy for both. And so, out of emotions, they both cry tears of joy.”
    You can try gifting something from your own earning to your parents and see their happineds spill out as tears. 🙂

  2. Excuse me, I dont speak english, I’am mexican. But I thought one interpretation about this quote:
    This is when a father clothe (“give”) his son on a bed and both talk about things who remember along day, inclusive the father maybe read his a tale, so then “both laugh”. Years after when the roles is inverted, surely is because father is old and sick. He’s is in pain and his son too, then so “both cry”.

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