He meant to do more good than he meant to do harm

Cory: ...Papa was like a shadow that followed you everwhere. It weighed on you and sunk into your flesh. It would wrap around you and lay there until you couldn't tell which one was you anymore. That shadow digging in your flesh. Trying to crawl in. Trying to live through you...I'm just saying I've got to find a way to get rid of that shadow, Mama.
...
Rose: You can't be nobody but who you are, Cory. That shadow wasn't nothing but you growing into yourself. You either got to grow into it or cut it down to fit you. But that's all you got to make life with. That's all you got to measure yourself against that world out there. Your daddy wanted you to be everything he wasn't...but at the same time he tried to make you into everything he was. I don't know if he was right or wrong...but I do know he meant to do more good than he meant to do harm. He wasn't always right. Sometimes when he touched he bruised.

The above is an excerpt from August Wilson's play Fences. It is an incredible play that my brother performed in a few years ago, the similarities between Troy (the father) and my father, and Cory (the son) and my brother, and Rose (the mother/wife) and my mom were striking. Characteristics I mean, not so much actions. The play is beautiful, and the excerpt above is from the scene after Troy has died, the exchange between Cory and Rose is always with me, particularly Rose's monologues which continues on. Rambling, sorry. Done. ALSO Denzel Washington is performing it on Broadway right now, I would give my right arm to see it haha.