What we remember from childhood we remember forever—permanent ghosts, stamped, inked, imprinted, eternally seen.
—Cynthia Ozick (b.1928) American Novelist, Short-story Writer, Essayist
Religion is comparable to a childhood neurosis
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian Psychiatrist, Psychoanalytic
Old age lives minutes slowly, hours quickly; childhood chews hours and swallows minutes.
—Malcolm de Chazal (1902–81) Mauritian Writer, Painter, Visionary
I am convinced that, except in a few extraordinary cases, one form or another of an unhappy childhood is essential to the formation of exceptional gifts.
—Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) American Novelist, Playwright
There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.
—Graham Greene (1904–91) British Novelist, Playwright, Short Story Writer
Childhood is the fiery furnace in which we are melted down to essentials and that essential shaped for good.
—Katherine Anne Porter (1890–1980) American Short-Story Writer, Novelist
I could not point to any need in childhood as strong as that for a father’s protection.
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian Psychiatrist, Psychoanalytic
The ages of seven to eleven is a huge chunk of life, full of dulling and forgetting. It is fabled that we slowly lose the gift of speech with animals, that birds no longer visit our windowsills to converse. As our eyes grow accustomed to sight they armour themselves against wonder.
—Leonard Cohen (1934–2016) Canadian Singer, Songwriter, Poet, Novelist
Childhood is frequently a solemn business for those inside it.
—George Will (b.1941) American Columnist, Journalist, Writer
The childhood shows the man, as morning shows the day.
—John Milton (1608–74) English Poet, Civil Servant, Scholar, Debater
In childhood, we press our nose to the pane, looking out. In memories of childhood, we press our nose to the pane, looking in.
—Robert Brault
Childhood is the sleep of reason.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) Swiss-born French Philosopher
Childhood sometimes does pay a second visit to man; youth never.
—Anna Brownell Jameson (1794–1860) Irish-born Literary, Art Critic
The greatest poem ever known
Is one all poets have outgrown:
The poetry, innate, untold,
Of being only four years old.
—Christopher Morley (1890–1957) American Novelist, Essayist
A happy childhood has spoiled many a promising life.
—Robertson Davies (1913–95) Canadian Novelist, Playwright, Essayist
Childhood: the period of human life intermediate between the idiocy of infancy and the folly of youth – two removes from the sin of manhood and three from the remorse of age.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
Childhood is a short season.
—Helen Hayes (1900–93) American Actor, Philanthropist
Come children, let us shut up the box and the puppets, for our play is played out.
—William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–63) English Novelist
Everything else you grow out of, but you never recover from childhood.
—Beryl Bainbridge (1932–2010) British Novelist
A happy childhood is poor preparation for human contacts.
—Colette (1873–1954) French Novelist, Performer
The older I grow the more earnestly I feel that the few joys of childhood are the best that life has to give.
—Ellen Glasgow (1873–1945) American Novelist
Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies. Nobody that matters, that is.
—Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950) American Poet, Playwright, Feminist
The hardest job kids face today is learning good manners without seeing any.
—Fred Astaire (1899–1987) American Actor, Dancer, Singer
A good scientist is a person in whom the childhood quality of perennial curiosity lingers on. Once he gets an answer, he has other questions.
—Frederick Seitz (1911–2008) American Physicist
Childhood is that wonderful time of life when all you need to do to lose weight is take a bath.
—Unknown
When you finally go back to your old hometown, you find it wasn’t the old home you missed but your childhood.
—Sam Ewing (b.1949) American Sportsperson
What a man takes in by contemplation, that he pours out in love.
—Meister Eckhart (c.1260–1327) German Christian Mystic
What might be taken for a precocious genius is the genius of childhood. When the child grows up, it disappears without a trace. It may happen that this boy will become a real painter some day, or even a great painter. But then he will have to begin everything again, from zero.
—Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish Painter, Sculptor, Artist
We could never have loved the earth so well if we had had no childhood in it.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
I’d give all wealth that years have piled,
The slow result of Life’s decay,
To be once more a little child
For one bright summer day.
—Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) (1832–98) British Anglican Author, Mathematician, Clergyman, Photographer, Logician