Above all, though, children are linked to adults by the simple fact that they are in process of turning into them. For this they may be forgiven much. Children are bound to be inferior to adults, or there is no incentive to grow up.
—Philip Larkin (1922–85) English Poet, Librarian, Novelist
Children should be led into the right paths, not by severity, but by persuasion.
—Terence (c.195–159 BCE) Roman Comic Dramatist
The sweetest roamer is a boy’s young heart.
—George Edward Woodberry (1855–1930) American Literary Critic, Poet
How full and rich a world
Theirs to inhabit is–
Sweet scent of grass and bloom,
Playmates’ glad symphony,
Cool touch of western wind,
Sunshine’s divine caress.
How should they know or feel
They are in darkness?
But, oh, the miracle!
If a Redeemer came,
Laid finger on their eyes–
One touch and what a world,
New-born in loveliness!
—Israel Zangwill (1864–1926) English Playwright, Novelist, Zionist Activist
We say that a girl with her doll anticipates the mother. It is more true, perhaps, that most mothers are still but children with playthings.
—F. H. Bradley (1846–1924 ) British Idealist Philosopher
The clew of our destiny, wander where we will, lies at the foot of the cradle.
—Jean Paul (1763–1825) German Novelist, Humorist
Children have more need of models than of critics.
—Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French Writer, Moralist
There is no need to waste pity on young girls who are having their moments of disillusionment, for in another moment they will recover their illusion.
—Colette (1873–1954) French Novelist, Performer
Let your children be as so many flowers, borrowed from God. If the flowers die or wither, thank God for a summer loan of them.
—Samuel Rutherford (1600–61) Scottish Presbyterian Theologian, Author
Nothing you do for children is ever wasted. They seem not to notice us, hovering, averting our eyes, and they seldom offer thanks, but what we do for them is never wasted.
—Garrison Keillor (b.1942) American Author, Humorist, Radio Personality
All children alarm their parents, if only because you are forever expecting to encounter yourself.
—Gore Vidal (1925–48) American Novelist, Essayist, Journalist, Playwright
Never have children, only grand children.
—Gore Vidal (1925–48) American Novelist, Essayist, Journalist, Playwright
If you want your children to improve, let them overhear the nice things you say about them to others.
—Haim Ginott
Children find everything in nothing; men find nothing in everything.
—Giacomo Leopardi (1798–1837) Italian Poet, Essayist, Philosopher
If you have a great passion it seems that the logical thing is to see the fruit of it, and the fruit are children.
—Roman Polanski (b.1933) French Film Director, Film Producer, Actor, Screenwriter
The first duty to children is to make them happy.—If you have not made them so, you have wronged them.—No other good they may get can make up for that.
—Charles Buxton (1823–71) British Politician, Writer
The child’s grief throbs against its little heart as heavily as the man’s sorrow; and the one finds as much delight in his kite or drum, as the other in striking the springs of enterprise, or soaring on the wings of fame.
—Edwin Hubbell Chapin (1814–80) American Preacher, Poet
It might sound a paradoxical thing to say –for surely never has a generation of children occupied more sheer hours of parental time –but the truth is that we neglected you. We allowed you a charade of trivial freedoms in order to avoid making those impositions on you that are in the end both the training ground and proving ground for true independence. We pronounced you strong when you were still weak in order to avoid the struggles with you that would have fed your true strength. We proclaimed you sound when you were foolish in order to avoid taking part in the long, slow, slogging effort that is the only route to genuine maturity of mind and feeling. Thus, it was no small anomaly of your growing up that while you were the most indulged generation, you were also in many ways the most abandoned to your own meager devices by those into whose safe-keeping you had been given.
—Midge Decter (b.1927) American Journalist, Activist, Author
If we had paid no more attention to our plants than we have to our children, we would now be living in a jungle of weed.
—Luther Burbank (1849–1926) American Botanist, Scientist
I want my children to have all the things I couldn’t afford. Then I want to move in with them.
—Phyllis Diller (b.1917) American Actor, Comedian
Several children present me with scraps of paper for autographs: obviously don’t know who I am and don’t care. I sign “Jackie Collins” and they go away quite content.
—Robertson Davies (1913–95) Canadian Novelist, Playwright, Essayist
Americans, indeed, often seem to be so overwhelmed by their children that they’ll do anything for them except stay married to the co-producer.
—Katharine Whitehorn (b.1928) English Journalist, Writer, Columnist
Children are likely to live up to what you believe of them.
—Lady Bird Johnson (1912–2007) First Lady of the United States, Conservationist
The knowingness of little girls hidden underneath their curls.
—Phyllis McGinley (1905–78) American Children’s Books Writer, Poet, Writer of Children’s Books
It takes three to make a child.
—e. e. cummings (1894–1962) American Poet, Writer, Painter
Childhood and genius have the same master-organ in common — inquisitiveness. — Let childhood have its way, and as it began where genius begins, it may find what genius finds.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
The planting of trees is the least self-centered of all that we can do. It is a purer act of faith than the procreation of children.
—Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) American Novelist, Playwright
It should be noted that children’s games are not merely games. One should regard them as their most serious activities.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
There are only two things a child will share willingly; communicable diseases and its mother’s age.
—Benjamin Spock (1903–98) American Pediatrician, Author
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
What guides us is children’s response, their joy in learning to dance, to sing, to live together. It should be a guide to the whole world.
—Yehudi Menuhin (1916–99) American-born British Violinist, Conductor
Adults are obsolete children.
—Theodor Seuss Geisel (‘Dr. Seuss’) (1904–91) American Children’s Books Writer, Writer, Cartoonist, Animator
There should be no enforced respect for grown-ups. We cannot prevent children from thinking us fools by merely forbidding them to utter their thoughts; in fact, they are more likely to think ill of us if they dare not say so.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
When a child can be brought to tears, and not from fear of punishment, but from repentance he needs no chastisement. When the tears begin to flow from the grief of their conduct you can be sure there is an angel nestling in their heart.
—Horace Mann (1796–1859) American Educator, Politician, Educationalist
She discovered with great delight that one does not love one’s children just because they are one’s children but because of the friendship formed while raising them.
—Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1927–2014) Colombian Novelist, Short-Story Writer
Families with babies and families without babies are sorry for each other.
—E. W. Howe (1853–1937) American Novelist, Editor
Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing.
—Phyllis Diller (b.1917) American Actor, Comedian
The finest inheritance you can give to a child is to allow it to make its own way, completely on its own feet.
—Isadora Duncan (1877–1927) American Dancer, Choreographer
‘Tis education forms the common mind: just as the twig is bent the tree’s inclined.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
In praising or loving a child, we love and praise not that which is, but that which we hope for.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Any man who hates children can’t be all bad.
—W. C. Fields (1880–1946) American Actor, Comedian, Writer
Children do not give up their innate imagination, curiosity, dreaminess easily. You have to love them to get them to do that.
—R. D. Laing (1927–89) Scottish Psychiatrist
Give me a child for the first seven years, and you may do what you like with him afterward.
—Common Proverb
Blessed be the hand that prepares a pleasure for a child, for there is no saying when and where it may bloom forth.
—Douglas William Jerrold (1803–57) English Writer, Dramatist, Wit
Pretty much all the honest truth-telling there is in the world is done by children.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
Heaven lies about us in our infancy! Shades of the prison-house begin to close upon the growing boy.
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Poet
Lord, give to men who are old and rougher the things that little children suffer, and let keep bright and undefiled the young years of the little child.
—John Masefield (1878–1967) English Poet, Novelist, Playwright
Children’s liberation is the next item on our civil rights shopping list.
—Letty Cottin Pogrebin (b.1939) American Social Activist, Journalist
Man, a dunce uncouth, errs in age and youth: babies know the truth.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) English Poet, Novelist
Even though your kids will consistently do the exact opposite of what you’re telling them to do, you have to keep loving them just as much.
—Bill Cosby (b.1937) American Actor, Comedian, Activist, Producer, Author
Girls like to be played with, and rumpled a little too, sometimes.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
Children aren’t happy with nothing to ignore, and that’s what parents were created for.
—Ogden Nash (1902–71) American Writer of Sophisticated Light Verse
So long as little children are allowed to suffer, there is no true love in this world.
—Isadora Duncan (1877–1927) American Dancer, Choreographer
A fairly bright boy is far more intelligent and far better company than the average adult.
—J. B. S. Haldane (1892–1964) British Biologist, Geneticist
Let thy child’s first lesson be obedience, and the second will be what thou wilt.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
A child’s education should begin at least one hundred years before he is born.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
When I was a kid my parents moved a lot, but I always found them.
—Rodney Dangerfield (1921–2004) American Comedian, TV Personality, Actor
What’s more enchanting than the voices of young people, when you can’t hear what they say?
—Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946) American-British Essayist, Bibliophile
We’ve had bad luck with our kids — they’ve all grown up.
—Christopher Morley (1890–1957) American Novelist, Essayist
Children’s talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives.
—Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American Poet
The more people have studied different methods of bringing up children the more they have come to the conclusion that what good mothers and fathers instinctively feel like doing for their babies is the best after all.
—Benjamin Spock (1903–98) American Pediatrician, Author
Your children need your presence more than presents.
—Jesse Jackson (b.1941) American Baptist Civil Rights Activist, Minister
Childhood lasts all through life. It returns to animate broad sections of adult life. Poets will help us to find this living childhood within us, this permanent, durable, immobile world.
—Gaston Bachelard (1884–1962) French Philosopher, Psychoanalyst, Poet
Winning children (who appear so guileless) are children who have discovered how effective charm and modesty and a delicately calculated spontaneity are in winning what they want.
—Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) American Novelist, Playwright
Education is in danger of becoming a religion based on fear; its doctrine is to compete. Our children are being led to believe that they are doomed to failure in a world which has room only for those at the top … in all our efforts to provide “advantages” we have actually produced the busiest, most competitive, highly pressured and over-organized generation of youngsters in our history and possibly the unhappiest.
—Eda LeShan (1922–2002) American TV Personality, Playwright, Educator, Writer
Between the age limits of nine and fourteen there occur maidens who, to certain bewitched travelers, twice or many times older than they, reveal their true nature which is not human, but nymphic (that is, demoniac); and these chosen creatures I propose to designate as “nymphets.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) Russian-born American Novelist
We are the buffoons of our children.
—Pietro Aretino (1492–1556) Italian Poet, Dramatist, Satirist
Some children are wiser than adults.
—Lama Thubten Yeshe (1935–84) Tibetan Buddhist Teacher
Do not confine your children to your own learning, for they were born in another time.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
I have never understood the fear of some parents about babies getting mixed up in the hospital. What difference does it make as long as you get a good one?
—Heywood Broun (1888–1939) American Journalist
As much as I converse with sages and heroes, they have very little of my love and admiration. I long for rural and domestic scene, for the warbling of birds and the prattling of my children.
—John Adams (1735–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
What is done to children, they will do to society.
—Karl Menninger (1893–1990) American Psychiatrist
Oh happy we, the first-born heirs of nature,
For whom the Heavenly Sun delays his light!
He by the sweets of every mortal creature
Tempers eternal beauty to our sight;
And by the glow upon love’s earthly feature
Maketh the path of our departure bright.
—George Edward Woodberry (1855–1930) American Literary Critic, Poet
Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.
—Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish Painter, Sculptor, Artist
My mother loved children — she would have given anything if I had been one.
—Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American Actor, Comedian, Singer
Everyone knows that by far the happiest and universally enjoyable age of man is the first. What is there about babies which makes us hug and kiss and fondle them, so that even an enemy would give them help at that age?
—Desiderius Erasmus (c.1469–1536) Dutch Humanist, Scholar
Even a minor event in the life of a child is an event of that child’s world and thus a world event.
—Gaston Bachelard (1884–1962) French Philosopher, Psychoanalyst, Poet
You see much more of your children once they leave home.
—Lucille Ball (1911–89) American Actor, Comedian, Model
What we ought to see in the agonies of puberty is the result of the conditioning that maims the female personality in creating the feminine.
—Germaine Greer (b.1939) Australia Academic, Journalist, Scholar, Writer
A man who gives his children habits of industry provides for them better than by giving them a fortune.
—Richard Whately (1787–1863) English Philosopher, Theologian
When childhood dies, its corpses are called adults and they enter society, one of the politer names of hell. That is why we dread children; even if we love them, they show us the state of our decay.
—Brian Aldiss (1925–2017) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer
The only people who think children are carefree are the ones who’ve forgotten their own childhood.
—Orson Scott Card (b.1951) American Author, Critic, Political Activist
Most of the people who will walk behind me will be children so make the beat keep time with short steps.
—Hans Christian Andersen (1805–75) Danish Author, Poet, Short Story Writer
A three year old child is a being who gets almost as much fun out of a fifty-six dollar set of swings as it does out of finding a small green worm.
—Burton Hillis (William E. Vaughan) (1915–77) American Columnist, Author
A torn jacket is soon mended; but hard words bruise the heart of a child.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
Children, taught either years beneath their intelligence or miles wide of relevance to it, or both: their intelligence becomes hopelessly bewildered, drawn off its centers, bored, or atrophied.
—James Agee (1909–55) American Journalist, Poet, Screenwriter, Film Critic
Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.
—James Baldwin (1924–87) American Novelist, Social Critic
Unhappiness in a child accumulates because he sees no end to the dark tunnel. The thirteen weeks of a term might just as well be thirteen years.
—Graham Greene (1904–91) British Novelist, Playwright, Short Story Writer