A fairly bright boy is far more intelligent and far better company than the average adult.
—J. B. S. Haldane (1892–1964) British Scientist, Geneticist
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
Children seldom have a proper sense of their own tragedy, discounting and keeping hidden the true horrors of their short lives, humbly imagining real calamity to be some prestigious drama of the grown-up world.
—Shirley Hazzard (1931–2016) Australian Novelist, Essayist
Adults are obsolete children.
—Theodor Seuss Geisel (‘Dr. Seuss’) (1904–91) American Children’s Writer, Cartoonist, Animator
Grown men can learn from very little children for the hearts of little children are pure. Therefore, the Great Spirit may show to them many things which older people miss.
—Black Elk (1863–1950) Native American Spiritual Leader
Of all the needs (there are none imaginary) a lonely child has, the one that must be satisfied, if there is going to be hope and a hope of wholeness, is the unshaken need for an unshakable God.
—Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American Poet
When children are doing nothing, they are doing mischief.
—Henry Fielding (1707–54) English Novelist, Dramatist
It takes three to make a child.
—e. e. cummings (1894–1962) American Poet, Writer, Painter
Children have but little charity for one another’s defects.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
The life of children, as much as that of intemperate men, is wholly governed by their desires.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
In bringing up a child, think of its old age.
—Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French Writer, Moralist
The child is the father of the man.
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Poet
Those lives are, indeed, narrow and confined which are not blessed with several children.
—John Burroughs (1837–1921) American Naturalist, Writer
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
Give me the children until they are seven and anyone may have them afterwards.
—Francis Xavier (1506–52) Spanish Catholic Priest, Saint
Few parents nowadays pay any regard to what their children say to them. The old-fashioned respect for the young is fast dying out.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Children are curious and are risk takers. They have lots of courage. They venture out into a world that is immense and dangerous. A child initially trusts life and the processes of life.
—John Bradshaw (1933–2016) American Motivational Speaker
Good Christian people, here lies for you an inestimable loan;—take all heed thereof, in all carefulness employ it. With high recompense, or else with heavy penalty, will it one day be required back.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
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
Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.
—Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) Russian Revolutionary Leader
The training of children is a profession, where we must know how to lose time in order to gain it.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) Swiss-born French Philosopher
You can’t cheat kids. If you cheat them when they’re children they’ll make you pay when they’re sixteen or seventeen by revolting against you or hating you or all those so-called teenage problems. I think that’s finally when they’re old enough to stand up to you and say, ‘What a hypocrite you’ve been all this time. You’ve never given me what I really wanted, which is you’.
—John Lennon (1940–80) British Singer, Songwriter, Musician, Activist
There is not so much comfort in having children as there is sorrow in parting with them.
—Common Proverb
Badgered, snubbed and scolded on the one hand; petted, flattered and indulged on the other-it is astonishing how many children work their way up to an honest manhood in spite of parents and friends. Human nature has an element of great toughness in it.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
Children have neither a past nor a future. Thus they enjoy the present—which seldom happens to us.
—Jean de La Bruyere (1645–96) French Satiric Moralist, Author
We cannot fashion our children after our desires, we must have them and love them as God has given them to us.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Children, love one another, and if that is not possible-at least try to put up with one another.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Children are excellent physiognomists, and soon discover their real friends.—Luttrell calls them all lunatics, and so in fact they are.—What is childhood but a series of happy delusions?
—Sydney Smith (1771–1845) English Clergyman, Essayist, Wit
Only two kids enjoy high school. One is the captain of the football team. The other is his girlfriend.
—Letter to Ann Landers American Syndicated Advice Column
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, Actor, Producer, Screenwriter
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