The great man is he who does not lose his child’s-heart.
—Mencius (c.371–c.289 BCE) Chinese Philosopher, Sage
Creativity represents a miraculous coming together of the uninhibited energy of the child with its apparent opposite and enemy-the sense of order imposed on the disciplined adult intelligence.
—Norman Podhoretz (b.1930) American Political Activist, Columnist, Author
To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature. Most persons do not see the sun. At least they have a very superficial seeing. The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and heart of the child. The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
One of the virtues of being very young is that you don’t let the facts get in the way of your imagination.
—Sam Levenson (1911–80) American Humorist, Writer, Teacher
One must ask children and birds how cherries and strawberries taste.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
If children grew up according to early indications, we should have nothing but geniuses.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
When you’re green you’re growing, and when you’re ripe you start to rot.
—Ray Kroc (1902–84) American Entrepreneur, Businessperson
The reluctance to put away childish things may be a requirement of genius.
—Rebecca Pepper Sinkler (b.1937) American Editor
So, like a forgotten fire, a childhood can always flare up again within us.
—Gaston Bachelard (1884–1962) French Philosopher, Psychoanalyst, Poet
We must remain as close to the flowers, the grass, and the butterflies as the child is who is not yet so much taller than they are. We adults, on the other hand, have outgrown them and have to lower ourselves to stoop down to them. It seems to me that the grass hates us when we confess our love for it. Whoever would partake of all good things must understand how to be small at times.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
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
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
In every real man a child is hidden that wants to play.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
I still get wildly enthusiastic about little things… I play with leaves. I skip down the street and run against the wind.
—Leo Buscaglia (1924–98) American Motivational Speaker
Grown-ups never understand anything for themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900–44) French Novelist, Aviator
Happy is he who still loves something he loved in the nursery: he has not been broken in two by time; he is not two men, but one, and he has saved not only his soul but his life.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
When I grow up, I want to be a little boy.
—Joseph Heller (1923–99) American Novelist
Think what a better world it would be if we all – the whole world – had cookies and milk about three o’clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap.
—Robert Fulghum (b.1937) American Unitarian Author, Essayist, Clergyman
There are children playing in the streets who could solve some of my top problems in physics, because they have modes of sensory perception that I lost long ago.
—J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904–67) American Nuclear Physicist
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
Adults are obsolete children.
—Theodor Seuss Geisel (‘Dr. Seuss’) (1904–91) American Children’s Writer, Cartoonist, Animator
What a distressing contrast there is between the radiant intelligence of the child and the feeble mentality of the average adult.
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian Psychiatrist, Psychoanalytic
The end of childhood is when things cease to astonish us. When the world seems familiar, when one has got used to existence, one has become an adult.
—Eugene Ionesco (1909–94) Romanian-born French Dramatist
A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood.
—Rachel Carson (1907–64) American Naturalist, Science Writer
Everybody’s 12 years old in an apple orchard.
—Rachael Ray (b.1968) American TV Personality, Author, Celebrity Chef
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