All work is noble; the only ignoble thing is to live without working.
MARIA MONTESSORIAll work is noble; the only ignoble thing is to live without working.
MARIA MONTESSORIIf help and salvation are to come, they can only come from the children, for the children are the makers of men.
MARIA MONTESSORIWhen you have solved the problem of controlling the attention of the child, you have solved the entire problem of its education.
MARIA MONTESSORIThe man of character is the persistent man, the man who is faithful to his own word, his own convictions, his own affections.
MARIA MONTESSORITo aid life, leaving it free, however, that is the basic task of the educator.
MARIA MONTESSORIThe acquisitions he has made are such that we can say the child who enters school at three is an old man.
MARIA MONTESSORIThere can be no ‘graduated exercises in drawing’ leading up to an artistic creation. That goal can be attained only through the development of mechanical technique and through the freedom of the spirit.
MARIA MONTESSORIThe ability to see reality in form, in color, in proportion, to be master of the movements of one’s own hand – that is what is necessary.
MARIA MONTESSORIThe child, merely by going on with his life, learns to speak the language belonging to his race. It is like a mental chemistry that takes place in the child.
MARIA MONTESSORIIt is surprising to notice that even from the earliest age, man finds the greatest satisfaction in feeling independent. The exalting feeling of being sufficient to oneself comes as a revelation.
MARIA MONTESSORIWe await the successsive births in the soul of the child. We give all possible material, that nothing may lack to the groping soul, and then we watch for the perfect faculty to come, safeguarding the child from interruption so that it may carry its efforts through.
MARIA MONTESSORIThe development of language is part of the development of the personality, for words are the natural means of expressing thoughts and establishing understanding between people.
MARIA MONTESSORIHow can any one paint who cannot grade colors? How can any one write poetry who has not learnt to hear and see?
MARIA MONTESSORIWe cannot create observers by saying ‘observe’, but by giving them the power and the means for this observation and these means are procured through education of the senses.
MARIA MONTESSORIThe person who is developing freely and naturally arrives at a spiritual equilibrium in which he is master of his actions, just as one who has acquired physical poise can move freely.
MARIA MONTESSORIWe discovered that education is not something which the teacher does, but that it is a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being.
MARIA MONTESSORI