“Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed.”

One test of the correctness of educational procedure is the happiness of the child.

The teacher, in short, can use reading to introduce her pupils to the most varied subjects; and the moment they have been thus started, they can go on to any limit guided by the single passion for reading.

Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war.

The greatest sign of success for a teacher… is to be able to say, ‘The children are now working as if I did not exist.’

If intelligence is the triumph of life, the spoken word is the marvellous means by which this intelligence is manifested.

The acquisitions he has made are such that we can say the child who enters school at three is an old man.

Books are mute as far as sound is concerned. It follows that reading aloud is a combination of two distinct operations, of two ‘languages.’ It is something far more complex than speaking and reading taken separately by themselves.

If an educational act is to be efficacious, it will be only that one which tends to help toward the complete unfolding of life. To be thus helpful it is necessary rigorously to avoid the arrest of spontaneous movements and the imposition of arbitrary tasks.

There is need to realize the value of work in all its forms whether manual or intellectual, to be called ‘mate,’ to have sympathetic understanding of all forms of activity.

There are two ‘faiths’ which can uphold humans: faith in God and faith in oneself. And these two faiths should exist side by side: the first belongs to one’s inner life, the second to one’s life in society.

Temptation, if it is not to conquer, must not fall like a bomb against another bomb of instantaneous moral explosions, but against the strong walls of an impregnable fortress strongly built up, stone by stone, beginning at that distant day when the foundations were first laid.

An unconscious mind can be full of intelligence. One will find this type of intelligence in every being, and every insect has it.

Moral Education is the source of that spiritual equilibrium on which everything else depends and which may be compared to that physical equilibrium or sense of balance, without which it is impossible to stand upright or to move into any other position.

Woman was always the custodian of human sentiment, morality and honour, and in these respects, man always has yielded woman the palm.

It 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.

I have for many years interested myself in the study of children from three years upwards. Many have urged me to continue my studies on the same lines with older children. But what I have felt to be most vital is the need for more careful and particularized study of the tiny child.

You should study not only that you become a mother when your child is born, but also that you become a child.

I remember I used to half believe and wholly play with fairies when I was a child.

As long as I was well fed, I was a very, very nice child. I just used my imagination and played with Barbies. I was pretty easy.

The barking dog that robs you of sleep, the heat of summer, the cold of winter. Forgive the ingrown toenail, the flea that bites; forgive the cranky child, wrinkles, a forgotten birthday.

The only person who dares wake up a king at 3:00 AM for a glass of water is a child. We have that kind of access

Nothing fortuitous happens in a child’s world. There are no accidents. Everything is connected with everything else and everything can be explained by everything else. . . . For a young child everything that happens is a necessity.

It sometimes happens that the town child is more alive to the fresh beauty of the country than a child who is country born..

I believe that all the best faculties of a mature human being exist in the child. . . that one of the most deeply human, and humane, of these faculties is the power of imagination.