Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war.
MARIA MONTESSORIEstablishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war.
MARIA MONTESSORIDependence is not patriotism. A man does not love his mother if he hangs about her to the point of burdening her with a weak, feckless son.
MARIA MONTESSORIWhen you have solved the problem of controlling the attention of the child, you have solved the entire problem of its education.
MARIA MONTESSORIIt would be so simple to allow children, when tired of sitting, to rise, and when tired of writing, to desist, and then their bones would not be twisted.
MARIA MONTESSORITemptation, 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.
MARIA MONTESSORIThe greatest sign of success for a teacher… is to be able to say, ‘The children are now working as if I did not exist.’
MARIA MONTESSORIBooks 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.
MARIA MONTESSORIThe first idea the child must acquire is that of the difference between good and evil.
MARIA MONTESSORIIf intelligence is the triumph of life, the spoken word is the marvellous means by which this intelligence is manifested.
MARIA MONTESSORIWith man, the life of the body depends on the life of the spirit.
MARIA MONTESSORINo, the child is the builder of man. There is no man existing who has not been formed by the child he once was.
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 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 MONTESSORIJoy, feeling one’s own value, being appreciated and loved by others, feeling useful and capable of production are all factors of enormous value for the human soul.
MARIA MONTESSORITo aid life, leaving it free, however, that is the basic task of the educator.
MARIA MONTESSORIMan is capable of every great heroism; it was man who found a means of conquering the formidable obstacles of his environment, establishing himself lord of the earth, and laying the foundations of civilization.
MARIA MONTESSORI