“If the child was helpless, was the grown up person, man or woman, in a much better position?”

—  Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse

Source: Liberalism (1911), Chapter IV, "Laissez - Faire", p. 46.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Feb. 8, 2022. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "If the child was helpless, was the grown up person, man or woman, in a much better position?" by Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse?
Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse photo
Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse 24
British sociologist 1864–1929

Related quotes

F. Scott Fitzgerald photo

“Often a man can play the helpless child in front of a woman, but he can almost never bring it off when he feels most like a helpless child.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book Tender Is the Night

Source: Tender Is the Night

Hermann Hesse photo

“I had grown a thin mustache, I was a full-grown man, and yet I was completely helpless and without a goal in life.”

Hermann Hesse book Demian

Source: Demian (1919), p. 169

Robert Louis Stevenson photo

“Fiction is to the grown man what play is to the child”

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer

A Gossip on Romance, printed in Longman's Magazine (November 1882).
Context: Fiction is to the grown man what play is to the child; it is there that he changes the atmosphere and tenor of his life.

Ludwig Wittgenstein photo

“Philosophers often behave like little children who scribble some marks on a piece of paper at random and then ask the grown-up "What's that?" — It happened like this: the grown-up had drawn pictures for the child several times and said "this is a man," "this is a house," etc. And then the child makes some marks too and asks: what's this then?”

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher

Source: Culture and Value (1980), p. 17e

“One of the most obvious facts about grown-ups to a child is that they have forgotten what it is like to be a child.”

Randall Jarrell (1914–1965) poet, critic, novelist, essayist

"An Unread Book," introduction to The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead (Holt, Rinehart, 1965 edition)
General sources

Leonard Bernstein photo

“A liberal is a man or a woman or a child who looks forward to a better day, a more tranquil night, and a bright, infinite future.”

Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990) American composer, conductor, author, music lecturer, and pianist

Leonard Bernstein, statement of 1953, quoted in A Wonderful Life : 50 Eulogies to Lift the Spirit (2006) by Cyrus M. Copeland, p. 190

Otto Ohlendorf photo

“In the child, we see the grown-up. I see the problem differently.”

Otto Ohlendorf (1907–1951) German general

To Leon Goldensohn, March 1, 1946, after Goldensohn asks Ohlendorf, "How did you figure a six month old Jewish infant must be killed - was it an enemy? Quoted in "The Nuremberg Interviews" by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004.

Sinclair Lewis photo

“Good sense from a child was not necessarily contemptible beside foolishness from a grown-up.”

Sinclair Lewis (1885–1951) American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright

The God-Seeker (1949), Ch. 3

Henning Mankell photo

“To grow up is to wonder about things; to be grown up is to slowly forget the things you wondered about as a child.”

Henning Mankell (1948–2015) Swedish crime writer, children's author, leftist activist and dramatist

Source: When the Snow Fell

Thich Nhat Hanh photo

“Children understand very well that in each woman, in each man, in each child, there is capacity of waking up, of understanding, and of loving.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Being Peace (2005)
Context: Children understand very well that in each woman, in each man, in each child, there is capacity of waking up, of understanding, and of loving. Many children have told me that they cannot show me anyone who does not have this capacity. Some people allow it to develop, and some do not, but everyone has it. This capacity of waking up, of being aware of what is going on in your feelings, in your body, in your perceptions, in the world, is called Buddha nature, the capacity of understanding and loving. Smiling is very important. If we are not able to smile, then the world will not have peace. It is not by going out for a demonstration against nuclear missiles that we can bring about peace. It is with our capacity of smiling, breathing, and being peace that we can make peace.

Related topics