Quotes about childhood

A collection of quotes on the topic of adulthood, childhood, life, likeness.

Best quotes about childhood

„Unhappy is he to whom the memories of childhood bring only fear and sadness.“

— H.P. Lovecraft American author 1890 - 1937

„Everything is ceremony in the wild garden of childhood.“

— Pablo Neruda Chilean poet 1904 - 1973

„If a nation loses its storytellers, it loses its childhood.“

— Peter Handke Austrian writer, playwright and film director 1942

„Genius is the recovery of childhood at will.“

— Arthur Rimbaud French Decadent and Symbolist poet 1854 - 1891

„The smells of Christmas are the smells of childhood“

— Richard Paul Evans, book The Christmas Box

Source: The Christmas Box

„Do not handicap your children by making their lives easy.“

— Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

Time Enough for Love (1973)

„It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.“

— Rainer Maria Rilke Austrian poet and writer 1875 - 1926

„The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.“

— Plutarch ancient Greek historian and philosopher 46 - 127

„Genius is nothing more nor less than childhood recaptured at will.“

— Charles Baudelaire French poet 1821 - 1867

Le peintre de la vie moderne (1863), III: “L’artiste, homme du monde, homme des foules et enfant”
Variant: Genius is nothing but youth recaptured.
Source: The Painter of Modern Life and Other Essays

„There is no friendship, no love, like that of the parent for the child.“

— Henry Ward Beecher American clergyman and activist 1813 - 1887

All quotes about childhood

Total 692 quotes childhood, filter:

„Only once in your life, I truly believe, you find someone who can completely turn your world around. You tell them things that you’ve never shared with another soul and they absorb everything you say and actually want to hear more. You share hopes for the future, dreams that will never come true, goals that were never achieved and the many disappointments life has thrown at you. When something wonderful happens, you can’t wait to tell them about it, knowing they will share in your excitement. They are not embarrassed to cry with you when you are hurting or laugh with you when you make a fool of yourself. Never do they hurt your feelings or make you feel like you are not good enough, but rather they build you up and show you the things about yourself that make you special and even beautiful. There is never any pressure, jealousy or competition but only a quiet calmness when they are around. You can be yourself and not worry about what they will think of you because they love you for who you are. The things that seem insignificant to most people such as a note, song or walk become invaluable treasures kept safe in your heart to cherish forever. Memories of your childhood come back and are so clear and vivid it’s like being young again. Colours seem brighter and more brilliant. Laughter seems part of daily life where before it was infrequent or didn’t exist at all. A phone call or two during the day helps to get you through a long day’s work and always brings a smile to your face. In their presence, there’s no need for continuous conversation, but you find you’re quite content in just having them nearby. Things that never interested you before become fascinating because you know they are important to this person who is so special to you. You think of this person on every occasion and in everything you do. Simple things bring them to mind like a pale blue sky, gentle wind or even a storm cloud on the horizon. You open your heart knowing that there’s a chance it may be broken one day and in opening your heart, you experience a love and joy that you never dreamed possible. You find that being vulnerable is the only way to allow your heart to feel true pleasure that’s so real it scares you. You find strength in knowing you have a true friend and possibly a soul mate who will remain loyal to the end. Life seems completely different, exciting and worthwhile. Your only hope and security is in knowing that they are a part of your life.“

— Bob Marley Jamaican singer, songwriter, musician 1945 - 1981

Love, Life, People, Pleasure

„Before you judge me, try hard to love me,
Look within your heart then ask,
Have you seen my childhood?“

— Michael Jackson American singer, songwriter and dancer 1958 - 2009

HIStory: Past, Present & Future, Book I (1995)

Love, Heart

„Growing old is unavoidable, but never growing up is possible. I believe you can retain certain things from your childhood if you protect them - certain traits, certain places where you don’t let the world go.“

— Johnny Depp American actor, film producer, and musician 1963

World

„From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were — I have not seen
As others saw —“

— Edgar Allan Poe American author, poet, editor and literary critic 1809 - 1849

" Alone http://gothlupin.tripod.com/valone.html", l. 1-8 (written 1829, published 1875).
Context: From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were — I have not seen
As others saw — I could not bring
My passions from a common spring —
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow — I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone —
And all I lov'd — I lov'd alone

Hurtful

„From childhood we are trained to have problems. When we are sent to school, we have to learn how to write, how to read, and all the rest of it.“

— Jiddu Krishnamurti Indian spiritual philosopher 1895 - 1986

Source: 1980s, That Benediction is Where You Are (1985), p. 18
Context: From childhood we are trained to have problems. When we are sent to school, we have to learn how to write, how to read, and all the rest of it. How to write becomes a problem to the child. Please follow this carefully. Mathematics becomes a problem, history becomes a problem, as does chemistry. So the child is educated, from childhood, to live with problems — the problem of God, problem of a dozen things. So our brains are conditioned, trained, educated to live with problems. From childhood we have done this. What happens when a brain is educated in problems? It can never solve problems; it can only create more problems. When a brain that is trained to have problems, and to live with problems, solves one problem, in the very solution of that problem, it creates more problems. From childhood we are trained, educated to live with problems and, therefore, being centred in problems, we can never solve any problem completely. It is only the free brain that is not conditioned to problems that can solve problems. It is one of our constant burdens to have problems all the time. Therefore our brains are never quiet, free to observe, to look. So we are asking: Is it possible not to have a single problem but to face problems? But to understand those problems, and to totally resolve them, the brain must be free.

School, Problem, Learning, Reading

„I never stole in my childhood, so there was no question of apologising to my father.“

— Nathuram Godse Assassin of Mahatma Gandhi 1910 - 1949

Godse referring to Gandhi's autobiographical story, where Gandhi stole a piece of gold from his father's watch and later on apologised to his father
Excerpts from the play Mee Nathuram Godse boltoy

Question

„If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.“

— Albert Einstein German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity 1879 - 1955

Found in Montana Libraries: Volumes 8-14 (1954), p. cxxx http://books.google.com/books?id=PpwaAAAAMAAJ&q=%22more+fairy+tales%22#search_anchor. The story is given as follows: "In the current New Mexico Library Bulletin, Elizabeth Margulis tells a story of a woman who was a personal friend of the late dean of scientists, Dr. Albert Einstein. Motivated partly by her admiration for him, she held hopes that her son might become a scientist. One day she asked Dr. Einstein's advice about the kind of reading that would best prepare the child for this career. To her surprise, the scientist recommended 'Fairy tales and more fairy tales.' The mother protested that she was really serious about this and she wanted a serious answer; but Dr. Einstein persisted, adding that creative imagination is the essential element in the intellectual equipment of the true scientist, and that fairy tales are the childhood stimulus to this quality." However, it is unclear from this description whether Margulis heard this story personally from the woman who had supposedly had this discussion with Einstein, and the relevant issue of the New Mexico Library Bulletin does not appear to be online.
Variant: "First, give him fairy tales; second, give him fairy tales, and third, give him fairy tales!" Found in The Wilson Library Bulletin, Vol. 37 from 1962, which says on p. 678 http://books.google.com/books?id=KfQOAQAAMAAJ&q=einstein#search_anchor that this quote was reported by "Doris Gates, writer and children's librarian".
Variant: "Fairy tales … More fairy tales … Even more fairy tales". Found in Breaking the Magic Spell: Radical Theories of Folk and Fairy Tales by Jack Zipes (1979), p. 1 http://books.google.com/books?id=MxZFuahqzsMC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q&f=false.
Variant: "If you want your children to be brilliant, tell them fairy tales. If you want them to be very brilliant, tell them even more fairy tales." Found in Chocolate for a Woman's Heart & Soul by Kay Allenbaugh (1998), p. 57 http://books.google.com/books?id=grrpJh7-CfcC&q=brilliant#search_anchor. This version can be found in Usenet posts from before 1998, like this one from 1995 http://groups.google.com/group/rec.music.beatles/msg/cec9a9fdf803b72b?hl=en.
Variant: "If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be very intelligent, read them more fairy tales." Found in Mad, Bad and Dangerous?: The Scientist and the Cinema by Christopher Frayling (2005), p. 6 http://books.google.com/books?id=HjRYA3ELdG0C&lpg=PA6&dq=einstein%20%22want%20your%20children%20to%20be%20intelligent%22&pg=PA6#v=onepage&q=einstein%20%22want%20your%20children%20to%20be%20intelligent%22&f=false.
Variant: "If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales." Found in Super joy English, Volume 8 by 佳音事業機構 (2006), p. 87 http://books.google.com/books?id=-HUBKzP8zsUC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA87#v=onepage&q&f=false
Disputed
Context: Fairy tales and more fairy tales. [in response to a mother who wanted her son to become a scientist and asked Einstein what reading material to give him]

Children, Intelligence, Reading

„As a child I felt myself to be alone, and I am still, because I know things and must hint at things which others apparently know nothing of, and for the most part do not want to know.“

— C.G. Jung, book Memories, Dreams, Reflections

Source: Memories, Dreams, Reflections

Parting

„People say I'm strange that way,
'Cause I love such elementary things,
It's been my fate to compensate
For the childhood I've never known.“

— Michael Jackson American singer, songwriter and dancer 1958 - 2009

Childhood
HIStory: Past, Present & Future, Book I (1995)

Love, Fate, People, Way

„Childhood is the world of miracle and wonder; as if creation rose, bathed in the light, out of the darkness, utterly new and fresh and astonishing. The end of childhood is when things cease to astonish us.“

— Eugéne Ionesco Romanian playwright 1909 - 1994

World, Light

„What a childhood I had. My mother never breast-fed me. She said she liked me as a friend.“

— Rodney Dangerfield American actor and comedian 1921 - 2004

Source: It's Not Easy Bein' Me: A Lifetime of No Respect But Plenty of Sex and Drugs (2004), p. 19

„I was personally concerned and involved in child rights-related activities right from my childhood.“

— Kailash Satyarthi Indian children's rights activist 1954

Statement of 2011, as quoted in "Q&A: Kailash Satyarthi Winner of Nobel Peace Prize 2014" in The Wall Street Journal (10 October 2014) http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2014/10/10/qa-kailash-satyarthi-winner-of-nobel-peace-prize-2014/
Context: I was personally concerned and involved in child rights-related activities right from my childhood. Then over a period of time I realized that it is not possible that one person can make substantial change; so it is necessary to build an organization of like minded people and sensitize other people to join. I knew right from the beginning that child labor is not just a technical or legal issue and also not merely an economic issue. It’s a combination of several things. It’s a deep-rooted social evil and to wipe it out we have to build a strong movement. Bachpan Bachao Andolan has never been a typical NGO but it has emerged as a movement over a period of time.

Personality

„Mystical experiences, like those that marked my childhood, are apparently far from rare.“

— Albert Hofmann Swiss chemist 1906 - 2008

Foreword
LSD : My Problem Child (1980)
Context: In studying the literature connected with my work, I became aware of the great universal significance of visionary experience. It plays a dominant role, not only in mysticism and the history of religion, but also in the creative process in art, literature, and science. More recent investigations have shown that many persons also have visionary experiences in daily life, though most of us fail to recognize their meaning and value. Mystical experiences, like those that marked my childhood, are apparently far from rare.

„BEFORE YOU GET MARRIED
discuss bills, parenting styles, credit, debt, religion, how to deal with family, what beliefs will be instilled in your children, childhood traumas, sexual expectations, partner expectations, financial expectations, family health history, mental health history, bucket list, dream home, careers and education, political views and whatever else come to mind.
LOVE ALONE IS NOT ENOUGH!“

— Unknown author

Home, History, Parent, Love

„No matter what happens, always Keep your childhood innocence. It's the most important thing.“

— Federico Fellini Italian filmmaker 1920 - 1993

„For me, childhood roaming was what developed self-reliance, a sense of direction and adventure, imagination, a will to explore, to be able to get a little lost and then figure out the way back.“

— Rebecca Solnit Author and essayist from United States 1961

Source: A Field Guide to Getting Lost

Way, Imagination, Sense

„That is how you know you've left childhood behind-when you wish for time to go backward.“

— Alice Hoffman, book Here on Earth

Source: Here on Earth

Time

„I remember I used to half believe and wholly play with fairies when I was a child. What heaven can be more real than to retain the spirit-world of childhood, tempered and balanced by knowledge and common-sense…“

— Beatrix Potter English children's writer and illustrator 1866 - 1943

Journal entry (1896-11-17), from the National Trust collection.
Source: The Complete Tales

World, Knowledge, Sense

„There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in… We should be thankful we cannot see the horrors and degradations lying around our childhood, in cupboards and bookshelves, everywhere.“

— Graham Greene, book The Power and the Glory

Source: The Power and the Glory

Lying, Future

„What heaven can be more real than to retain the spirit-world of childhood?“

— Beatrix Potter English children's writer and illustrator 1866 - 1943

World

„Understand the nature and influence of repeating patterns, from childhood experiences or even from past lives. Wthout understanding, patterns tend to repeat, unnecessarily damaging the relationship.“

— Brian L. Weiss

Source: Messages from the Masters: Tapping into the Power of Love

Understanding, Nature, Past

„Eddie discovered one of his childhood's great truths. Grownups are the real monsters, he thought.“

— Stephen King, book It

Variant: And almost idly, in a kind of sidethought, Eddie discovered one of his childhood's great truths. Grownups are the real monsters, he thought.
Source: It (1986)

Truth

„It is utterly false and cruelly arbitrary… to put all the play and learning into childhood, all the work into middle age, and all the regrets into old age.“

— Margaret Mead American anthropologist 1901 - 1978

As quoted in Teacher's Treasury of Stories for Every Occasion (1958) by Millard Dale Baughman, p. 69
1950s

Age, Learning, Falseness

„… no one ever became excellent in any exercise whatsoever without beginning from his childhood to endure heat, cold, hunger, thirst, and other discomforts; wherefore those men are entirely deceived who think to be able, at their ease and with all the comforts of the world, to attain an honorable rank. It is not by sleeping but by waking and studying continually that progress is made. [on Luca Della Robbia]“

— Giorgio Vasari Italian painter, architect, writer and historian 1511 - 1574

Men, Hunger, World, Exercises

„One of the luckiest things that can happen to you in life is to have a happy childhood.“

— Agatha Christie English mystery and detective writer 1890 - 1976

Life, Happiness

„It's not gray," Clary felt compelled to point out. "It's green."
"If there was such a thing as terminal literalism, you'd have died in childhood," said Jace.“

— Cassandra Clare, book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

„I have never known a patient to portray his parents more negatively than he actually experienced them in childhood but always more positively--because idealization of his parents was essential for his survival.“

— Alice Miller Swiss psychologist 1923 - 2010

Source: Thou Shalt Not Be Aware : Society's Betrayal of the Child

Parent

„Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are therir own“

— Aristotle Classical Greek philosopher, student of Plato and founder of Western philosophy -384 - -321 BC

Children

„Childhood is over when you know you’re gonna die.“

— James O'Barr, The Crow

Source: The Crow

„It's never too late to have a happy childhood.“

— Tom Robbins, book Still Life with Woodpecker

Source: Still Life with Woodpecker (1980)

Happiness

„The childhood shows the man,
As morning shows the day.“

— John Milton English epic poet 1608 - 1674

Source: Paradise Regained by John Milton

„Even in childhood I watched the hours flow, independent of any reference, any action, any event, the disjunction of time from what was not itself, its autonomous existence, its special status, its empire, its tyranny. I remember quite clearly that afternoon when, for the first time, confronting the empty universe, I was no more than a passage of moments reluctant to go on playing their proper parts. Time was coming unstuck from being — at my expense.“

— Emil M. Cioran, book The Trouble With Being Born

The Trouble With Being Born (1973)

Universe, Time, Parting

„The only influences in [the painting 'The sick Child', Munch painted in his elderly home, remembering very accurate the last days of his dying little sister Sophie] 'The sick Child'.... were the ones that come from my home.... my childhood and my home. Only someone who knew the conditions at home could possibly understand why there can be no conceivable chance of any other place having played a part – my home is to my art as a midwife is to her children.... few painters have ever experienced the full grief of their subject as I did in 'The sick child.“

— Edvard Munch Norwegian painter and printmaker 1863 - 1944

It was not just I who was suffering; it was all my nearest and dearest as well.
Edvard Munch talks to Jens Tiis, c. 1933, Munch Museum; as quoted in Edvard Much – behind the scream, Sue Prideaux; Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2007, pp. 85-86
after 1930

Children, Art, Home, Understanding

„I have not lost my faith; and this I must attribute more to a miracle than to my own wisdom; more to Divine Providence than to my own virtue. Steadfastly, in fact from my earliest childhood, I have made this my prayer, "Lord God… grant me long life, and wisdom, and health of mind and body."“

— Girolamo Cardano Italian Renaissance mathematician, physician, astrologer 1501 - 1576

The Book of My Life (1930)

Life, Wisdom, God, Health

„If one day the secret of childhood were to become no longer a secret, the state would be able to save immense sums that it spends on hospitals, psychiatric clinics, and prisons maintaining our blindness. That this might deliberately happen is almost too incredible a thought.“

— Alice Miller Swiss psychologist 1923 - 2010

Breaking Down the Wall of Silence (Abbruch der Schweigemauer) (1990)

Secret

„Every stage of education begins with childhood. That is why the most educated person on earth so much resembles a child.“

— Novalis German poet and writer 1772 - 1801

“Miscellaneous Observations,” Philosophical Writings, M. Stolijar, trans. (Albany: 1997) #48

Education, Personality

„There can be no doubt that the youth of today have to be protected against certain poisonous effects inherent in present-day civilization. Five social diseases surround them, even in early childhood. There is the decline in fitness due to modern methods of locomotion; the decline in initiative due to the widespread disease of spectatoritis; the decline in care and skill due to the weakened tradition of craftsmanship; the decline in self-discipline due to the ever-present availability of tranquilizers and stimulants, and the decline in compassion, which William Temple called "spiritual death."“

— Kurt Hahn German educator 1886 - 1974

Quoted by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, at Colorado Outward Bound's 25th anniversary in 1987; as cited in Leadership the Outward Bound Way (2007), ISBN 159485033X.

Death, Youth, Disease

„[On his childhood problems and his father's second marriage to Helen] It was very difficult in the beginning, when everybody was talking about it. My mother just couldn't take it. It hurt her terribly. She used to worry all the time, go in to depression frequently. When she cried, we children used to cry with her“

— Salman Khan Indian film actor 1965

Quotes By Salman

Marriage, Children, Problem, Time

„Man, the period of whose life is one hundred years, should practice Dharma, Artha, and Kama at different times and in such a manner that they may harmonize, and not clash in any way. He should acquire learning in his childhood; in his youth and middle age he should attend to Artha and Kama, and in his old age he should perform Dharma, and thus seek to gain Moksha, that is, release from further transmigration.“

— Vātsyāyana, book Kama Sutra

Source: Kama Sutra, p. 13

Life, Youth, Age, Way

„Firstly, my heart goes out to anybody and everybody who has been abused or harassed in their lives. However, I have never been subject to such an incident. I'm truly grateful to God for giving me a childhood with only childhood memories and nothing to scar it. Having said that, it's extremely sad that people go through it. This is an amazing campaign to raise everybody's voice against it.“

— Sukirti Kandpal Indian actress 1987

Sukirti Kandpal on #MeToo campaign http://www.tellychakkar.com/tv/features/metoo-tv-celebs-share-their-experiences-being-harassed-and-assaulted-171018/

God, People, Sadness, Memory

„I, Titian of Cadore, having studied painting from childhood upwards, and desirous of fame rather than profit, wish to serve the Doge and Signori, rather than his Highness the Pope and other Signori, who in past days, and even now, have urgently asked to employ me: I am therefore anxious, if it should appear feasible, to paint in the Hall of Council, beginning, if it please their sublimity, with the canvas of 'The Battle' on the side towards the Piazza, which is so difficult that no one as yet has had courage to attempt it…“

— Titian Italian painter 1488 - 1576

Quote from a petition presented by Titian, and read on the 31st of May, 1513, before the Council of ten of Venice; as quoted by J.A.Y. Crowe & G.B. Cavalcaselle in Titian his life and times - With some account..., publisher John Murray, London, 1877, p. 153-154
The chiefs of the Council on the day in question accepted Titian's offer. Sharp monitions reminded him in 1518, 1522 and 1537 that he should complete 'The Battle', he did not until 1539
1510-1540
Source: http://www.everypainterpaintshimself.com/article/titians_battle_of_cadore_1538-9

Courage, Study, Appearance, Past

„The inherent physiologic capacity of an animal to respond to any sufficient stimulus seems, then, the basic explanation of the fact that some individuals respond to stimuli originating in other individuals of their own sex-and it appears to indicate that every individual could so respond if the opportunity offered and one were not conditioned against making such responses. There is no need of hypothesizing peculiar hormonal factors that make certain individuals especially liable to engage in homosexual activity, and we know of no data which prove the existence of hormonal factors (p. 758). There are no sufficient data to show that specific hereditary factors are involved. Theories of childhood attachments to one or the other parent, theories of fixation at some infantile level of sexual development, interpretations of homosexuality as neurotic or psychopathic behavior or moral degeneracy, and other philosophic interpretations are not supported by scientific research, and are contrary to the specific data on our series of female and male histories.“

— Alfred Kinsey American scientist (1894–1956) 1894 - 1956

Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953)

Sex, Behavior, History, Support

„In his sermons and books, Hinn has portrayed his childhood as that of a social outcast, handicapped by a severe stutter, who was nonetheless a stellar student. But when G. Richard Fisher and M. Kurt Goedelman, two journalists who write for Personal Freedom Outreach, looked into Hinn's youth, they found that both claims were untrue: nobody remembered Hinn stuttering, and he had dropped out of high school after the 11th grade.“

— Benny Hinn American-Canadian evangelist 1952

About

Books, Youth, School, Freedom

„You have given the great honour … to hundreds of millions of children in the world who are deprived of their childhood and health and education, and fundamental right to freedom. It is a great moment for all those children.“

— Kailash Satyarthi Indian children's rights activist 1954

Interview with Nobel Media (2014)
Context: You have given the great honour … to hundreds of millions of children in the world who are deprived of their childhood and health and education, and fundamental right to freedom. It is a great moment for all those children. … I am quite hopeful and rather sure that this will help in giving bigger visibility and attention to the cause of children who are most neglected and most deprived. This will also inspire individuals, activists, governments, business houses, corporate to work hand in hand to fight this out. And I am quite hopeful about it, that the recognition of this issue will help in mobilising bigger support for the cause.

Children, Health, World, Education

„Children are tough, though we tend to think of them as fragile. They have to be tough. Childhood is not easy.“

— Maurice Sendak American illustrator and writer of children's books 1928 - 2012

As quoted in "The Paternal Pride of Maurice Sendak" by Bernard Holland, in The New York Times (8 November 1987) http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE6DC103CF93BA35752C1A961948260&scp=2&sq=Sendak+protecting&st=nyt
Context: Children are tough, though we tend to think of them as fragile. They have to be tough. Childhood is not easy. We sentimentalize children, but they know what's real and what's not. They understand metaphor and symbol. If children are different from us, they are more spontaneous. Grown-up lives have become overlaid with dross.

Children, Thinking

„Throughout life, from childhood, from school until we die, we are taught to compare ourselves with another; yet when I compare myself with another I am destroying myself.“

— Jiddu Krishnamurti Indian spiritual philosopher 1895 - 1986

Talks & Dialogues, Saanen (9 July1967) http://www.jkrishnamurti.com/krishnamurti-teachings/view-text.php?tid=41&chid=1, p. 86
1960s
Context: Throughout life, from childhood, from school until we die, we are taught to compare ourselves with another; yet when I compare myself with another I am destroying myself. In a school, in an ordinary school where there are a lot of boys, when one boy is compared with another who is very clever, who is the head of the class, what is actually taking place? You are destroying the boy. That’s what we are doing throughout life. Now, can I live without comparison — without comparison with anybody? This means there is no high, no low — there is not the one who is superior and the other who is inferior. You are actually what you are and to understand what you are, this process of comparison must come to an end. If I am always comparing myself with some saint or some teacher, some businessman, writer, poet, and all the rest, what has happened to me — what have I done? I only compare in order to gain, in order to achieve, in order to become — but when I don’t compare I am beginning to understand what I am. Beginning to understand what I am is far more fascinating, far more interesting; it goes beyond all this stupid comparison.

Life, School

„I don't go to battle prepared, I know I will win it.“

— Will Smith American actor, film producer and rapper 1968

„All these points are so obvious that anyone who says that Hinduism is as foreign to India as Islam or Christianity, deserves to have his head examined. The followers of both Islam and Christianity have full knowledge of and pride in the time and place of origin of their religions outside India, the early history of their religions outside India, the arrival of their religions into India (brought in by invaders and imperialists), and the manner in which their religions were established in India. On the other hand, until the Aryan invasion theory was mooted by the European imperialists, no Hindu had ever suspected that any foreign connection could be attributed to his religion. Even today, with the Aryan invasion theory being instilled into every Hindu brain right from childhood, no Hindu worth his salt would accept the contention that Hinduism is of foreign origin.“

— Shrikant Talageri Indian author 1958

The Aryan Invasion Theory and Indian Nationalism (1993)

Religion, Time, History, Knowledge

„The myth of childhood has an even greater parallel in the myth of Femininity. Both women and children were considered asexual and thus"purer" than man. Their inferior status was ill-concealed under an elaborate "respect."“

— Shulamith Firestone, book The Dialectic of Sex

One didn't discuss serious matters nor did one curse in from of women and children; one didn't openly degrade them, one did it behind their backs.

Chapter Four
The Dialectic of Sex (1970)

Children, Women

„Money is important, but I didn't get carried away because ... I remember what it was like not to have the basics. However, I am glad that I was able to fulfill my childhood dreams.“

— Robert Lewandowski Polish association football player 1988

"Trzeba czasem zdjąć zbroję. Wywiad z Robertem Lewandowskim" https://twojstyl.pl/artykul/trzeba-czasem-zdjac-zbroje-robert-lewndowski,aid,824 (August 25, 2020)

Money, Dreams

„Childhood is cannibals and psychotics vomiting in your mouth!“

— Maurice Sendak American illustrator and writer of children's books 1928 - 2012

„Between childhood, boyhood, adolescence and manhood (maturity) there should be sharp lines drawn with tests, deaths, feats, rites, stories, songs, and judgments.“

— Jim Morrison lead singer of The Doors 1943 - 1971

Death

„In my childhood diary I wrote: “I have decided that it is better not to love anyone, because when you love people, then you have to be separated from them, and that hurts too much.“

— Anaïs Nin writer of novels, short stories, and erotica 1903 - 1977

Source: The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934

Love, People, Hurt

„Being sent to bed is a terrible command to all children, because it means the most public possible humiliation in front of adults, the confession that they bear the stigma of childhood, of being small and having a child's need for sleep.“

— Stefan Zweig Austrian writer 1881 - 1942

Source: The Burning Secret and other stories

Children, Sleep

„Since my earliest childhood a barb of sorrow has lodged in my heart. As long as it stays I am ironic — if it is pulled out I shall die.“

— Sören Kierkegaard Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism 1813 - 1855

1847
1840s, The Journals of Søren Kierkegaard, 1840s

Heart

„I remember my own childhood vividly… I knew terrible things. But I knew I mustn't let adults know I knew. It would scare them“

— Maurice Sendak American illustrator and writer of children's books 1928 - 2012

„No one knows you like a person with whom you've shared a childhood. No one will ever understand you in quite the same way.“

— Alice Hoffman, book Practical Magic

Source: Practical Magic

Way, Understanding, Personality

„Beating heroin is child's play compared to beating your childhood.“

— Stephen King, book The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands

Source: The Waste Lands

„At one magical instant in your early childhood, the page of a book—that string of confused, alien ciphers—shivered into meaning. Words spoke to you, gave up their secrets; at that moment, whole universes opened. You became, irrevocably, a reader.“

— Alberto Manguel writer 1948

Source: A History of Reading

Secret, Books, Universe

„There are some things that once you've lost, you never get back. Innocence is one. Love is another. I guess childhood is a third.“

— John Marsden author 1950

Love

„Given my heritage and the ordeal of my childhood, I sometimes wonder why I myself am not insane. Maybe I am.“

— Dean Koontz, Odd Thomas

Source: Odd Thomas

„The essence of childhood, of course, is play, which my friends and I did endlessly on streets that we reluctantly shared with traffic.“

— Bill Cosby American actor, comedian, author, producer, musician, activist 1937

„Kids who don't eavesdrop on adult conversations are doomed to a childhood of ignorance.“

— Kelley Armstrong Canadian writer 1968

Source: Men of the Otherworld

„Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.“

— Napoleon Hill American author 1883 - 1970

As quoted in Diamond Power : Gems of Wisdom from America's Greatest Marketer (2003) by Barry Farber, p. 53

Children, Dreams, Soul, Graduation

„The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm.“

— Aldous Huxley English writer 1894 - 1963

Variant: The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm.

Secret, Age, Attitude

„I covet truth; beauty is unripe childhood's cheat; I leave it behind with the games of youth.“

— Ralph Waldo Emerson American philosopher, essayist, and poet 1803 - 1882

Source: Prose and Poetry

Truth, Youth, Beauty, Game

„People have often told me that one of their strongest childhood memories is the scent of their grandmother's house. I never knew my grandmothers, but I could always count of the Bookmobile.“

— Adriana Trigiani American film director 1970

Source: Big Stone Gap

People, Memory, Housing

„One of the pitfalls of childhood is that one doesn't have to understand something to feel it. By the time the mind is able to comprehend what has happened, the wounds of the heart are already too deep.“

— Carlos Ruiz Zafón, book The Shadow of the Wind

Source: The Shadow of the Wind

Feeling, Understanding, Time, Heart

„Childhood feels so permanent, like it's the entire world, and then one day it's over and you're shoveling wet dirt onto your father's coffin, stunned at the impermanence of everything.“

— Jonathan Tropper American writer 1970

Source: This is Where I Leave You

World, Feeling

„A mother's love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity. It dares all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path.“

— Agatha Christie, book The Hound of Death

Source: The Hound of Death

Love, World, Law, Mother's Day

„These bitter sorrows of childhood! when sorrow is all new and strange, when hope has not yet got wings to fly beyond the days and weeks, and the space from summer to summer seems measureless.“

— George Eliot, book The Mill on the Floss

Source: The Mill on the Floss (1860)

Hope, Summer, Flying

„A child can teach an adult three things: to be happy for no reason, to always be busy with something, and to know how to demand with all his might that which he desires.“

— Paulo Coelho Brazilian lyricist and novelist 1947

Business, Happiness

„Beginning with Santa in infancy, and ending with the Tooth Fairy as the child acquires adult teeth. Or, plainly put, beginning with all the possibility of childhood, and ending with an absolute trust in the national currency.“

— Chuck Palahniuk, book Rant

Source: Rant

„Sunsets, like childhood, are viewed with wonder not just because they are beautiful but because they are fleeting.“

— Richard Paul Evans American writer 1962

Source: The Gift

Beauty

„You overrate my capacity of love. I don't posess half the warmth of nature you believe me to have. An unprotected childhood in a cold world has beaten gentleness out of me.“

— Thomas Hardy, book Far from the Madding Crowd

Source: Far from the Madding Crowd

Love, World, Nature

„Childhood, after all, is the first precious coin that poverty steals from a child.“

— Anthony Horowitz, book The House of Silk

Source: The House of Silk

„Genius: the ability to prolong one's childhood.“

— H.L. Mencken American journalist and writer 1880 - 1956

„Razo was sorely tempted to assert that all was true and he'd lost his horns and tail in a tragic childhood accident“

— Shannon Hale, River Secrets

Source: River Secrets

„It isn't wise to be rude to one's mother. She knows everything about your childhood that is potentially embarassing.“

— Mercedes Lackey American novelist and short story writer 1950

Source: Elvenborn

„What we remember from childhood we remember forever - permanent ghosts, stamped, inked, imprinted, eternally seen.“

— Cynthia Ozick American writer 1928

„Experience has taught us that we have only one enduring weapon in our struggle against mental illness: the emotional discovery and emotional acceptance of the truth in the individual and unique history of our childhood.“

— Alice Miller Swiss psychologist 1923 - 2010

Source: The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self

Truth, History

„For many of us, the curtain had just come down on childhood.“

— Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie

Source: Tuesdays with Morrie

„The difference between childhood and adulthood, Vic had come to believe, was the difference between imagination and resignation. You traded one for the other and lost your way.“

— Joe Hill Swedish-American labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World 1879 - 1915

Source: NOS4A2

Way, Imagination, Adulthood

„I don't mourn the loss of my childhood; I mourn because everything, including (my) childhood, is lost.“

— Fernando Pessoa, book The Book of Disquiet

Source: The Book of Disquiet

Loss

„In increments both measurable and not, our childhood is stolen from us -- not always in one momentous event but often in a series of small robberies, which add up to the same loss.“

— John Irving, book Until I Find You

Source: Until I Find You

Loss

„We all have two lives: The true, the one we dreamed of in childhood And go on dreaming of as adults in a substratum of mist; the false, the one we love when we live with others, the practical, the useful, the one we end up by being put in a coffin.“

— Fernando Pessoa Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher and philosopher 1888 - 1935

Love, Dreams, Falseness

„I wept because I was re-experiencing the enthusiasm of my childhood; I was once again a child, and nothing in the world could cause me harm.“

— Paulo Coelho, book The Pilgrimage

Source: The Pilgrimage

World

„Childhood is not from birth to a certain age and at a certain age
The child is grown, and puts away childish things.
Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies.
Nobody that matters, that is.“

— Edna St. Vincent Millay American poet 1892 - 1950

"Childhood Is the Kingdom Where Nobody Dies," lines 1-4, from Wine from These Grapes (1934)

Age, Birth

„To experience commitment as the loss of options, a type of death, the death of childhood's limitless possibility, of the flattery of choice without duress-this will happen, mark me. Childhood's end.“

— David Foster Wallace, book The Pale King

Source: The Pale King

Death, Loss

„In our family, you don't get a childhood. We're too busy trying to dominate the world.“

— Gordon Korman, book The Emperor's Code

Source: The Emperor's Code

World, Family, Business

„Her last painting was of you, slouching against the front door: only your drowning I-had-a-lousy-Third-World-childhood-and-all-I-got-was-this-attitude eyes recognizable.“

— Junot Díaz, book This Is How You Lose Her

Source: This Is How You Lose Her

World, Painting

„What is it about childhood that never lets you go, even when you're so wrecked it's hard to believe you ever were a child?“

— Mitch Albom, For One More Day

Source: For One More Day

„When we are children we seldom think of the future. This innocence leaves us free to enjoy ourselves as few adults can. The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind.“

— Patrick Rothfuss, book The Name of the Wind

Source: The Name of the Wind (2007), Chapter 12, “Puzzle Pieces Fitting” (p. 88)

Children, Thinking, Future

„Society has provided [children] no rituals by which they become members of the tribe, of the community. All children need to be twice born, to learn to function rationally in the present world, leaving childhood behind.“

— Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

Source: The Power of Myth

Children, World, Communication, Learning

„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 W. Aldiss British science fiction author 1925 - 2017

Quoted in the Manchester Guardian (31 December 1977), and Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations (1988) https://web.archive.org/web/20000709051930/http://www.bartleby.com/63/90/4790.html edited by James B. Simpson; Says Who?: A Guide To The Quotations Of The Century (1988) by Jonathon Green, p. 17 http://books.google.com/books?id=xUwOAQAAMAAJ&q=%22When+childhood+dies,+its+corpses+are+called+adults%22&dq=%22When+childhood+dies,+its+corpses+are+called+adults%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=KZO4U_WwFJSlqAaquoKoCg&ved=0CK0BEOgBMBk and The Concise Columbia Dictionary of Quotations (1989), p. 45 http://books.google.com/books?id=bs0J36MpieIC&pg=PA45&dq=%22When+childhood+dies,+its+corpses+are+called+adults%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=KZO4U_WwFJSlqAaquoKoCg&ved=0CEkQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=%22When%20childhood%20dies%2C%20its%20corpses%20are%20called%20adults%22&f=false

Love, Children, Hell

„Childhood and adulthood were not factors of age but states of mind.“

— Alex Shakar, The Savage Girl

Source: The Savage Girl

Age, Adulthood