„Some mothers will do anything for their children, except let them be themselves.“
— Banksy pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, and painter
Cut It Out (2004)
Source: Wall and Piece
A collection of quotes on the topic of family, school, adulthood, children.
„Some mothers will do anything for their children, except let them be themselves.“
— Banksy pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, and painter
Cut It Out (2004)
Source: Wall and Piece
„It's easier to build strong children then repair broken men.“
— Frederick Douglass American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman 1818 - 1895
Variant: It is easier to build strong men, than to repair broken ones.
Source: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
„The only love that I really believe in is a mother’s love for her children.“
— Karl Lagerfeld German fashion designer 1933 - 2019
„I would like to make a film to tell children "it's good to be alive".“
— Hayao Miyazaki Japanese animator, film director, and mangaka 1941
„The best thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.“
— John Wooden American basketball coach 1910 - 2010
Source: Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court
„Make it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself.“
— George Bernard Shaw Irish playwright 1856 - 1950
„I learned to walk as a baby and I haven't had a lesson since.“
— Marilyn Monroe American actress, model, and singer 1926 - 1962
„Do not handicap your children by making their lives easy.“
— Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough for Love
Time Enough for Love (1973)
„I am going to marry my novels and have little short stories for children.“
— Jack Kerouac American writer 1922 - 1969
Kerouac, as quoted by Allen Ginsberg in The Book of Martyrdom and Artifice (2006), page 250.
„Let us sacrifice our today so that our children can have a better tomorrow.“
— A. P. J. Abdul Kalam 11th President of India, scientist and science administrator 1931 - 2015
Total 4524 quotes children, filter:
— Martin Luther King, Jr. American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement 1929 - 1968
Variant: I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
— Michael Jackson American singer, songwriter and dancer 1958 - 2009
Earth Song
HIStory: Past, Present & Future, Book I (1995)
— Dilma Rousseff 36th President of Brazil 1947
Speech in Porto Alegre http://www2.planalto.gov.br/acompanhe-o-planalto/discursos/discursos-da-presidenta/discurso-da-presidenta-da-republica-dilma-rousseff-na-cerimonia-de-anuncio-de-investimentos-do-pac-mobilidade-urbana-e-entrega-de-57-maquinas-motoniveladoras ( YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3IvZToSwgE), October 12.
2013
— Marilyn vos Savant US American magazine columnist, author and lecturer 1946
— Dilma Rousseff 36th President of Brazil 1947
First speech http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/01/dilma-rousseff-wins-brazil-president after being elected President, October 31.
2010
„Children are educated by what the grown-up is and not by his talk.“
— C.G. Jung Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology 1875 - 1961
— 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]
„Educate the children and it won't be necessary to punish the men.“
— Pythagoras ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher -585 - -495 BC
As quoted in Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists (2007) by James Geary
„Once positioned on their(children's) lips,
even the scariest of words
come out as a melodious lisp.“
— Suman Pokhrel Nepali poet, lyricist, playwright, translator and artist 1967
<span class="plainlinks"> Children http://www.occupypoetry.net/children_1/</span>
From Poetry
— Alex Jones American radio host, author, conspiracy theorist and filmmaker 1974
Alex Jones: The "Justin Biebler" Rant https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDMB0KyhPN8, 21 February 2011.
2011
— Bertolt Brecht German poet, playwright, theatre director 1898 - 1956
Mother Courage
Mother Courage and Her Children (1939)
— Suman Pokhrel Nepali poet, lyricist, playwright, translator and artist 1967
<span class="plainlinks"> Children http://www.occupypoetry.net/children_1/</span>
From Poetry
„The child is truly a miraculous being, and this should be felt deeply by the educator.“
— Maria Montessori Italian pedagogue, philosopher and physician 1870 - 1952
Part II : How Language Calls to the Child, p. 121
The Absorbent Mind (1949)
„My imaginary friends have become my imaginary children.“
— Chris Colfer actor, singer, book author 1990
—Chris Colfer on his characters
Personal Quotes 2009–2012
Source: https://twitter.com/BethReads/status/216667033218187264, Chris Colfer speaking at American Librarian Association 2012, as told by an eyewittness.
— Michael Jackson American singer, songwriter and dancer 1958 - 2009
Handwritten note published in People (12 October 1987)
— Grigori Rasputin Russian mystic 1869 - 1916
Grigory Rasputin in a letter to the Tsarina Alexandra, 7 Dec 1916
„If children fail to understand one another, it is because they think they understand one another.“
— Jean Piaget Swiss psychologist, biologist, logician, philosopher & academic 1896 - 1980
The Language and Thought of the Child (1923) Tr. Marjorie and Ruth Gabain (1926)
Context: If children fail to understand one another, it is because they think they understand one another. The explainer believes from the start that the reproducer will grasp everything, will almost know beforehand all that should be known, and will interpret every subtlety. Children are perpetually surrounded by adults who not only know much more than they do, but who also do everything in their power to understand them, who even anticipate their thoughts and desires. Children, therefore... are perpetually under the impression that people can read their thoughts, and in extreme cases, can steal their thoughts away. It is obviously owing to this mentality that children do not take the trouble to express themselves clearly... This mentality does not contradict ego-centric mentality. Both arise from the belief of the child, the belief that he is the centre of the universe. These habits of thought account... for the remarkable lack of precision in the childish style.
— Maria Montessori Italian pedagogue, philosopher and physician 1870 - 1952
Part I : The Child's Part in World Reconstruction, p. 4.
The Absorbent Mind (1949)
Context: If help and salvation are to come they can only come from the children, for the children are the makers of men.
The child is endowed with unknown powers, which can guide us to a radiant future. If what we really want is a new world, then education must take as its aim the development of these hidden possibilities.
— Sojourner Truth African-American abolitionist and women's rights activist 1797 - 1883
Ain't I a Woman? Speech (1851)
Context: That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man — when I could get it — and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?
„To bear children into this world is like carrying wood into a burning house.“
— Peter Wessel Zapffe Norwegian philosopher, mountaineer, and author 1899 - 1990
As quoted in Reflekser i trylleglass: stemmer fra vårt århundre [Magical Reflections : Voices of Our Century] (1998) edited by Haagen Ringnes
— Jacinda Ardern Prime Minister of New Zealand 1980
Interview with Lisa Owen at Newshub Nation, 21 October 2017
„Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.“
— Pablo Picasso Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer 1881 - 1973
Quote attributed to Picasso in TIME, October 4, 1976, Modern Living: Ozmosis in Central Park http://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/03/07/child-art/ http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,918412,00.html
Disputed
— Byron Katie American spiritual writer 1942
Source: Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life
„Do not erase the designs the child makes in the soft wax of his inner life.“
— Maria Montessori Italian pedagogue, philosopher and physician 1870 - 1952
„It's not just children who need heroes.“
— Tamora Pierce American writer of fantasy novels for children 1954
— Greg Mortenson American mountaineer and humanitarian 1957
Source: Stones Into Schools: Promoting Peace With Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan
— Frédéric Chopin Polish composer 1810 - 1849
Stuttgart. After 8th September 1831.
Source: "Selected Correspondence Of Fryderyk Chopin"; http://archive.org/stream/selectedcorrespo002644mbp/selectedcorrespo002644mbp_djvu.txt
„Is there no way out of the mind?“
— Sylvia Plath American poet, novelist and short story writer 1932 - 1963
Variant: Is there no way out of the mind?
— Marcus Garvey Jamaica-born British political activist, Pan-Africanist, orator, and entrepreneur 1887 - 1940
1937 interview reported by Joel A. Rogers, "Marcus Garvey," in Negroes of New York series, New York Writers Program, 1939, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York.
— Jopie Huisman Dutch painter 1922 - 2000
translation, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018
version in original Dutch / citaat van Jopie Huisman, in het Nederlands: Door de jaren heen heb ik van alles en nog wat bewaard aan dingen en voorwerpen die ik in mijn leven in de handel tegenkwam, als ze gevoelswaarde voor me hadden. Altijd eenvoudig gebruiksgoed en gereedschap van de boer, de smid, de timmerman, de bakker enzovoorts. Dingen waarin ik de strijd om het bestaan het duidelijkst weerspiegeld zag vond ik het mooist.. ..afgetrapte oude schoenen, broeken, jassen, hoeden en kindervestjes, die ik in de vodden vond, vaak tot in den treure versteld en opgelapt.
Source: Jopie de Verteller' (2010) - postumous, p. 19
— Rosa Parks African-American civil rights activist 1913 - 2005
Quoted in The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks, by Jeanne Theoharis (2013)
— Anton LaVey, book The Satanic Bible
As quoted in the Introduction by Burton H. Wolfe
The Satanic Bible (1969)
— Osamu Tezuka Japanese cartoonist and animator 1928 - 1989
That was their merit as propaganda against the Japanese.
Tezuka Osamu and American Comics http://www.tcj.com/tezuka-osamu-and-american-comics/, (1973), as quoted by Ryan Holmberg, The Comics Journal, Jul 16, 2012.
— Peter Wessel Zapffe Norwegian philosopher, mountaineer, and author 1899 - 1990
To Be a Human Being (1989–90)
„Hello, children of the Nazis!“
— Peter Steele American musician 1962 - 2010
Source: Beginning of a live performance in Germany (with Carnivore)[citation needed]
— Sitting Bull Hunkpapa Lakota medicine man and holy man 1831 - 1890
Recorded by James M. Walsh, inspector in the Northwest Territory of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, at a conference with Sitting Bull on March 23, 1879. Published in Utley, Robert M. The Lance and the Shield. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1993. p. 206.
— James W. Prescott American psychologist 1930
"Before Ethics and Morality" (1972)
— Heinrich Himmler Nazi officer, Commander of the SS 1900 - 1945
Our concern, our duty, is our people and our blood. We can be indifferent to everything else. I wish the S.S. to adopt this attitude towards the problem of all foreign, non-Germanic peoples, especially Russians....
The Posen speech to SS officers (6 October 1943)
1940s
— Anton LaVey, book The Satanic Bible
The Satanic Bible (1969)
„We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children“
— David Lane (white nationalist) American white supremacist, convicted felon 1938 - 2007
David Lane
Variant: We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.
— Walt Disney American film producer and businessman 1901 - 1966
Stating that the development of the Mickey Mouse character was inspired by Charlie Chaplin's character "the Tramp", as quoted in How to Be Like Walt : Capturing the Disney Magic Every Day of Your Life (2004) by Pat Williams and Jim Denney, p. 52
Context: We felt that the public, and especially the children, like animals that are cute and little. I think we are rather indebted to Charlie Chaplin for the idea. We wanted something appealing, and we thought of a tiny bit of a mouse that would have something of the wistfulness of Chaplin — a little fellow trying to do the best he could.
„That which the educator must seek is to be able to see the child as Jesus saw him.“
— Maria Montessori Italian pedagogue, philosopher and physician 1870 - 1952
The Secret of Childhood, p. 108.
Context: We have in ourselves tendencies that are not good and which flourish like weeds in a field. (Original sin). These tendencies are many; they fall into seven groups, known of old as the Seven deadly sins. All deadly sins tend to separate us from the child; for the child compared to us, is not only purer but has mysterious qualities, which we adults as a rule cannot perceive, but in which we must believe with faith, for Jesus spoke to them so clearly and insistently that all the Evangelists recorded His words: Unless ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall nor enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. That which the educator must seek is to be able to see the child as Jesus saw him. It is with this endeavour, thus defined and delimited, that we wish to deal.
— Andrew Jackson American general and politician, 7th president of the United States 1767 - 1845
In New Orleans, Louisiana, 1814. As quoted in The Life of Andrew Jackson https://web.archive.org/web/20111029143820/http://home.nas.com/lopresti/ps7.htm (1967), by John Spencer Bassett, Archon Books. p. 156-157.
1810s
Context: As sons of freedom you are now called upon to defend your most inestimable blessing. As Americans, your country looks with confidence on her adopted children, for a valorous support, as a faithful return for the advantages enjoyed under her mild and equitable government.
— Sukavich Rangsitpol Thai politician 1935
Teacher
— Marianne Williamson American writer 1952
Source: A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles" (1992), Ch. 7 : Work, §3 : Personal Power, p. 190 (p. 165 in some editions). This famous passage from her book is very often erroneously attributed to Nelson Mandela. About the mis-attribution Williamson said, "Several years ago, this paragraph from A Return to Love began popping up everywhere, attributed to Nelson Mandela's 1994 inaugural address. As honored as I would be had President Mandela quoted my words, indeed he did not. I have no idea where that story came from, but I am gratified that the paragraph has come to mean so much to so many people."
Variant which appears in the film Coach Carter (2005): "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It's not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
Variant which appears in the film Akeelah and the Bee (2006), displayed in a picture frame on the wall, attributing it to Mandela: "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same."
— David Lane (white nationalist) American white supremacist, convicted felon 1938 - 2007
Drugs and Governments
Focus Fourteen
— Unknown author
„Don't worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.“
— Robert Fulghum American writer 1937
As quoted in Reflections for Tending the Sacred Garden (2003) by Bonita Jean Zimmer, p. 182
— Isaac Bashevis Singer Polish-born Jewish-American author 1902 - 1991
Nobel lecture as quoted in The Observer (17 December 1978) Variant: "They still believe in God, the family, angels, witches, goblins, logic, clarity, punctuation, and other obsolete stuff."
— Joseph Brodsky Russian and American poet and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate 1940 - 1996
Quoted in: Drusilla Modjeska, Beth Yahp (1995) Picador New Writing. Vol. 3-4, p. 13
„Children learn best when they like their teacher and they think their teacher likes them.“
— Gordon Neufeld Canadian psychologist 1947
Source: Hold On to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers
„Is adult entertainment killing our children? Or is killing our children entertaining adults?“
— Marilyn Manson American rock musician and actor 1969
As quoted in MarilynManson.com (2000).
2000s
„It's no longer enough to teach our children Bible stories; they need doctrine and apologetics.“
— William Lane Craig American Christian apologist and evangelist 1949
„Your children will see what you're all about by what you live rather than what you say.“
— Wayne W. Dyer American writer 1940 - 2015
— Dwight D. Eisenhower American general and politician, 34th president of the United States (in office from 1953 to 1961) 1890 - 1969
1950s, The Chance for Peace (1953)
Context: Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. This is, I repeat, the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. … Is there no other way the world may live?
— Jonathan Edwards Christian preacher, philosopher, and theologian 1703 - 1758
Source: The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 16: Letters and Personal Writings
— Jimmy Carter, book A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power
Source: A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power
— Mikhail Bulgakov, book The Master and Margarita
Book Two in 'Flight', B/O, Margarita talking about herself to a young girl
Source: The Master and Margarita (1967)