Quotes about children
page 10

“Accept the children the way we accept trees—with gratitude, because they are a blessing—but do not have expectations or desires. You don’t expect trees to change, you love them as they are.”

Isabel Allende (1942) Chilean writer

Love, Way, Tree, Change

“America used to live by the motto "Father Knows Best." Now we're lucky if "Father Knows He Has Children." We've become a nation of sperm donors and baby daddies.”

Stephen Colbert book I Am America (And So Can You!)

Source: I Am America

Baby, For Father

“Aren’t you a little old for your mom to be picking out your clothes for you? Really? Shopping at the Children’s Place at your age? I’m sure there’s some third-grader dying to know who bought the last navy I-sore shirt. (Nekoda)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Infinity

Age, Moms, Clothes

“In so doing, the idea forces itself upon him that religion is comparable to a childhood neurosis, and he is optimistic enough to suppose that mankind will surmount this neurotic phase, just as so many children grow out of their similar neurosis.”

Sigmund Freud book The Future of an Illusion

Source: 1920s, The Future of an Illusion (1927), Ch. 10

Religion, Idea, Childhood

“I'd far rather leave a thought behind me than a child. Other people can have children.”

E.M. Forster book A Passage to India

Source: A Passage to India

People

“… there are some children who aren't really children at all, they're just pillars of flame that burn everything they touch. And there are some children who are just pillars of ash, that fall apart when you touch them…”

Sherman Alexie (1966) Native American author and filmmaker

Source: Smoke Signals: A Screenplay

“My philosophy when it came to pets was much like that of having children: You got what you got, and you loved them unconditionally regardless of whatever their personalities or flaws turned out to be.”

Gwen Cooper (1971) American novelist

Source: Homer's Odyssey

Love, Personality

“I don't like your tone," was Violet's standard answer when one of her children was winning an argument.”

Julia Quinn (1970) American novelist

Source: The Duke and I

“Incredible. It never ceases to amaze Starkey how far society will go to protect the children it loves and to discard the ones it doesn’t.”

Neal Shusterman (1962) American novelist

Source: UnSouled

Love

“With children the clock is reset. We forget what came before”

Jhumpa Lahiri book The Lowland

Source: The Lowland

Forgetting

“Parents are the barometers of emotions for children and it has a domino effect.”

Cecelia Ahern book Love, Rosie

Source: Where Rainbows End

Parent

“Instead of being presented with stereotypes by age, sex, color, class, or religion, children must have the opportunity to learn that within each range, some people are loathsome and some are delightful.”

Margaret Mead (1901–1978) American anthropologist

Twentieth Century Faith : Hope and Survival (1972), p. 61
1970s

People, Age, Religion, Sex

“Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all thirty feet tall.”

Larry Wilde (1928) American comedian

Variant: Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall

Tree, Christmas

“For children love is a feeling; for adults, it is a decision. Children wait to learn if their love is true by seeing how long it lasts; adults make their love true by never wavering from their commitment.”

Orson Scott Card book Pathfinder

Source: Pathfinder

Love, Feeling, Decision, Learning

“… children have the resilience to outlive their sufferings, if given a chance.”

Ishmael Beah book A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

Source: A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

Suffering, Chance

“Now you know how badly someone wanted you, Charley. Children forget that sometimes. They think of themselves as a burden instead of a wish granted.”

Mitch Albom For One More Day

Source: For One More Day

Thinking, Forgetting

“It sends out a very clear message: "Mess with us and we'll do something worse than kill you. We'll kill your children.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

“If your plan is for one year plant rice. If your plan is for ten years plant trees. If your plan is for one hundred years educate children.”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

Education, Tree

“Libraries allow children to ask questions about the world and find the answers. And the wonderful thing is that once a child learns to use a library, the doors to learning are always open.”

Laura Bush (1946) First Lady of the United States from 2001 to 2009

As quoted in The 21st Century Elementary Library Media Program (2009) by Carl A. Harvey, p. 3

World, Question, Learning

“Tradionally, parents made decisions for a child, because presumably they are looking out for his or her best interests. But if they are blinded, instead, by the best interests of another one of their children, the system breaks down.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

Parent, Decision

“I will continue to freak out my children by knitting in public. It's good for them.”

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (1968) Canadian writer

Source: At Knit's End: Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much

“All Children Have Brain Damage!”

Bill Cosby (1937) American actor, comedian, author, producer, musician, activist

Source: Childhood

“Small children are great accepters. They don’t understand shame, or the need to hide things.”

Stephen King book The Shining

Source: The Shining

Understanding

“Let children read whatever they want and then talk about it with them. If parents and kids can talk together, we won't have as much censorship because we won't have as much fear.”

Judy Blume (1938) American children's writer

As quoted in Good Advice (1993) by William Safire, p. 125

Fear, Parent, Reading

“The difference between children and adults is that they're shorter - not dumber.”

Mo Willems (1968) American children's illustrator and writer

“Sunday school: A prison in which children do penance for the evil conscience of their parents.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

School, Parent, Evil

“The Founding Fathers in their wisdom decided that children were an unnatural strain on parents. So they provided jails called schools, equipped with tortures called an education. School is where you go between when your parents can’t take you and industry can’t take you.”

John Updike book The Centaur

Source: The Centaur (1963), Ch. 4

Wisdom, Education, School, Parent

“God, he suddenly understood, was love in its purest form, and in these last months with his children, he had felt His touch as surely as he had heard the music spilling from Ronnie's hands.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Last Song

Source: The Last Song

Love, God, Music

“Are parents always more ambitious for their children than they are for themselves?”

Jeffrey Archer book A Prisoner of Birth

Source: A Prisoner of Birth

Parent

“Literature is mostly about having sex and not much about having children. Life is the other way round.”

David Lodge book The British Museum Is Falling Down

The British Museum Is Falling Down ([1965] 1983), ch. 4, p. 56. ISBN 0140062149

Life, Sex, Way, Literature

“Raising children is, in a sense, the reason the society exists in the first place. It's the most important thing that happens, and it's the culmination of all the tools and language and social structure that has evolved.”

Michael Crichton book The Lost World

Source: The Lost World

Sense

“Your name is Lily Whitney. You are the woman I want at my side night and day. I want you to be the mother of my children someday. I want you for my lover. I want you for the person I turn to when the world gets to be too much.”

Christine Feehan book Shadow Game

Source: Shadow Game

World, Lovers, Personality, Night

“You don't have to look back to see those children; part of your mind will see them forever. They are not necessarily the best part of you, but they were once the repository of all you could become.”

Stephen King book It

Source: It (1986)

Parting

“Treasures:
The most important thing you leave behind is the stuff that turns into treasures when children find it.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

“We never had any children," he said ruefully. "Our work was our children.”

Patti Smith Just Kids

Source: Just Kids

“What does fighting crime mean, exactly? Does it mean upholding the law when a woman shoplifts to feed her children, or does it mean struggling to uncover the ones who, quite legally, have brought about her poverty?”

Alan Moore book Watchmen

Source: Watchmen

Law, Fight

“I'm not short," Daisy muttered. "Short women are never mysterious, or elegant, or pursued by handsome men. And they're always treated like children. I refuse to be short.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Secrets of a Summer Night

Women, Men

“I ran. A grown man running with a swarm of screaming children. But I didn't care. I ran with the wind blowing in my face, and a smile as wide as the valley of Panjsher on my lips. I ran.”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

Source: The Kite Runner (2003), P. 391

Smile

“Oh, what a tangled web do parents weave
When they think that their children are naive.”

Ogden Nash (1902–1971) American poet

"Baby, What Makes the Sky Blue?"

Thinking, Parent

“I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.”

Harry Truman (1884–1972) American politician, 33rd president of the United States (in office from 1945 to 1953)

Interview http://books.google.com/books?id=r03gAAAAMAAJ&q=%22I+have+found+the+best+way+to+give+advice+to+your+children+is+to+find+out+what+they+want+and+then+advise+them+to+do+it%22&pg=PA104#v=onepage with Margaret Truman, sitting in for host Edward R. Murrow, on Person to Person, CBS Television ( 27 May 1955 http://www.tv.com/shows/person-to-person/may-27-1955-1040725/)

Way, Graduation

“You're a Dark-Hunter."
He kissed her lightly on the lips. "What I am is a man in love with a woman. I want you, Amanda. For the rest of my blessedly short mortal life. I want to wake at dawn with you in my arms and watch our children play and fight.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon book Night Pleasures

Source: Night Pleasures

Love, Life, Kiss, Fight

“To the children and the innocent it's all the same.”

Jack Kerouac book The Dharma Bums

Source: The Dharma Bums

“I want you forever, Kate. I want to grow old and have you here in my arms. I want children. I've wanted you for so long. I don't think that's about to change.”

Christine Feehan American writer

Source: The Twilight Before Christmas

Thinking, Change

“The victimization of children is nowhere forbidden; what is forbidden is to write about it.”

Alice Miller (1923–2010) Swiss psychologist

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

“Children should neither be seen nor heard from – ever again.”

W.C. Fields (1880–1946) actor

“When you grow up and have children of your own, do please remember something important: A stodgy parent is not fun at all! What a child wants - and DESERVES - is a parent who is SPARKY!”

Roald Dahl book Danny, the Champion of the World

Danny, the Champion of the World (1975)
Context: A Message to Children Who Have Read This Book - When you grow up and have children of your own, do please remember something important: a stodgy parent is no fun at all. What a child wants and deserves is a parent who is SPARKY.

Parent

“What are men? Children who doubt.”

Derek Walcott (1930–2017) Saint Lucian–Trinidadian poet and playwright

Source: The Odyssey

Men

“A little girl without a doll is almost as unhappy, and quite as impossible, as a woman without children."

from chapter VIII of Les Miserables”

Victor Hugo (1802–1885) French poet, novelist, and dramatist

Girl

“Many invest wisely in business matters, but fail to invest time and interest in their most valued possessions: their spouses and children.”

Billy Graham (1918–2018) American Christian evangelist

Source: Nearing Home: Life, Faith, and Finishing Well

Business, Time

“I've learned that the worst thing a parent can do is ignore their children”

Sherman Alexie book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Source: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Parent, Learning

“Happiness is an imaginary condition, formerly attributed by the living to the dead, now usually attributed by adults to children, and by children to adults.”

Thomas Szasz (1920–2012) Hungarian psychiatrist

"Emotions", p. 36.
The Second Sin (1973)

Happiness, Dead, Funny

“Without love, there is no reason to know anyone, for love will in the end connect us to our neighbors, our children and our hearts.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

Love, Heart

“Censors never go after books unless kids already like them. I don’t even think they know to go after books until they know that children are interested in reading this book, therefore there must be something in it that’s wrong.”

Judy Blume (1938) American children's writer

Books, Thinking, Reading

“Grandmothers in Botswana tell their children that if you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, you must go together.”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Source: Leaving Time

“The woman who creates and sustains a home, and under whose hands children grow up to be strong and pure men and women, is a creator second only to God.”

Helen Hunt Jackson (1830–1885) Novelist, poet, writer, activist

Women, Men, God, Home

“I am afraid we must make the world honest before we can honestly tell our children that honesty is the best policy.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

"Rungs of the Ladder" http://books.google.com/books?id=HLpRc3rm5b8C, BBC Radio broadcast, 11 July 1932 <br class="br">1930s

World

“The Rudderless World is not shaped by vague metaphysical Forces. It is not God who kills the Children. Not Fate that butchers them or Destiny that feeds them to the Dogs…. It´s us. Only us.”

Alan Moore book Watchmen

Source: Watchmen

God, Fate, World, Dogs

“Books, the children of the brain.”

Jonathan Swift book A Tale of a Tub

Sect. 1
A Tale of a Tub (1704)
Source: A Tale Of A Tub And Other Writings

Books

“If there is one regret that I have had in my life, it is that I never fathered any children. There are times, when I look at what Fergus and Beryl have produced, when I consider myself fortunate, but there are also times when it breaks my heart.”

Derek Landy Skulduggery Pleasant

Source: Skulduggery Pleasant

Life, Time, Heart

“My children were all made from paper and printer's ink…”

Cornelia Funke (1958) author

“The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling to each other, and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other, the moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.”

James Baldwin (1924–1987) (1924-1987) writer from the United States

Faith, Lovers, Light, Sea

“That's the news from Lake Wobegon, where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.”

Garrison Keillor (1942) American radio host and writer

See also the Wikipedia article on the Lake Wobegon effect.
A Prairie Home Companion, News from Lake Wobegon

Women, Men, Strong

“What would you prefer? 'What did the Count eat today, children? One helpless villager, two helpless villagers, three helpless villagers….”

Cassandra Clare book City of Fallen Angels

Source: City of Fallen Angels

“… I do have to wonder what sort of childhood the Grimm brothers endured. They are not a merry bunch of storytellers, what with their children roasted by witches, maidens poisoned by old crones, and whatnot.”

Libba Bray book Rebel Angels

Source: Rebel Angels

Childhood

“Human beings are the only creatures that allow their children to come back home.”

Bill Cosby (1937) American actor, comedian, author, producer, musician, activist

Home

“The problem is not that it's too difficult for children, but that it's too difficult for grown ups. Much of the world view of Einstein's thinking wasn't being taught when the grown ups were in school, but the children were comfortably familiar with it.”

Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) American writer

Acceptance Speech for the Margaret Edwards Award (1998)
Context: I've always believed that there is no subject that is taboo for the writer. It is how it is written that makes a book acceptable, as a work of art, or unacceptable and pornographic. There are many books circulating today, for the teen-ager as well as the grown up, which would not have been printed in the fifties. It is still amazing to me that A Wrinkle In Time was considered too difficult for children. My children were seven, ten, and twelve while I was writing it, and they understood it. The problem is not that it's too difficult for children, but that it's too difficult for grown ups. Much of the world view of Einstein's thinking wasn't being taught when the grown ups were in school, but the children were comfortably familiar with it.

World, School, Problem, Thinking

“Which is why we have spouses and children and parents and colleagues and friends, because someone has to know us better than we know ourselves. We need them to tell us. We need them to say, "I know you, Al. You are not the kind of man who.”

Richard Russo book Straight Man

Source: Straight Man

Parent

“Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts…”

William Gibson book Neuromancer

Source: Neuromancer (1984)
Context: Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts… A graphic representation of data abstracted from banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding...

Mathematics

“We find in our children our own selves again, who might be made better than we are.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Source: City of Heavenly Fire

“I sadly want a reform in the construction of children. Nature's only idea seems to be to make them machines for the production of incessant noise.”

Wilkie Collins book The Woman in White

Source: The Woman in White

Idea, Nature

“The walls of the educational system must come down. Education should not be a privilege, so the children of those who have money can study.”

Ernesto Che Guevara (1928–1967) Argentine Marxist revolutionary

Speech at the University of Las Villas (1959)
Source: Che Guevara Talks to Young People
Context: The walls of the educational system must come down. Education should not be a privilege, so the children of those who have money can study. Education should be the daily bread of the people of Cuba.

Money, Education, Study

“In America there are two classes of travel — first class, and with children.”

Robert Benchley (1889–1945) American comedian

Source: "Kiddie-Kar Travel", Pluck and Luck (1925) http://books.google.com/books?id=ODtLAAAAIAAJ&q=%22In+America+there+are+two+classes+of+travel+first+class+and+with+children%22&pg=PA6#v=onepage; also in D.A.C. News http://www.dacnews.com/, September 1923 http://books.google.com/books?id=uLl9ULzkvikC&q=%22Kiddie+kar+travel%22&pg=PA27#v=onepage

Travel