Quotes about children
page 35

Noam Chomsky photo
Donald J. Trump photo
Viswanathan Anand photo
Helen Keller photo

“The country is governed for the richest, for the corporations, the bankers, the land speculators, and for the exploiters of labour. Surely we must free men and women together before we can free women. The majority of mankind are working people. So long as their fair demands -- the ownership and control of their lives and livelihood -- are set at naught, we can have neither men's rights nor women's rights. The majority of mankind are ground down by industrial oppression in order that the small remnant may live in ease. How can women hope to help themselves while we and our brothers are helpless against the powerful organizations which modern parties represent and which contrive to rule the people? They rule the people because they own the means of physical life, land, and tools, and the nourishers of intellectual life, the press, the church, and the school. You say that the conduct of the woman suffragists is being disgracefully misrepresented by the British press. Here in America the leading newspapers misrepresent in every possible way the struggles of toiling men and women who seek relief. News that reflects ill upon the employers is skillfully concealed -- news of dreadful conditions under which labourers are forced to produce, news of thousands of men maimed in mills and mines and left without compensation, news of famines and strikes, news of thousands of women driven to a life of shame, news of little children compelled to labour before their hands are ready to drop their toys. Only here and there in a small and as yet uninfluential paper is the truth told about the workman and the fearful burdens under which he staggers.”

Helen Keller (1880–1968) American author and political activist

Out of the Dark (1913), To a Woman-Suffragist

Joseph Goebbels photo

“After supper we are sitting close to the church in a quiet spot. As if from a distance we hear prayers and singing. The monks are holding their vesper services. Then it falls silent, wonderfully silent!
The sun has already set. … We are quiet, too. … A door is closed somewhere. A man's, then a woman's voice. Children are praying! My dear Jesus! Then it falls silent again. Wonderfully silent!
The night spreads its wide, black wings over the land.”

Joseph Goebbels (1897–1945) Nazi politician and Propaganda Minister

Nach dem Abendbrot sitzen wir an der Kirche in einem stillen Winkel. Wie von ferne hören wir Gebet und Singen. Die Mönche halten ihre Abendandacht. Und dann wird es still, wunderbar still!
Die Sonne ist schon untergegangen. … Auch wir schweigen. … Irgendwo wird eine Tür geschlossen. Eine Männer-, dann eine Frauenstimme. Kinderbeten! Du lieber Jesus mein! Dann wird es wieder still. Wunderbar still!
Die Nacht legt ihre breiten, schwarzen Flügel auf das Land.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)

Harper Lee photo
Warren Farrell photo

“If we want our children to have a balance between their abilities to earn money and show love, it will help if both their parents model that balance.”

Warren Farrell (1943) author, spokesperson, expert witness, political candidate

page 114.
Father and Child Reunion (2001)

John Updike photo
Howard Bloom photo
Isadora Duncan photo
David Irving photo
Nakayama Miki photo

“Whoever comes to this house shall never leave without being filled with joy. To Me, the Parent, all human beings in the world are My children.”

Nakayama Miki (1798–1887) Founder of Tenrikyo

The Life of Oyasama, Foundress of Tenrikyo, p. 19
The Life of Oyasama

Joel Fuhrman photo
Aron Ra photo
Kailash Satyarthi photo
Neil Gaiman photo
Kent Hovind photo
Jim Butcher photo
William Golding photo
Margaret Sanger photo

“MOTHERS! / Can you afford to have a large family? / Do you want any more children? / If not, why do you have them? / DO NOT KILL, / DO NOT TAKE LIFE / BUT PREVENT / Safe, Harmless Information can be obtained of trained nurses at / 46 AMBOY STREET.”

Margaret Sanger (1879–1966) American birth control activist, educator and nurse

(Handbill advertising Sanger's first clinic, Brooklyn, New York, October 1916) https://sangerpapers.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/sanger_flyer.jpg
published in "Birthright: What's next for Planned Parenthood." Jill Lepore. The New Yorker, Nov. 14 2011 - page 48.

Neal Stephenson photo
Winston S. Churchill photo
Michel De Montaigne photo

“It should be noted that children at play are not playing about; their games should be seen as their most serious-minded activity.”

Michel De Montaigne (1533–1592) (1533-1592) French-Occitan author, humanistic philosopher, statesman

Variants: It should be noted that the games of children are not games, and must be considered as their most serious actions.
For truly it is to be noted, that children's plays are not sports, and should be deemed as their most serious actions.
Book I, Ch. 23
Attributed

Sarah Grimké photo

“At sixty I look back on a life of deep disappointments, of withered hopes, of unlooked for suffering, of severe discipline. Yet I have sometimes tasted exquisite joy and have found solace for many a woe in the innocence and earnest love of Theodore's children. But for this my life would have little to record of mundane pleasures.”

Sarah Grimké (1792–1873) American abolitionist

Letter to Harriot Hunt (1853), as quoted in The Grimké Sisters from South Carolina: Pioneers for Woman's [sic] Rights and Abolition, p. 241, by Gerda Lerner. Editorial Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 0195106032.

Robert G. Ingersoll photo

“It is a waste of money to pay priests to frighten our children, and paralyze the intellect of women.”

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

My Reviewers Reviewed (lecture from June 27, 1877, San Francisco, CA)

Bill Maher photo
Richard Rodríguez photo
Linus Torvalds photo

“I realize that lawyers are brought up (probably from small children) to think that "technically true" is what matters, but when you make public PR statements, they should be more than "technically" true. They should be honest. There's a big f*cking difference.”

Linus Torvalds (1969) Finnish-American software engineer and hacker

Linus Torvalds - Google+, Torvalds, Linus, 2013-01-17, 2013-01-20 https://plus.google.com/u/0/102150693225130002912/posts/ggzfzKyrcRQ,
2010s, 2013

Voltairine de Cleyre photo
Robert N. Bellah photo
Courtney B. Vance photo
Thornton Wilder photo
Robert Hunter (author) photo
Albert Barnes photo
Gloria Estefan photo

“[As of November 17, 2006] 'Noelle's Treasure Tale' has remained at No. 3 on the New York Times children's best seller list since its October 10 release.”

Gloria Estefan (1957) Cuban-American singer-songwriter, actress and divorciada

Reuters (November 17, 2006)
2007, 2008

Roberto Bolaño photo
Francis Turner Palgrave photo
Amitabh Bachchan photo
Bob Dylan photo
Gary Gygax photo
Alex Haley photo

“Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children.”

Alex Haley (1921–1992) African American biographer, screenwriter, and novelist

Statement in Reader's Digest (1987), as quoted in Incredibly American : Releasing the Heart of Quality (1992) by Marilyn R. Zuckerman and Lewis J. Hatala, p. 13.

Terry McAuliffe photo
Ossip Zadkine photo
Ellen G. White photo
Aron Ra photo

“I would say that, whenever religion has rule over law, that madness will reign, with automatic violations of human rights, but maybe I'm being alarmist. What do they say? How can we know what sort of society they envision?.. We know that they are nearly all republicans, and that that party has been virtually assimilated by them, and we know they will speak more freely when they feel the safety of numbers. So let's look at the Republican Party platform of one of the red states, a very red state… Of course, they want to make pornography illegal (no surprises there), they also want to be able to filibuster the US senate again… Regarding the environment, they strongly support the immediate repeal and abolishment of the Endangered Species Act. Remember that these people don't believe in evolution, so they don't understand the importance of biodiversity and they don't care about the rights of animals either. They want to dominate and subdue the earth, just like their abominable doctrine demands, so they strongly oppose all efforts of environmental groups that stymie business interests, especially those of the oil and gas industry… Texas republicans not only want marriage to be restricted to one man and one woman (despite what the Bible says), but they insist it must be a natural man and a natural woman… So transgender people would be completely ostracized under the law should they get their way. There's no civil union options for gay couples either, because the platform also opposes the creation, recognition or benefits of partnerships outside marriage that are provided by some political subdivisions. As if that weren't enough, they also want to define the word "family" such that it excludes homosexual couples. They say they deplore sensitivity training (think about that for a moment), and they state very clearly that they want homosexuality condemned as unacceptable. They mean that very strongly too, so strongly in fact that they oppose any criminal or civil penalties against those who oppose homosexuality as a reaction of religious faith. In fact, they go so far as to urge the immediate repeal of the hate crimes law specifically where that relates to sexual orientation… If you're uncertain whether that includes acts of violence, there at least two members of the current State Board of Education who implied that it should, and we know of a few Tea Partiers who insist that homosexuals should be executed, murdered by the state. I am alarmed at how popular this abominable sentiment is… Under the heading "supporting motherhood", they strongly support women who "choose" to devote their lives to their families and raising their children, but they implicitly object to women choosing other options such as college, careers, or not having children at all. A woman's ambition beyond the confines of the kitchen and obeisance to her husband is decried by conservatives as a deplorable assault on the family which, of course, they blame on liberals. Regarding the right to life, they say that all innocent human life must be respected and safeguarded from fertilization to natural death. Notice a few subtle caveats here: the qualifier of protecting only innocent life is how Texas republicans justify having executed more prisoners than any other state in the union, nearly five times as many as the next deadliest state in fact. Says something about Christian forgiveness, doesn't it!”

Aron Ra (1962) Aron Ra is an atheist activist and the host of the Ra-Men Podcast

Youtube, Other, Republican Theocracy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSjNg7nQvB0 (November 4, 2012)

Eugene J. Martin photo
Lana Turner photo
Thomas Hughes photo
Jane Roberts photo
Izaak Walton photo
Aristide Maillol photo
Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay photo

“There is not, and there never was on this earth, a work of human policy so well deserving of examination as the Roman Catholic Church. The history of that Church joins together the two great ages of human civilisation. No other institution is left standing which carries the mind back to the times when the smoke of sacrifice rose from the Pantheon, and when camelopards and tigers bounded in the Flavian amphitheatre. The proudest royal houses are but of yesterday, when compared with the line of the Supreme Pontiffs. That line we trace back in an unbroken series, from the Pope who crowned Napoleon in the nineteenth century to the Pope who crowned Pepin in the eighth; and far beyond the time of Pepin the august dynasty extends, till it is lost in the twilight of fable. The republic of Venice came next in antiquity. But the republic of Venice was modern when compared with the Papacy; and the republic of Venice is gone, and the Papacy remains. The Papacy remains, not in decay, not a mere antique, but full of life and youthful vigour. The Catholic Church is still sending forth to the farthest ends of the world missionaries as zealous as those who landed in Kent with Augustin, and still confronting hostile kings with the same spirit with which she confronted Attila. The number of her children is greater than in any former age. Her acquisitions in the New World have more than compensated for what she has lost in the Old. Her spiritual ascendency extends over the vast countries which lie between the plains of the Missouri and Cape Horn, countries which a century hence, may not improbably contain a population as large as that which now inhabits Europe. The members of her communion are certainly not fewer than a hundred and fifty millions; and it will be difficult to show that all other Christian sects united amount to a hundred and twenty millions. Nor do we see any sign which indicates that the term of her long dominion is approaching. She saw the commencement of all the governments and of all the ecclesiastical establishments that now exist in the world; and we feel no assurance that she is not destined to see the end of them all. She was great and respected before the Saxon had set foot on Britain, before the Frank had passed the Rhine, when Grecian eloquence still flourished at Antioch, when idols were still worshipped in the temple of Mecca. And she may still exist in undiminished vigour when some traveller from New Zealand shall, in the midst of a vast solitude, take his stand on a broken arch of London Bridge to sketch the ruins of St. Paul's.”

"Essay on Ludwig von Ranke's 'History of the Popes', in "Critical and Historical Essays", iii, (London; Longman, 7th Edn. 1952), 100-1.
Attributed

“I wonder if I will be able to ever reunite with my family, my husband, my little kids. I miss them. What if my children choose to study and work in the US? What if I can never return to the US, which I cannot now. Does it mean we will never be able to live together as a family again?”

Devyani Khobragade (1974) Indian diplomat

Wonder if I will ever reunite with my family, Devyani Khobragade says http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Wonder-if-I-will-ever-reunite-with-my-family-Devyani-Khobragade-says/articleshow/28702764.cms, Times of India, 12 January 2014

Saki photo
Vera Farmiga photo
Matthew Arnold photo

“Philistine must have originally meant, in the mind of those who invented the nickname, a strong, dogged, unenlightened opponent of the children of the light.”

Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools

Heinrich Heine, p. 146
Essays in Criticism (1865)

Jim Clyburn photo

“Has he paid his dues? Is he black enough? … John Lewis and I were out there marching and organizing sit-ins back in the '60s so that his children and my children would not have to do it. … We would have been failures if [Obama] had to do the same things we did.”

Jim Clyburn (1940) American politician

Attacking critics of presidential candidate Barack Obama who contend that Obama hasn't endured the Civil Rights-era struggles that other black politicians have
[6 July 2007, http://blog.washingtonpost.com/capitol-briefing/2007/07/clyburn_takes_up_heavy_politic.html, "Clyburn Does Heavy Political Lifting for Dems", The Washington Post, 2007-07-24]

John F. Kennedy photo

“I have said that control of arms is a mission that we undertake particularly for our children and our grandchildren and that they have no lobby in Washington.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

"Statement by the President to American Women Concerning their Role in Securing World Peace (449)" (1 November 1963) http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/JFK-Quotations.aspx
1963

Ed Harcourt photo
Bill Cosby photo
Neil Peart photo
Frank McCourt photo
Daniel Handler photo
Charles Lamb photo

“I am determined my children shall be brought up in their father's religion, if they can find out what it is.”

Charles Lamb (1775–1834) English essayist

Letter to John Chambers (1817)

Alberto Gonzales photo
Warren Farrell photo
Jayapala photo
Harry Chapin photo
Gwendolyn Brooks photo
Gloria Estefan photo
Robert Jeffress photo

“And here is the deep, dark, dirty secret of Islam: It is a religion that promotes pedophilia - sex with children. This so-called prophet Muhammad raped a 9-year-old girl - had sex with her… Around the world today, you have Muslim men having sex with 4-year-old girls, taking them as their brides, because they believe the prophet Muhammad did… I believe, as Christians and conservatives, it's time to take off the gloves and stand up and tell the truth about this evil, evil religion.”

Robert Jeffress (1955) Pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas

"Ask The Pastor", First Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas, , quoted in * 2010-09-05
Dallas pastor's broad-brush criticism of Islam goes way too far
Steve
Blow
The Dallas Morning News
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/columnists/steve-blow/20100904-Dallas-pastor-s-broad-brush-criticism-8678.ece

David Hunter photo
Christopher Gérard photo
George Bernard Shaw photo
Jared Diamond photo
Lynda Gratton photo

“One-third of our children will live to 100-years-old. That will make a huge difference in how we think about careers. Longevity will be one of the most important issues we face. It will affect everyone and organisations are extremely ill-prepared.”

Lynda Gratton (1953) Business theorist

Lynda Gratton in: Katie Jacobs, " Organisations ill-prepared for future workforce ‘longevity’, says Gratton http://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/article-details/organisations-ill-prepared-for-future-workforce-longevity-says-gratton," hrmagazine.co.uk, November 12, 2013

Arthur Conan Doyle photo
Jane Roberts photo
Ibrahim of Ghazna photo

“But even when the Muslim position was not that strong, say, during Mahmud’s son Ibrahim’s campaign in Hindustan when “a fierce struggle ensued, but Ibrahim at length gained victory, and slew many of them. Those who escaped fled into the jungles. Nearly 100,000 of their women and children were taken prisoners…””

Ibrahim of Ghazna (1032–1099) sultan of the Ghaznavid Empire

Lal, K. S. (1994). Muslim slave system in medieval India. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan. Chapter 3 quoting Maulana Ahmad, Tarikh-i-Alfi, E.D., V, 163; Farishtah, I, 49.

Joseph Strutt photo
Ron Paul photo
Lucille Ball photo
David Berg photo
William Watson (poet) photo
Rick Santorum photo

“I don't think God will continue to bless America if we continue to kill 1.2 million children every year.”

Rick Santorum (1958) American politician

2012-02-21
The real trouble with Rick
John
Podhoretz
New York Post
1090-3321
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/the_real_trouble_with_rick_heWQPU8VoNAHl6Qu2ESYfO

Clive Staples Lewis photo

“It is the stupidest children who are most childish and the stupidest grown-ups who are most grown-up.”

The Silver Chair (1953), Ch. 16: The Healing of Harms
The Chronicles of Narnia (1950–1956)

Austen Chamberlain photo
Fisher Ames photo