Quotes about children
page 8

“When it comes down to it, I don't have much in the way of advice to offer you, but here it is: Read to children. Vote. And never buyfrom a man who's selling fear.”

Mary Doria Russell (1950) American novelist

Source: Dreamers of the Day

Fear, Way, Reading

“Ammu loved her children (of course), but their wide-eyed vulnerability and their willingness to love people who didn't really love them exasperated her and sometimes made her want to hurt them-- just as an education, a precaution.”

Arundhati Roy book The God of Small Things

Source: The God of Small Things

Love, People, Education, Hurt

“Children see magic because they look for it.”

Christopher Moore book Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

Source: Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

For Parents

“Children are the world's most valuable resource and its best hope for the future.”

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

Re: United States Committee for UNICEF (25 July 1963); Box 11, President's Outgoing Executive Correspondence Series, White House Central Chronological File, Presidential Papers, Papers of John F. Kennedy http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/JFK-Quotations.aspx <br class="br">1963

World, Hope, Future, Hope

“As children grow, they gravitate to their fates.”

Mitch Albom (1958) American author

Source: The Time Keeper

Fate

“You can’t become a billionaire stepping over children sleeping on the street.”

Bernie Sanders (1941) American politician, senator for Vermont

Source: The Speech: A Historic Filibuster on Corporate Greed and the Decline of Our Middle Class

Sleep

“When you kill a man, you steal a life," Baba said. "You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness. Do you see?”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

Variant: When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness.
Source: The Kite Runner (2003)
Context: There is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft.... When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness.

Life, Truth, Lie, Cheating

“Puck laughed, and it wasn't like that weird high-pitched giggle she'd heard out of children before, the one that begged the question: why would one possibly tickle a child just to elicit that noise?”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Kiss of a Demon King

Question

“Children picking up our bones
Will never know that these were once
As quick as foxes on the hill;”

Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) American poet

Source: The Palm at the End of the Mind: Selected Poems and a Play

“Allow children to be happy in their own way, for what better way will they find?”

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer

Happiness, Way

“Children don’t heed the life experiences of their parents, and nations ignore history. Bad lessons always have to be learned anew.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Life, History, Parent, Learning

“The four Keltar Druids brought their wives and children. They breed like it's their personal mission to populate their country in case somebody attacks again, as if anybody wants the bloody place.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Shadowfever

Personality, Country

“Mothers support certain illusions about their children, and one of my illusions was that I liked who I was, because she did. When she passed away, so did that idea.”

Mitch Albom For One More Day

Source: For One More Day

Idea, Support

“Do you have children? she asked.

No.

Why?

The man answered that one had to have faith in the world to have children.”

Alessandro Baricco (1958) Italian writer

World, Faith

“When mom and dad went to war the only prisoners they took were the children”

Pat Conroy (1945–2016) American novelist

War, Moms

“How nice of Acheron to send us a playmate. (Daimon)
Play is for children and dogs. Now that you have identified which category you fall into, I'll show you what Romans do to rabid dogs. (Valerius)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Seize the Night

Dogs

“I want my children to understand the world, but not just because the world is fascinating and the human mind is curious. I want them to understand it so that they will be positioned to make it a better place.”

Howard Gardner (1943) American developmental psychologist

Howard Gardner (1983), "Multiple approaches to understanding," in: Charles M. Reigeluth (ed.) Instructional-design Theories and Models: A new paradigm of ..., Volume 2. p. 69-90

World, Understanding

“It is my wish that you may have at better and freer life than I have had. Recommend virtue to your children; it alone, not money, can make them happy. I speak from experience; this was what upheld me in time of misery.”

Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770–1827) German Romantic composer

Life, Money, Happiness, Time

“All children mythologise their birth. It is a universal trait. You want to know someone? Heart, mind and soul? Ask him to tell you about when he was born. What you get won’t be the truth: it will be a story. And nothing is more telling than a story.”

Diane Setterfield book The Thirteenth Tale

Source: The Thirteenth Tale

Truth, Soul, Birth, Universe

“My God, I could raise a family of six children and hold down a full-time job with all the energy I expend on depression!”

Elizabeth Wurtzel book Prozac Nation

Source: Prozac Nation

God, Family, Time

“A lot of parents tell their children that if they want to be an actor, that's fine, but they should do something else first, so they've got something to fall back on. It doesn't work like that, as far as I'm concerned.”

Ewan McGregor (1971) British actor

Parent

“No. It is said that the Nephilim are the children of men and angels. All that this angelic heritage has given to us is a longer distance to fall.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

Men, Angels

“I mean, when the world comes for your children, with the knives out, it's your job to stand in the way.”

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

Source: Horns

World, Way

“Bringing children into it was just low, I decided. At least heʹd left puppies out.”

Richelle Mead book Last Sacrifice

Source: Last Sacrifice

“How is it that little children are so intelligent and men so stupid? It must be education that does it”

Alexandre Dumas (1802–1870) French writer and dramatist, father of the homonym writer and dramatist

Men, Stupidity, Education, Intelligence

“I don't remember ever feeling lonely; in fact, on the rare occasions when I met other children I found their games and their talk far less interesting than the adventures and dialogues I read in my books.”

Alberto Manguel (1948) writer

Source: A History of Reading

Books, Feeling, Game, Reading

“You know what's funny about death? I mean other than absolutely nothing at all? You'd think we could remember finding out we weren't immortal. Sometimes I see children sobbing airports and I think, "Aww. They've just been told.”

Carrie Fisher book Wishful Drinking

Source: Wishful Drinking

Death, Thinking

“Children of the future Age
Reading this indignant page,
Know that in a former time
Love! sweet Love! was thought a crime.”

William Blake (1757–1827) English Romantic poet and artist

A Little Girl Lost, st. 1
1790s, Songs of Experience (1794)

Love, Age, Time, Reading

“The woman is the home. That's where she used to be, and that's where she still is. You might ask me, What if a man tries to be part of the home -- will the woman let him? I answer yes. Because the he becomes one of the children.”

Marguerite Duras (1914–1996) French writer and film director

Home, Parting

“There are only three forms of high art: the symphony, the illustrated children's book and the board game.”

Brian K. Vaughan (1976) American screenwriter, comic book creator

Source: Saga, Vol. 3

Books, Art, Game

“There is something infantile in the presumption that somebody else (parents in the case of children, God in the case of adults) has a responsibility to give your life meaning and point.”

Richard Dawkins book The God Delusion

Source: The God Delusion (2006), p. 360

Life, God, Parent

“Study and in general the pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Letter to Adrianna Enriques (October 1921), p. 83
Attributed in posthumous publications, Albert Einstein: The Human Side (1979)

Truth, Beauty, Study

“I know that big people don't like questions from children. They can ask all the questions they like, How's school? Are you a good boy? Did you say your prayers? but if you ask them did they say their prayers you might be hit on the head.”

Frank McCourt book Angela's Ashes

Source: Angela's Ashes (1996)

People, School, Boy, Question

“Men have sacrificed and crippled themselves physically and emotionally to feed, house, and protect women and children. None of their pain or achievement is registered in feminist rhetoric, which portrays men as oppressive and callous exploiters.”

Camille Paglia (1947) American writer

Reviewing Warren Farrell's The Myth of Male Power, p. 392
Vamps and Tramps (1994), "No Law in the Arena: A Pagan Theory of Sexuality"

Women, Men, Pain, Housing

“They've done it before and they'll do it again and when they do it -- seems that only the children weep. Good night.”

Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird

Variant: I don't know, but they did it. They've done it before and they did it tonight and they'll do it again and when they do it--seems that only children weep.
Source: To Kill a Mockingbird

Night

“We're a nation of exhausted and over-stressed adults raising over-scheduled children.”

Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor

“But of course there's no logic to San Francisco generally, a city built with putty and pipe cleaners, rubber cement and colored construction paper. It's the work of fairies, elves, happy children with new crayons”

Dave Eggers book A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Source: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Happiness, Color

“A family of ten children will be always called a fine family, where there are heads and arms and legs enough for the number.”

Jane Austen book Northanger Abbey

Source: Northanger Abbey

Family

“One reason we have children I think is to learn that parts of ourselves we had given up for dead are merely dormant and that the old joys can re emerge fresh and new and in a completely different form.”

Anne Fadiman (1953) American essayist, journalist and magazine editor

Thinking, Learning, Joy, Parting

“In any event, parents never underestimated the abilities of their own children. Quite the reverse. Sometimes it was well nigh impossible for a teacher to convince the proud father or mother that their beloved offspring was a complete nitwit.”

Roald Dahl book Matilda

Source: Matilda

Parent, Teachers

“Atticus---"… said Jem bleakly. "How could they do it, how could they?"
"I don't know, but they did it. They've done it before & they did it tonight & they'll do it again & when they do it--- seems that only children weep.”

Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird

Source: To Kill a Mockingbird

“Fairy tales are such evil little stories for young children.”

Cecelia Ahern book Love, Rosie

Source: Love, Rosie

Evil

“When I was young, I asked my priest how to get to heaven and still protect yourself from all the evil in the world. He told me what God told His children;'You are sheep among wolves, be wise as the serpent, yet innocent as doves.”

Dennis Lehane book Gone, Baby, Gone

Source: Gone, Baby, Gone

God, World, Evil

“I wished she'd been smart enough, or loving enough, to realize everybody has burdens that crush them, only they don't give up their children.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

Love

“In God's eyes all children are beautiful but here on earth we have higher standards.”

Stephen Colbert (1964) American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor

God, Beauty

“I feel the only thing you can do about life is to preserve it, by art if you're an artist, by children if you're not.”

Philip Larkin (1922–1985) English poet, novelist, jazz critic and librarian

Source: Philip Larkin: Letters to Monica

Life, Art, Feeling

“Stories are like children. They grow in their own way.”

Madeleine L'Engle A Swiftly Tilting Planet

Source: A Swiftly Tilting Planet

Way

“Isn't it strange how upset people get about a few dozen baseball players taking growth hormones, when we're doing what were doing to our food animals and feeding them to our children?”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Eating Animals

Source: Eating Animals

People, Food, Animals

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

Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author

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

Dreams, Soul, Graduation

“I think that maybe if women and children were in charge we would get somewhere.”

James Thurber (1894–1961) American cartoonist, author, journalist, playwright

Women, Thinking

“What is the matter with universities is that the students are school children, whereas it is of the very essence of university education that they should be adults.”

George Bernard Shaw Misalliance

Source: Misalliance

Education, School, Universe

“Divorce isn't such a tragedy. A tragedy's staying in an unhappy marriage, teaching your children the wrong things about love. Nobody ever died of divorce.”

Jennifer Weiner (1970) American writer

Source: Fly Away Home

Love, Marriage

“Canada is a myth people made up to entertain children, like the Tooth Fairy. There’s no such place.”

Christopher Moore (1957) American writer of comic fantasy

People

“When we grow up, we find ways to hide our anxieties, our loneliness, our fear and sorrow. But children hide nothing, putting everything into their tears, which they spread liberally about for the whole world to see.”

Yōko Ogawa book The Diving Pool: Three Novellas

Source: The Diving Pool: Three Novellas

World, Fear, Way, Tear

“Will you explain to me why people encourage delusional behaviour in children, and medicate it in adults?”

Barbara Kingsolver book Flight Behavior

Source: Flight Behavior

People

“How do you have five children in a row, each on a different say?”
“They’re gods,” Carter said. “They can do stuff like that.”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

God

“The Wise are silent, the Foolish speak, and children are thus led astray.”

Algernon Blackwood (1869–1951) English short story writer and novelist

“bringing up children was]like living with a bunch of drunks… you really have to be on your toes all the time.”

Tom Waits (1949) American singer-songwriter and actor

Time

“I think that enduring, committed love between a married couple, along with raising children, is the most noble act anyone can aspire to. It is not written about very much.”

Nicholas Sparks (1965) American writer and novelist

Love, Thinking

“Shouldn't we also ask ourselves what the consequences are of scrambling to provide the "most" of everything to our children in a world of fast dwindling resources?”

John Taylor Gatto (1935–2018) American teacher, book author

World

“You don't understand,' she said, and there was a puzzling trace of resentment in her voice. 'Children never do. The love a parent has for a child, there's nothing else like it. No other love so consuming.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

Love, Understanding, Parent

“People talk to old people like they're children.'Oh you're very old aren't you?' Yeah I'm old. I'm not stupid.”

Craig Ferguson (1962) Scottish-born American television host, stand-up comedian, writer, actor, director, author, producer and voice a…

People, Stupidity

“Vampires. Honestly, they're like children sometimes.”

Richelle Mead (1976) American writer

Source: Succubus Blues

“Anything can become a children's book if you give it to a child… Children are actually the best (and worst) audience for literature because they have no patience with pretence.”

Orson Scott Card (1951) American science fiction novelist

Books, Literature, Patience

“The strongest, toughest men all have compassion. They're not heartless and cold. You have to be man enough to have compassion - to care about people and about your children" (217) - John Singleton "Oh Man, I've Become My Father”

Denzel Washington (1954) actor, screenwriter, director, producer

Source: A Hand to Guide Me

Men, People

“Remember that children, marriages, and flower gardens reflect the kind of care they get.”

H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (1940) American writer

Marriage, Flowers

“Children at once accept joy and happiness with quick familiarity, being themselves naturally all happiness and joy.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

Happiness, Nature, Joy

“Children live in the same world we do. To kid ourselves that we can shelter them from it isn't just naive it's a vanity.”

Lionel Shriver book We Need to Talk About Kevin

Source: We Need to Talk About Kevin

World

“There aren’t many funny bits in Mr Tolkien either,’ Matilda said.
‘Do you think that all children’s books ought to have funny bits in them?’ Miss Honey asked.
‘I do,’ Matilda said. ‘Children are not so serious as grown-ups and love to laugh.”

Roald Dahl book Matilda

Source: Matilda

Love, Books, Thinking

“… Illegitimate children can be left money, but they can't inherit the peerage."
"You wouldn't want it," Cameron put in. "More trouble than it's worth. And for God's sake, don't murder Hart or I'm next.”

Jennifer Ashley (1974) American author

Source: The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie

Money, God

“People talk about how wonderful the world seems to children, and that's true enough. But children think they will grow into it and understand it, and I know very well that I will not, and would not if I had a dozen lives.”

Marilynne Robinson Gilead

Source: Gilead

People, World, Understanding, Thinking

“She wondered if this was true of every parent: if, prior to having children, they all used to be someone else.”

Jodi Picoult book The Tenth Circle

Source: The Tenth Circle

Parent

“I guess the real reason that my wife and I had children is the same reason that Napoleon had for invading Russia: it seemed like a good idea at the time.”

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

Idea, Time

“No, mademoiselle, I would not like to see the children's menu. I have no doubt that the children's menu itself tastes better than the meals on it. I would like to order à la carte. Or don't you serve fish to minors?”

Eoin Colfer (1965) Irish author of children's books

Source: The Eternity Code

Fish

“This is what a woman is: unadorned, after children and work and age, and experience-these are the marks of living.”

Zadie Smith On Beauty

Source: On Beauty

Age

“Mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to "jump at de sun."”

Zora Neale Hurston book Dust Tracks on a Road

Source: Dust Tracks on a Road (1942), Ch.2 : My Folks, p. 13.
Context: Mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to "jump at de sun." We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground.

Sun, Mother's Day, For Mother

“The best way to guide children without coercion is to be ourselves.”

Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) American writer

Source: A Circle of Quiet

Way

“If you want to see what children can do, you must stop giving them things.”

Norman Douglas (1868–1952) British writer

“I realize then that we never have children, we receive them. And sometimes it’s not for quite as long as we would have expected or hoped. But it is still far better than never having had those children at all.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

Hope

“I’ve never heard that the sexual act requires any particular intelligence. From what I’ve observed, many stupid people are easily able to produce children.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Suddenly You

People, Stupidity, Intelligence

“Children are not a zoo of entertainingly exotic creatures, but an array of mirrors in which the human predicament leaps out at us.”

John Updike (1932–2009) American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic

“A carefully cultivated heart will, assisted by the grace of God, foresee, forestall, or transform most of the painful situations before which others stand like helpless children saying “Why?”

Dallas Willard (1935–2013) American philosopher

Source: Renovation of the Heart: Putting On the Character of Christ

God, Pain, Heart

“There is no single effort more radical in its potential for saving the world than a transformation of the way we raise our children.”

Marianne Williamson (1952) American writer

World, Way, Effort

“Without the protection of surliness and levity, all children would be crushed by the past—the past of others, loaded onto their shoulders. Selfishness is their saving grace.”

Margaret Atwood (1939) Canadian writer

Past, Selfishness

“A DEFINITION NOT FOUND
IN THE DICTIONARY
Not leaving: an act of trust and love,
often deciphered by children”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Variant: Not leaving: an act of trust and love, often deciphered by children.
Source: The Book Thief

Love

“like the children of Thor? At least their dad had a movie franchise.”

Rick Riordan book The Sword of Summer

Source: The Sword of Summer

“For what's the point of breeding children, if each generation does not improve on what went before.”

Hilary Mantel book Wolf Hall

Source: Wolf Hall

“Children are a precious gift, but they belong to no one but themselves. They are only lent us a little while.”

Jim Butcher (1971) American author

“The most sophisticated people I know - inside they are all children.”

Jim Henson (1936–1990) American puppeteer

People

“Adults are just obsolete children and the hell with them.”

Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books

On writing for adults, as quoted in Of Sneetches and Whos and the Good Dr. Seuss: Essays on the Writings and Life of Theodor Geisel (1997) by Thomas Fensch, p. 96

Hell

“People say children from broken homes have it hard, but the children of charmed marriages have their own particular challenges.”

Gillian Flynn book Gone Girl

Source: Gone Girl

Marriage, People, Home

“Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed.
Never shall I forget that smoke.
Never shall I forget the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a silent sky.
Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever.
Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live.
Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes.
Never shall I forget those things, even were I condemned to live as long as God Himself.
Never.”

Elie Wiesel book Night

Source: Night (1960)

Life, God, Faith, Dreams

“Because something is significantly wrong with a creature that sacrifices its children’s lives to settle its differences.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Katniss (p. 377)
Source: The Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay (2010)
Context: I no longer feel any allegiance to these monsters called human beings, despite being one myself. I think that Peeta was onto something about us destroying one another and letting some decent species take over. Because something is significantly wrong with a creature that sacrifices its children’s lives to settle its differences.

“The waste of intelligence. A community that finds it natural to suffocate with the care of home and children so many women’s intellectual energies is its own enemy and doesn’t realize it.” I waited in silence”

Elena Ferrante (1943) Italian writer

Source: Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay

Women, Home, Intelligence, Communication

“It is good to renew one's wonder, said the philosopher. Space travel has again made children of us all.”

Ray Bradbury book The Martian Chronicles

Source: The Martian Chronicles

Travel

“The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence.”

Denis Waitley (1933) American writer

Variant: The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence

Birthday

“Recommend to your children virtues, that alone can make them happy, not gold.”

Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770–1827) German Romantic composer

Happiness

“And why does this same God tell me how to raise my children when he had to drown his?”

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

Source: Some Mistakes of Moses (1879) http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/ingermm2.htm#XVIII] Section XVIII, "Dampness".

God

“One can love two children. But your heart can be given romantic love to only a single other, said Woolsey.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

Love, Heart

“And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations.
They're quite aware of what they're going through.”

David Bowie (1947–2016) British musician, actor, record producer and arranger

Changes
Song lyrics, Hunky Dory (1971)
Context: I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence.
So the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same.
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations.
They're quite aware of what they're going through.

World, Change

Quotes about children page 8

Quotes about children
page 8