“Every intelligent child is an amateur anthropologist. The first thing such a child notices is that adults don't make sense.”

—  John Leonard

"Books of the Times" http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9506EFD61038F930A1575AC0A964948260&scp=62&sq=&st=nyt, The New York Times (23 September 1982)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Every intelligent child is an amateur anthropologist. The first thing such a child notices is that adults don't make se…" by John Leonard?
John Leonard photo
John Leonard 42
American critic, writer, and commentator 1939–2008

Related quotes

Jean Piaget photo

“There is an adult in every child and a child in every adult.”

Jean Piaget (1896–1980) Swiss psychologist, biologist, logician, philosopher & academic

Source: The Moral Judgment of the Child (1932), Ch. 1 : The Rules of the Game, § 8 : Conclusions : Motor Rules and the Two Kinds of Respect <!-- p. 85 -->
Context: In certain circumstances where he experiments in new types of conduct by cooperating with his equals, the child is already an adult. There is an adult in every child and a child in every adult. … There exist in the child certain attitudes and beliefs which intellectual development will more and more tend to eliminate: there are others which will acquire more and more importance. The later are not derived from the former but are partly antagonistic to them.

John Connolly photo
Irina Bokova photo

“Every child and adult should have the skills and the tools to respond to the challenges of the world today and make the most of the opportunities that are available.”

Irina Bokova (1952) Bulgarian diplomat

leadersmag.com http://www.leadersmag.com/issues/2012.3_Jul/Women%20Leaders/LEADERS-Irina-Bokova-UNESCO.html.

Orson Scott Card photo
Lloyd deMause photo

“Anthropologists have concluded that "child abuse…is virtually unknown" in New Guinea.”

Lloyd deMause (1931) American thinker

Source: The Emotional Life of Nations (2002), Ch. 7, p. 273.

Simone de Beauvoir photo

“What is an adult? A child blown up by age.”

Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist

A Woman Destroyed [Une femme rompue] (1967)
General sources

Dennis Prager photo

“[A] child smacking an adult across the face is not funny. It is, in fact, one of the last things society should tolerate.”

Dennis Prager (1948) American writer, speaker, radio and TV commentator, theologian

Dennis Prager. "The Doritos Ad Was Not Funny" http://townhall.com/columnists/dennisprager/2010/02/16/the_doritos_ad_was_not_funny/page/full at townhall.com, 16 February 2010.
2010s

Derek Landy photo
Joe Hill photo

“Already, though, she understood the difference between being a child and being an adult. The difference is when someone says he can keep the bad things away, a child believes him.”

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

Source: NOS4A2

Shigeru Miyamoto photo

Related topics