Quotes about child
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“Do you want your blood to stay where it is sochar-lar?"
Tavi lifted both eyebrows at the unfamiliar word, and glanced at Varg.
"Monkey," Varg supplied, in Aleran. "And male-child."
"He called me monkey boy?" Tavi asked.”

Jim Butcher Captain's Fury

Source: Captain's Fury

Boy

“Not every child has an equal talent or an equal ability or equal motivation, but they should have the equal right to develop their talent and their ability and their motivation, to make something of themselves.”

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

Motivation

“Child, it's a very bad thing for a woman to face the worst that can happen to her, because after she's faced the worst she can't ever really fear anything again…. Scarlett, always save something to fear— even as you save something to love…”

Margaret Mitchell book Vom Winde verweht (1937 German edition)

Source: Gone with the Wind

Love, Fear

“A child-like man is not a man whose development has been arrested; on the contrary, he is a man who has given himself a chance of continuing to develop long after most adults have muffled themselves in the cocoon of middle-aged habit and convention.”

Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English writer

Source: La volgarità in letteratura

Age, Chance

“Consequently, if you believe God made Satan, you must realize that all Satan's power comes from God and so that Satan is simply God's child, and that we are God's children also. There are no children of Satan, really.”

Anne Rice book Interview with the Vampire

Source: Interview with the Vampire

God, Children

“You have to learn how to help a wounded child while still practicing mindful breathing. You should not allow yourself to get lost in action. Action should be meditation at the same time.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Learning, Time, Help

“As I fear not a child with a weapon he cannot lift, I will never fear the mind of a man who does not think.”

Brandon Sanderson book Words of Radiance

Source: Words of Radiance

Fear, Thinking

“Childhood, after all, is the first precious coin that poverty steals from a child.”

Anthony Horowitz book The House of Silk

Source: The House of Silk

Childhood

“In general there should be gay characters in YA because a) surprise, there are gay folks everywhere and b) in my opinion as a father, there’s not a damn thing wrong with my child encountering gay folks in her literature, because see point a).”

John Scalzi (1969) American science fiction writer

Literature

“A simple child,
That lightly draws its breath,
And feels its life in every limb,
What should it know of death?”

William Wordsworth book Lyrical Ballads

We Are Seven, st. 1 (1798).
Lyrical Ballads (1798–1800)

Life, Death, Feeling, Drawing

“The best candy shop a child can be left alone in, is the library”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

“You might as well answer the door, my child,
the truth is furiously knocking.”

Lucille Clifton (1936–2010) American poet

Source: Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir 1969-1980

Truth

“Even Christian—the poster child for "smartass"—looked grim.”

Richelle Mead book Frostbite

Source: Frostbite

“As a child, Zaphod had been diagnosed with ADHDDAAADHD (ntm) ABT which stood for Always Dreaming His Dopey Days Away, Also Attention Deficit Hyperflactulance Disorder (not to mention) A Bit Thick.”

Eoin Colfer book And Another Thing...

Source: And Another Thing...

Dreams

“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

“I am a child of Cosmopolitan culture, have been traumatized by supermodels and too many quizzes and know that neither my personality nor my body is up to it if left to its own devices. I can't take the pressure.”

Helen Fielding (1958) British writer

Personality

“There are worse things than finding your wife and child dead. You can watch the world do it. You can watch your wife get old and bored. You can watch your kids discover everything in the world you've tried to save them from. Drugs, divorce, conformity, disease. All the nice clean books, music, television. Distraction. These people with dead children, you want to tell them, go ahead. Blame yourself. There are worse things you can do to the people you love than kill them. The regular way is just to watch the world do it. Just read the newspaper.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Lullaby

Source: Lullaby (2002), Chapter 3

Love, Children, People, Books

“The real wonders of life lie in the depths. Exploring the depths for truths is the real wonder which the child and the artist know: magic and power lie in truth.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

Source: The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 4: 1944-1947

Life, Truth, Lie

“Parents who discipline their child by discussing the consequences of their actions produce children who have better moral development, compared to children whose parents use authoritarian methods and punishment.”

Simon Baron-Cohen (1958) psychologist and author

Source: Zero Degrees of Empathy: A New Theory of Human Cruelty

Children, Parent

“Words are more powerful than perhaps anyone suspects, and once deeply engraved in a child's mind, they are not easily eradicated.”

May Sarton (1912–1995) American poet, novelist, and memoirist

“Don’t talk like that, Dill,” said Aunt Alexandra. “It’s not becoming to a child. It’s – cynical.”

“I ain’t cynical, Miss Alexandra. Tellin’ the truth’s not cynical, is it?”

“The way you tell it, it is.”

Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird

Source: To Kill a Mockingbird

Truth, Way

“A child embarrassed by his mother,” she said, “is just a child who hasn’t lived long enough.”

Mitch Albom For One More Day

Source: For One More Day

“A Warrior of Light values a child's eyes because they are able to look at the world without bitterness. When he wants to find out if the person beside him is worthy of his trust, he tries to see him as a child would”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Source: Warrior of the Light

World, Light, Personality

“I was a loner as a child. I had an imaginary friend - I didn't bother with him.”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

“It felt like being a child again, though it was not. Being a child is like nothing. It's only being. Later, when we think about it, we make it into youth.”

China Miéville Embassytown

Source: Embassytown (2011), Chapter "Formerly, 2"

Youth, Thinking

“Then he [The Star Child] waited, marshaling his thoughts and brooding over his still untested powers. For though he was master of the world, he was not quite sure what to do next. But he would think of something.”

Arthur C. Clarke book 2001: A Space Odyssey

Source: 2001: A Space Odyssey

World, Star, Thinking, Waiting

“To become a happy person have a clean soul, eyes that see romance in the commonplace, a child’s heart, and spiritual simplicity.”

Norman Vincent Peale book The Power of Positive Thinking

Source: The Power of Positive Thinking

Happiness, Soul, Heart, Personality

“It's like going back to being a child again. Someone to bathe you. Someone to lift you. Someone to wipe you. We all know how to be a child. It's inside all of us. For me, It's just remembering how to enjoy it.”

Mitch Albom Tuesdays with Morrie

Source: Tuesdays with Morrie

“… I would have let him go one finger at a time, until, without his realizing, he'd be floating without me. And then I thought, perhaps that is what it means to be a [parent] - to teach your child to live without you.”

Nicole Krauss (1974) American novelist

Parent, Time

“There is no such thing as a child who hates to read; there are only children who have not found the right book.”

Frank Serafini (1945) American politician

Hate, Children, Books, Reading

“You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.”

Max Ehrmann (1872–1945) American writer, poet, and attorney

Source: Desiderata: A Poem for a Way of Life

Star, Tree, Universe

“What is a Shadowhunter made of, if they desert their own, if they throw away a child’s heart like rubbish left on the side of the road? Tell me, Simon Lewis, if that is what Shadowhunters are, why would I wish to be one?”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: Bitter of Tongue

Heart

“Have patience awhile; slanders are not long-lived. Truth is the child of time; erelong she shall appear to vindicate thee.”

Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) German philosopher

As quoted in Gems of Thought (1888) edited by Charles Northend

Truth, Appearance, Time, Patience

“She didn't need to understand the meaning of life; it was enough to find someone who did, and then fall asleep in his arms and sleep as a child sleeps, knowing that someone stronger than you is protecting you from all evil and all danger”

Paulo Coelho book Brida

Source: Brida

Life, Understanding, Sleep, Evil

“Time is not the great teacher. Experience is. A man may live a whole life, but if he never leaves his home to experience that life, he dies knowing nothing. A mere child who has suffered and lived can be the wiser of the two.”

Lynsay Sands Canadian writer

Source: Love Bites

Life, Home, Suffering, Teachers

“I would rather die than ever see you suffering this way. I don't want you or any child I ever have or any woman I ever love to go through or feel what you're going through, but it's happened and I don't know what to do.”

Melina Marchetta book Looking for Alibrandi

Source: Looking for Alibrandi

Love, Way, Feeling, Suffering

“He looked the boy up and down as if he had never seen a child before and wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to do with one: eat it, ignore it or kick it down the stairs.”

John Boyne (1971) Irish novelist, author of children's and youth fiction

Source: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Boy

“Miroku: Kagome, are you worrying about me?
Kagome: I guess so.
Miroku: In that case, I have a favor to ask of you: please bear my child.”

Rumiko Takahashi (1957) manga artist

“The words with which a child's heart is poisoned, whether through malice or through ignorance, remain branded in his memory, and sooner or later they burn his soul.”

Carlos Ruiz Zafón book The Shadow of the Wind

Source: The Shadow of the Wind

Soul, Memory, Heart

“Nothing separates the generations more than music. By the time a child is eight or nine, he has developed a passion for his own music that is even stronger than his passions for procrastination and weird clothes.”

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

Music, Passion, Time, Clothes

“She studied my face for a long minute. "Are you going to help my mom?" It was a simple question. But how do you tell a child that things just aren't that simple, that some questions don't have simple answers--or any answer at all?”

Jim Butcher book Storm Front

Source: Storm Front

Moms, Question, Study, Help

“She grabbed his arm. "Let it be, son!" she cried. "That child ain't hurt!"
"Not hurt! You look into her eyes and tell me she ain't hurt!”

Mildred D. Taylor book Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Source: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Hurt

“Even a child with normal feet was in love with the world after he had got a new pair of shoes.”

Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964) American novelist, short story writer

Source: Everything That Rises Must Converge: Stories

Love, World, Shoe

“I wept because I was re-experiencing the enthusiasm of my childhood; I was once again a child, and nothing in the world could cause me harm.”

Paulo Coelho book The Pilgrimage

Source: The Pilgrimage

World, Childhood

“It demands great spiritual resilience not to hate the hater whose foot is on your neck, and an even greater miracle of perception and charity not to teach your child to hate.”

James Baldwin book The Fire Next Time

Source: The Fire Next Time

Hate

“Adults had the notion that juveniles needed to suffer. Only when they had suffered enough to wipe out most of their naturally joyous spirits and innocence were they staid enough to be considered mature. An adult was essentially a broken-down child.”

Piers Anthony book Centaur Aisle

Source: Centaur Aisle

Nature, Suffering

“I don't want to be stinky poo-poo girl, I want to be happy flower child.”

Drew Barrymore (1975) American actress, director and producer

Happiness, Girl, Flowers

“Childhood is not from birth to a certain age and at a certain age
The child is grown, and puts away childish things.
Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies.
Nobody that matters, that is.”

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950) American poet

"Childhood Is the Kingdom Where Nobody Dies," lines 1-4, from Wine from These Grapes (1934)

Age, Birth, Childhood

“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

Age

“When I was a kid we had a sandbox. It was a quicksand box. I was an only child… eventually.”

Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author

Box

“If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder without any such gift from the fairies, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in.”

Rachel Carson (1907–1964) American marine biologist and conservationist

Source: The Sense of Wonder (1965), p. 55 and Back Cover

World, Sense, Joy

“I can almost hear Haymitch groaning as I team up with this wispy child. But I want her. Because she's a survivor, and I trust her, and why not admit it? She reminds me of Prim.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

“Tell her this
And more,—
That the king of the seas
Weeps too, old, helpless man.
The bustling fates
Heap his hands with corpses
Until he stands like a child
With surplus of toys.”

Stephen Crane (1871–1900) American novelist, short story writer, poet, and journalist

Source: Complete Poems of Stephen Crane

Fate, Sea

“I have learned to regard fame as a will-o-the-wisp which, when caught, is not worth the possession; but to please a child is a sweet and lovely thing that warms one's heart and brings its own reward.”

L. Frank Baum (1856–1919) Children's writer, editor, journalist, screenwriter

Personal inscription on a copy of Mother Goose in Prose (1897) which he gave to his sister, Mary Louise Baum Brewster, as quoted in The Making of the Wizard of Oz (1998) by Aljean Harmetz, p. 317
Letters and essays
Context: When I was young I longed to write a great novel that should win me fame. Now that I am getting old my first book is written to amuse children. For aside from my evident inability to do anything "great," I have learned to regard fame as a will-o-the-wisp which, when caught, is not worth the possession; but to please a child is a sweet and lovely thing that warms one's heart and brings its own reward.

Love, Learning, Heart

“You know, Uri, there’s something seriously wrong with me. (Acheron)
And you’re just now figuring this out? Damn, you’re the poster child for slow learning. (Urian)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Acheron

Learning

“My relationship with my father had been on the proverbial fritz since the time I was fifteen and called the police to report him for child molesting. He had never molested me, but I wanted to have a party that weekend and needed him out of the house.”

Chelsea Handler (1975) American comedian, actress, author and talk show host

Source: My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands (2005)

Time, Housing

“A child said What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands;
How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more
than he.”

Walt Whitman Song of Myself

Source: Song of Myself

Grass

“You’re so beautiful. I wish I’d seen you as a child. (Acheron)
You didn’t miss much. I had buck teeth and stringy hair. (Kat)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Devil May Cry

Beauty

“I choose my battles, Dresden. Not you." She looked up at me calmly. "Let me put this in terms that will get through your skull: My friend is going to save a child from monsters. I'm going with him. That's what friends do, Harry.”

Jim Butcher book Changes

Source: Changes

“If you want to be a writer, you have to write every day… You don't go to a well once but daily. You don't skip a child's breakfast or forget to wake up in the morning…”

Walter Mosley (1952) American writer

Forgetting

“I shan't be lonely now. I was lonely; I was afraid. But the emptiness and the darkness are gone; when I turn back into myself now I'm like a child going at night into a room where there's always a light.”

Edith Wharton The Age of Innocence

Source: The Age of Innocence

Light, Night

“Many who have spent a lifetime in it can tell us less of love than the child that lost a dog yesterday.”

Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) American playwright and novelist

As quoted in "The Notation of the Heart" by Edmund Fuller, in The American Scholar Reader (1960) edited by Hiram Hayden and Betsy Saunders

Love, Dogs

“I am an unwilling devil. I cry like some vagrant child. I want to go home.”

Anne Rice book The Vampire Lestat

Source: The Vampire Lestat

Home, Cry

“As a writer, even as a child, long before what I wrote began to be published, I developed a sense that meaning itself was resident in the rhythms of words and sentences and paragraphs… The way I write is who I am, or have become…”

Joan Didion The Year of Magical Thinking

Source: The Year of Magical Thinking

Way, Sense

“Helplessness in the face of a child's suffering is the curse of parenthood.”

Nancy Atherton (1955) American writer

Source: Aunt Dimity's Good Deed

Suffering

“What is it about childhood that never lets you go, even when you're so wrecked it's hard to believe you ever were a child?”

Mitch Albom For One More Day

Source: For One More Day

Childhood

“We all know how to be a child.”

Mitch Albom Tuesdays with Morrie

Source: Tuesdays with Morrie

“Age was respected among his people, but achievement was revered. As the elders said, if a child washed his hands he could eat with kings.”

Chinua Achebe book Things Fall Apart

Source: Things Fall Apart

People, Age

“Barrons: "He got upset it wouldn't shut up and tore its head off."

Mac: "The child?" I gasped”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Shadowfever

“The more healthy relationships a child has, the more likely he will be to recover from trauma and thrive. Relationships are the agents of change and the most powerful therapy is human love.”

Bruce D. Perry (1955) American psychiatrist

Source: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog: And Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist's Notebook

Love, Change

“Juno: "All roads lead there child. You should know that."
Percy: "Detention?”

Rick Riordan book The Son of Neptune

Source: The Son of Neptune

“This did not seem to reassure Nico.

“I don’t like being in the dark,” he muttered.

An odd complaint for a child of Hades, but I understood what he meant.”

Rick Riordan book The Hidden Oracle

Source: The Hidden Oracle

“How strange when an illusion dies. It's as though you've lost a child.”

Judy Garland (1922–1969) actress, singer and vaudevillian from the United States

“A child who does not think about what happens around him and is content with living without wondering whether he lives honestly is like a man who lives from a scoundrel's work and is on the road to being a scoundrel.”

José Martí (1853–1895) Poet, writer, Cuban nationalist leader

Martí : Thoughts/Pensamientos (1994)
Context: A child, from the time he can think, should think about all he sees, should suffer for all who cannot live with honesty, should work so that all men can be honest, and should be honest himself. A child who does not think about what happens around him and is content with living without wondering whether he lives honestly is like a man who lives from a scoundrel's work and is on the road to being a scoundrel.

Thinking