CHILDREN QUOTES VII

quotations about children

She not only loves her children, she respects them. They have wills, tastes, thoughts, judgments of their own, and this is as she wishes it to be. She distinguishes clearly between counsel and command: command must be obeyed; counsel may be disregarded without rebuke and without loss of favor.

LYMAN ABBOTT

The Home Builder


It's the children the world almost breaks who grow up to save it.

FRANK WARREN

attributed, The Little Red Book of Hope


It is no small thing, when they, who are so fresh from God, love us.

CHARLES DICKENS

Master Humphrey's Clock


A child is a deep mystery. It has a life of its own, which it reveals to no one unless it meets with sympathy. Snub its first halting confidences concerning the inner life, or laugh at them, or be cross or indifferent, and you close the door against yourself forever.

AMELIA E. BARR

All the Days of My Life


The poor are always rich in children, and in the dirt and ditches of this street there are groups of them from morning to night, hungry, naked and dirty. Children are the living flowers of the earth, but these had the appearance of flowers that have faded prematurely, because they grew in ground where there was no healthy nourishment.

MAXIM GORKY

"Creatures that Once were Men"


Nobody's born rotten. You just don't have bad kids. It's not true. There is no such thing. But we can make them bad.

JEAN LIEDLOFF

interview, Touch the Future, fall 1998


A child is a priest of the ordinary, fulfilling a sacred office that absolutely no one else can fill. The simplest gesture, the ephemeral movement, the commonest object all become precious beyond words when touched, noticed, lived by one's own dear child.

MIKE MASON

The Mystery of Children


There are children playing in the street who could solve some of my top problems in physics, because they have modes of sensory perception that I lost long ago.

J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER

attributed, Pearls of Wisdom


Children, I suppose, are always unfinished business: they begin as part of your own body, and continue as separate as another continent.

JEANETTE WINTERSON

The Stone Gods


A person with no children says, "Well I just love children." And you say "Why?" And they say, "Because a child is so truthful. That's what I love about 'em...they tell the truth." That's a lie! I've got five of 'em. The only time they tell the truth is if they're having pain.

BILL COSBY

Bill Cosby: Himself


Children, no matter how gifted, can't see far into the future, you know. To them, a year is almost a lifetime, and telling them that things will be fine when they grow up does no good at all.

JOHN SAUL

Shadows


A child is an uncut diamond.

AUSTIN O'MALLEY

Keystones of Thought


Children are a comfort to men because the youngsters cannot contradict them.

ABRAHAM MILLER

Unmoral Maxims


Children sweeten labours, but they make misfortunes more bitter.

FRANCIS BACON

Essays


Motherhood is an early retirement position. Your children do grow up.

COLLEEN PARRO

PBS interview


It is important to communicate to children about what we are going through. We often speak in half truths. We don't frame the truth or explain our experience in terms they can understand. We need to take time to do this. What has to happen is that more people have to get involved with more children. Focus energy on the child. Children are raising themselves these days in all sorts of strange ways.

JAMES REDFIELD

interview, Edge Magazine, Jun. 1, 1994


There was an old woman who lived in a shoe,
She had so many children she didn't know what to do;
She gave them some broth without any bread,
She whipped them all well and put them to bed.

ANONYMOUS

nursery rhyme


Parents of young children should realize that few people, and maybe no one, will find their children as enchanting as they do.

BARBARA WALTERS

How to Talk with Practically Anybody About Practically Anything


We can't control everything thing our kids do. Sooner or later they're just gonna do what they're gonna do. They're like people that way.

ROSEANNE BARR

"Bird is the Word", Roseanne


Having a child is surely the most beautifully irrational act that two people in love can commit.

BILL COSBY

Fatherhood