Babies control and bring up their families as much as they are controlled by them; in fact ... the family brings up baby by being brought up by him.

Children cannot be fooled by empty praise and condescending encouragement. They may have to accept artificial bolstering of their self-esteem in lieu of something better, but what I call their accruing ego identity gains real strength only from wholehearted and consistent recognition of real accomplishment, that is, achievement that has meaning in their culture.

Healthy children will not fear life if their elders have integrity enough not to fear death.

You've got to learn to accept the law of life, and face the fact that we disintegrate slowly.

There is in every child at every stage a new miracle of vigorous unfolding.

The playing adult steps sideward into another reality; the playing child advances forward to new stages of mastery.

When established identities become outworn or unfinished ones threaten to remain incomplete, special crises compel men to wage holy wars, by the cruelest means, against those who seem to question or threaten their unsafe ideological bases.