Anyone who does anything to help a child in his life is a hero to me.

There is no normal life that is free of pain. It's the very wrestling with our problems that can be the impetus for our growth.

The world needs a sense of worth, and it will achieve it only by its people feeling that they are worthwhile.

We need to help people to discover the true meaning of love. Love is generally confused with dependence. Those of us who have grown in true love know that we can love only in proportion to our capacity for independence.

One way to think about play, is as the process of finding new combinations for known things--combinations that may yield new formsof expression, new inventions, new discoveries, and new solutions....It's exactly what children's play seems to be about and explains why so many people have come to think that children's play is so important a part of childhood--and beyond.

The roots of a child's ability to cope and thrive, regardless of circumstance, lie in that child's having had at least a small, safe place (an apartment? a room? a lap?) in which, in the companionship of a loving person, that child could discover that he or she was lovable and capable of loving in return. If a child finds this during the first years of life, he or she can grow up to be a competent, healthy person.

Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.