Only if a child feels right can he think right.

Treat a child as though he already is the person he's capable of becoming.

Whenever I hear about a child needing something, I ask myself, 'Is it what he needs or what he wants?' It isn't always easy to distinguish between the two. A child has many real needs which can and should be satisfied. His wants are a bottomless pit. He wants, for example, to sleep with his parents. He needs to be in his own bed. At Christmas he wants every toy advertised on television. He needs only one or two.

If you want your children to improve, let them overhear the nice things you say about them to others.

Many teenagers are tormented by terrors they deem private and personal. They do not know that their anxieties and doubts are universal.

Wise parents know that fighting a teenager, like fighting a riptide, is inviting doom.

How can we help a child change from undependable to dependable, from a mediocre student to a capable student, from someone who won't amount to very much to someone who will count for something. The answer is at once both simple and complicated: We treat a child as if he already is what we would like him to become.