At birth, the child leaves a person - his mother's womb - and this makes him independent of her bodily functions. The baby is next endowed with an urge, or need, to face the out world and to absorb it. We might say that he is born with 'the psychology of world conquest.' By absorbing what he finds about him, he forms his own personality.

There is in the child a special kind of sensitivity which leads him to absorb everything about him, and it is this work of observing and absorbing that alone enables him to adapt himself to life

What we need is a world full of miracles, like the miracle of seeing the young child seeking work and independence, and manifesting a wealth of enthusiasm and love.

The child becomes a person through work.

Children are human beings to whom respect is due, superior to us by reason of their innocence and of the greater possibilities of their future.

Little children, from the moment in which they are weaned, are making their way toward independence.

The development of the individual can be described as a succession of new births at consecutively higher levels.