The greatness of the human personality begins at the hour of birth.

By the age of three, the child has already laid down the foundations of his personality as a human being, and only then does he need the help of special scholastic influences. So great are the conquests he has made that one may well say: the child who goes to school at three is already a little man.

The goal of early childhood education should be to activate the child's own natural desire to learn.

Adults look upon a child as something empty that is to be filled through their own efforts, as something inert and helpless for which they must do everything, as something lacking an inner guide and in constant need of inner direction. . . . An adult who acts in this way, even though he may be convinced that he is filled with zeal, love, and a spirit of sacrifice on behalf of his child, unconsciously suppresses the development of the child's own personality.

The teacher, when she begins work in our schools, must have a kind of faith that the child will reveal himself through work.

When children come into contact with nature, they reveal their strength.

The greatest step forward in human evolution was made when society began to help the weak and the poor, instead of oppressing and despising them.