There is in every child a painstaking teacher so skillful that he obtains identical results in all children in all parts of the world. The only language men ever speak perfectly is the one they learn in babyhood, when no one teaches them anything.

The teacher must derive not only the capacity, but the desire, to observe natural phenomena. The teacher must understand and feel her position of observer: the activity must lie in the phenomenon.

The real preparation for education is the study of one's self.

The development of the child during the first three years after birth is unequaled in intensity and importance by any period that precedes or follows in the whole life of the child.

To teach details is to bring confusion; to establish the relationship between things is to bring knowledge.

The greatest sign of success for a teacher...is to be able to say, "The children are now working as if I did not exist."

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.