Imitation is the first instinct of the awakening mind.

The fundamental basis of education must always remain that one must act for oneself. That is clear. One must act for him or herself.

It is almost possible to say that there is a mathematical relationship between the beauty of his surroundings and the activity of the child; he will make discoveries rather more voluntarily in a gracious setting than in an ugly one.

The instructions of the teacher consist then merely in a hint, a touch-enough to give a start to the child. The rest develops of itself.

We are the sowers - our children are those who reap. We labor so that future generations will be better and nobler than we are.

The prize and punishments are incentives toward unnatural or forced effort, and, therefore we certainly cannot speak of the natural development of the child in connection with them.

Do not offer the child the content of the mind, but the order for that content.