The essence of independence is to be able to do something for one’s self.

Within the child lies the fate of the future. Whoever wishes to confer some benefit on society must preserve him from deviations and observe his natural ways of acting. A child is mysterious and powerful and contains within himself the secret of human nature.

The child becomes a person through work.

The environment itself will teach the child, if every error he makes is manifest to him, without the intervention of a parent of teacher, who should remain a quiet observer of all that happens.

Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed.

The world of education is like an island where people cut off from the world are prepared for life by exclusion from it.

The first aim of the prepared environment is, as far as it is possible, to render the growing child independent of the adult.