Knowing what we must do is neither fundamental nor difficult, but to comprehend which presumptions and vain prejudices we must rid ourselves of in order to be able to educate our children is most difficult.

We discovered that education is not something which the teacher does, but that it is a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being.

Sometimes very small children in a proper environment develop a skill and exactness in their work that can only surprise us.

Children have an anxious concern for living beings, and the satisfaction of this instinct fills them with delight. It is therefore easy to interest them in taking care of plants and especially of animals. Nothing awakens foresight in a small child such as this. When he knows that animals have need of him, that little plants will dry up if he does not water them, he binds together with a new thread of love today's passing moments with those of the morrow.

The child's conquests of independence are the basic steps in what is called his 'natural development'.

The adult works to improve his environment while the child works to improve himself.

Human dignity ... is derived from a sense of independence.