All our handling of the child will bear fruit, not only at the moment, but in the adult they are destined to become.

A great deal of time and intellectual force are lost in the world, because the false seems great and the truth so small and insignificant.

We cannot know the consequences of suppressing a child's spontaneity when he is just beginning to be active. We may even suffocate life itself. That humanity which is revealed in all its intellectual splendor during the sweet and tender age of childhood should be respected with a kind of religious veneration. It is like the sun which appears at dawn or a flower just beginning to bloom. Education cannot be effective unless it helps a child to open up himself to life.

If we really want children to grow into independent and resourceful adults, we should stop pouring their milk as soon as they have learned to pour it themselves and stop fastening their buttons as soon as they can fasten them without help.

We cannot create observers by saying 'observe,' but by giving them the power and the means for this observation and these means are procured through education of the senses.

Growth is not merely a harmonious increase in size, but a transformation.

Watching a child makes it obvious that the development of his mind comes through his movements.