There are many who hold, as I do, that the most important part of life is not the age of university studies, but the first one, the period from birth to the age of six. For that is the time when a man's intelligence itself, his greatest implement, is being formed. But not only his intelligence; the full totality of his psychic powers.

Adults have not understood children or adolescents and they are, as a consequence, in continual conflict with them.

Whoever touches the life of the child touches the most sensitive point of a whole which has roots in the most distant past and climbs toward the infinite future.

The first idea that the child must acquire, in order to be actively disciplined, is that of the difference between good and evil.

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

One test of the correctness of educational procedure is the happiness of the child.

It is not enough for the teacher to love the child. She must first love and understand the universe. She must prepare herself, and truly work at it.