The greatest source of discouragement is the conviction that one is unable to do something

At one year of age the child says his first intentional wordhis babbling has a purpose, and this intention is a proof of conscious intelligenceHe becomes ever more aware that language refers to his surroundings, and his wish to master it consciously becomes also greater.Subconsciously and unaided, he strains himself to learn, and this effort makes his success all the more astonishing.

It is true that we cannot make a genius. We can only give to teach child the chance to fulfil his potential possibilities.

The most important period of life is not the age of university studies, but the first one, the period from birth to the age of six.

The greatest triumph of our educational method should always be this: to bring about the spontaneous progress of the child.

How can we speak of Democracy or Freedom when from the very beginning of life we mould the child to undergo tyranny, to obey a dictator? How can we expect democracy when we have reared slaves? Real freedom begins at the beginning of life, not at the adult stage. These people who have been diminished in their powers, made short-sighted, devitalized by mental fatigue, whose bodies have become distorted, whose wills have been broken by elders who say: "your will must disappear and mine prevail!"-how can we expect them, when school-life is finished, to accept and use the rights of freedom?

No adult can bear a child’s burden or grow up in his stead.