It follows that at the beginning of his life the individual can accomplish wonders without effort and quite unconsciously.

This then is the first duty of an educator: to stir up life but leave it free to develop.

Order is not goodness; but perhaps it is the indispensable road to arrive at it.

Play is the work of the child.

It is not in human nature for all men to tread the same path of development, as animals do of a single species.

Praise, help, or even a look, may be enough to interrupt him, or destroy the activity. It seems a strange thing to say, but this can happen even if the child merely becomes aware of being watched. After all, we too sometimes feel unable to go on working if someone comes to see what we are doing. The great principle which brings success to the teacher is this: as soon as concentration has begun, act as if the child does not exist. Naturally, one can see what he is doing with a quick glance, but without his being aware of it.

The laws governing the universe can be made interesting and wonderful to the child, more interesting even that things in themselves, and he begins to ask: What am I? What is the task of man in this wonderful universe? Do we merely live here for ourselves, or is there something more for us to do? Why do we struggle and fight? What is good and evil? Where will it all end?