Children
Quotes - Children must be taught how to think, not what to think
“If
you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want
them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”
―
Albert Einstein
“You
have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too
difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.”
―
Madeleine L'Engle
“Make
it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself.”
―
George Bernard Shaw
“Children
must be taught how to think, not what to think.”
―
Margaret Mead
“A
DEFINITION NOT FOUND
IN
THE DICTIONARY
Not
leaving: an act of trust and love,
often
deciphered by children”
―
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
“Children
begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes
they forgive them.”
―
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
“A
childhood without books – that would be no childhood. That would be like being
shut out from the enchanted place where you can go and find the rarest kind of
joy.”
―
Astrid Lindgren
“I
cannot go to school today"
Said
little Peggy Ann McKay.
"I
have the measles and the mumps,
A
gash, a rash and purple bumps.
My
mouth is wet, my throat is dry.
I'm
going blind in my right eye.
My
tonsils are as big as rocks,
I've
counted sixteen chicken pox.
And
there's one more - that's seventeen,
And
don't you think my face looks green?
My
leg is cut, my eyes are blue,
It
might be the instamatic flu.
I
cough and sneeze and gasp and choke,
I'm
sure that my left leg is broke.
My
hip hurts when I move my chin,
My
belly button's caving in.
My
back is wrenched, my ankle's sprained,
My
'pendix pains each time it rains.
My
toes are cold, my toes are numb,
I
have a sliver in my thumb.
My
neck is stiff, my voice is weak,
I
hardly whisper when I speak.
My
tongue is filling up my mouth,
I
think my hair is falling out.
My
elbow's bent, my spine ain't straight,
My
temperature is one-o-eight.
My
brain is shrunk, I cannot hear,
There's
a hole inside my ear.
I
have a hangnail, and my heart is ...
What?
What's that? What's that you say?
You
say today is .............. Saturday?
G'bye,
I'm going out to play!”
―
Shel Silverstein
“No
sight so sad as that of a naughty child," he began, "especially a
naughty little girl. Do you know where the wicked go after death?"
"They
go to hell," was my ready and orthodox answer.
"And
what is hell? Can you tell me that?"
"A
pit full of fire."
"And
should you like to fall into that pit, and to be burning there for ever?"
"No,
sir."
"What
must you do to avoid it?"
I
deliberated a moment: my answer, when it did come was objectionable: "I
must keep in good health and not die.”
―
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
“When
God Created Mothers"
When
the Good Lord was creating mothers, He was into His sixth day of
"overtime" when the angel appeared and said. "You're doing a lot
of fiddling around on this one."
And
God said, "Have you read the specs on this order?" She has to be
completely washable, but not plastic. Have 180 moveable parts...all
replaceable. Run on black coffee and leftovers. Have a lap that disappears when
she stands up. A kiss that can cure anything from a broken leg to a
disappointed love affair. And six pairs of hands."
The
angel shook her head slowly and said. "Six pairs of hands.... no
way."
It's
not the hands that are causing me problems," God remarked, "it's the
three pairs of eyes that mothers have to have."
That's
on the standard model?" asked the angel. God nodded.
One
pair that sees through closed doors when she asks, 'What are you kids doing in
there?' when she already knows. Another here in the back of her head that sees
what she shouldn't but what she has to know, and of course the ones here in
front that can look at a child when he goofs up and say. 'I understand and I
love you' without so much as uttering a word."
God,"
said the angel touching his sleeve gently, "Get some rest
tomorrow...."
I
can't," said God, "I'm so close to creating something so close to
myself. Already I have one who heals herself when she is sick...can feed a
family of six on one pound of hamburger...and can get a nine year old to stand
under a shower."
The
angel circled the model of a mother very slowly. "It's too soft," she
sighed.
But
tough!" said God excitedly. "You can imagine what this mother can do
or endure."
Can
it think?"
Not
only can it think, but it can reason and compromise," said the Creator.
Finally,
the angel bent over and ran her finger across the cheek.
There's
a leak," she pronounced. "I told You that You were trying to put too
much into this model."
It's
not a leak," said the Lord, "It's a tear."
What's
it for?"
It's
for joy, sadness, disappointment, pain, loneliness, and pride."
You
are a genius, " said the angel.
Somberly,
God said, "I didn't put it there.”
―
Erma Bombeck, When God Created Mothers
“The
soul is healed by being with children.”
―
Fyodor Dostoevsky
“Grown-ups
never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be
always and forever explaining things to them”
―
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
“Critics
who treat 'adult' as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive
term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to
admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being
childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in
childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young
things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into
early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested
development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been
ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly.
When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness
and the desire to be very grown up.”
―
C.S. Lewis
“To
lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both
looks like carelessness.”
―
Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest
“Children
aren't coloring books. You don't get to fill them with your favorite colors.”
―
Khaled Hosseini
“A
baby is God's opinion that the world should go on.”
―
Carl Sandburg
“To
terrify children with the image of hell, to consider women an inferior
creation—is that good for the world?”
―
Christopher Hitchens
“Come
away, O human child!
To
the waters and the wild
With
a faery, hand in hand,
For
the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.”
―
William Butler Yeats, The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats
“Is
the spring coming?" he said. "What is it like?"...
"It
is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine...”
―
Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden
“I
would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think
decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.”
―
Anna Quindlen
