Childhood sometimes does pay a second visit to man; youth never.

Childhood sometimes does pay a second visit to man; youth never.

For many children, joy comes as the result of mining something unique and wondrous about themselves from some inner shaft.

For many children, joy comes as the result of mining something unique and wondrous about themselves from some inner shaft.

A society in which adults are estranged from the world of children, and often from their own childhood, tends to read more

A society in which adults are estranged from the world of children, and often from their own childhood, tends to hear children's speech only as a foreign language, or as a lie. Children have been treated. as congenital fibbers, fakers and fantasisers.

It might sound a paradoxical thing to say --for surely never has a generation of children occupied more sheer hours read more

It might sound a paradoxical thing to say --for surely never has a generation of children occupied more sheer hours of parental time --but the truth is that we neglected you. We allowed you a charade of trivial freedoms in order to avoid making those impositions on you that are in the end both the training ground and proving ground for true independence. We pronounced you strong when you were still weak in order to avoid the struggles with you that would have fed your true strength. We proclaimed you sound when you were foolish in order to avoid taking part in the long, slow, slogging effort that is the only route to genuine maturity of mind and feeling. Thus, it was no small anomaly of your growing up that while you were the most indulged generation, you were also in many ways the most abandoned to your own meager devices by those into whose safe-keeping you had been given.

The joys of parents are secret, and so are their grieves and fears.

The joys of parents are secret, and so are their grieves and fears.

Children are poor men's riches.

Children are poor men's riches.

It's a sad moment, really, when parents first become a bit frightened of their children.

It's a sad moment, really, when parents first become a bit frightened of their children.

There was never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him asleep.

There was never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him asleep.

Boys will be boys, and so will a lot of middle-aged men.

Boys will be boys, and so will a lot of middle-aged men.