A child is a curly, dimpled lunatic.

A child is a curly, dimpled lunatic.

Give me a child for the first seven years, and you may do what you like with him afterwards.

Give me a child for the first seven years, and you may do what you like with him afterwards.

It is a wise child that knows his own father.

It is a wise child that knows his own father.

You don't have to suffer to be a poet; adolescence is enough suffering for anyone.

You don't have to suffer to be a poet; adolescence is enough suffering for anyone.

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.

It is a wise father that knows his own child.

It is a wise father that knows his own child.

Children should be like waffles--you should be able to throw the first one away.

Children should be like waffles--you should be able to throw the first one away.

The soul is healed by being with children.

The soul is healed by being with children.

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

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