To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.

To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.

It's never too late to have a happy childhood.

It's never too late to have a happy childhood.

Let the child's first lesson be obedience, and the second will be what thou wilt.

Let the child's first lesson be obedience, and the second will be what thou wilt.

It's frightening to think that you mark your children merely by being yourself. It seems unfair. You can't assume the read more

It's frightening to think that you mark your children merely by being yourself. It seems unfair. You can't assume the responsibility for everything you do --or don't do.

It is dangerous to confuse children with angels.

It is dangerous to confuse children with angels.

The soul is healed by being with children.

The soul is healed by being with children.

Let a man turn to his own childhood -- no further -- if he will renew his sense of remoteness, read more

Let a man turn to his own childhood -- no further -- if he will renew his sense of remoteness, and of the mystery of change.

Children are our most valuable natural resource.

Children are our most valuable natural resource.

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.