“The essence of independence is to be able to do something for one’s self.”

“If salvation and help are to come, it is through the child ; for the child is the constructor of man.”

“The task of the educator lies in seeing that the child does not confound good with immobility and evil with activity.”

“The environment must be rich in motives which lend interest to activity and invite the child to conduct his own experiences.”

“If education is always to be conceived along the same antiquated lines of a mere transmission of knowledge, there is little to be hoped from it in the bettering of man’s future.”

“The things he sees are not just remembered; they form a part of his soul.”

“To stimulate life, leaving it free, however, to unfold itself–that is the first duty of the educator.”

“Respect all the reasonable forms of activity in which the child engages and try to understand them.”

“Preventing war is the work of politicians, establishing peace is the work of educationists.”

“Children are human beings to whom respect is due, superior to us by reason of their innocence and of the greater possibilities of their future.”

“Do not erase the designs the child makes in the soft wax of his inner life.”

“Scientific observation then has established that education is not what the teacher gives; education is a natural process spontaneously carried out by the human individual, and is acquired not by listening to words but by experiences upon the environment.”

“Imagination does not become great until human beings, given the courage and the strength, use it to create.”

“Of all things love is the most potent.”

“Within the child lies the fate of the future.”

“The greatest sign of success for a teacher is to be able to say, “The children are now working as if I did not exist.

“Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war.”

“We cannot know the consequences of suppressing a child’s spontaneity when he is just beginning to be active. We may even suffocate life itself. That humanity which is revealed in all its intellectual splendor during the sweet and tender age of childhood should be respected with a kind of religious veneration. It is like the sun which appears at dawn or a flower just beginning to bloom. Education cannot be effective unless it helps a child to open up himself to life.”

“Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed.”

“It is not enough for the teacher to love the child. She must first love and understand the universe. She must prepare herself, and truly work at it.”

“ Our care of the child should be governed, not by the desire to make him learn things, but by the endeavor always to keep burning within him that light which is called intelligence.

“Imagination does not become great until human beings, given the courage and the strength, use it to create.”