Quotations about Children
The world is as many times new as there are children in our lives. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com
The young are life, and there is no hope but in them. ~H. G. Wells, Mind at the End of Its Tether, 1945
Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see. ~Neil Postman, The Disappearance of Childhood, 1982
The love of children inspires an interest in the welfare of all humanity. ~James Lendall Basford (1845–1915), Sparks from the Philosopher's Stone, 1882
Kids:
They dance before they learn
there is anything that isn't music.
~William Stafford, "Keepsakes," c.1950s
Children make your life important. ~Erma Bombeck, Motherhood: The Second Oldest Profession, 1983
It's not easy to be crafty and winsome at the same time, and few accomplish it after the age of six. ~D. Sutten, as quoted in John W. Gardner & Francesca Gardner Reese, Quotations of Wit and Wisdom: Know or Listen to Those Who Know, 1975
A party of little children at play is one of the most beautiful sights in nature, and a sight which for the moment almost leads us to mistrust our theories of human misery. Little children are happy because they have no carking cares nor troublesome responsibilities, no painful memories and no anxious anticipations. ~Frederick Canon Oakeley, "Vestiges of the Fall," The Voice of Creation as a Witness to the Mind of its Divine Author, 1876
I had one grown friend who very nearly approached the realm of child play. He was an old bachelor who often came to our house. He was so deliciously embarrassed by the advances of us children. He could not quite understand why we existed. But he rather liked having us climb up on his knees and play with him, although he never showed it. He was continually making faces at us — it seemed to be his only method of amusement. We children realized that here was one person who "had the stuff in him" to make a good playfellow. So we worked over him until finally we had him trained... Children have a certain understanding of human nature that is unerring. They seem to be able to see deep down into one's being and to discover hidden sources of playfulness, even in
There are no problem children — only children with problems. ~Arnold H. Glasow (1905–1999)
But there was never child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him asleep. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1837
Children raced outside. She surveyed their trail — traces of sticky fingerprints across everything, like wee poems. ~Dr. SunWolf, @WordWhispers, tweet, 2011, professorsunwolf.com
Boy: A noise with dirt on it. ~Punch, as quoted by The Reader's Digest, 1933
Cleaning your house
While your kids are still growing
Is like shoveling the walk
Before it stops snowing.
THE SLOPPY HOUSEKEEPER'S ALMANAC
~Phyllis Diller, "How To Get The Chenille Marks Off Your Face When The Doorbell Rings," Phyllis Diller's Housekeeping Hints, 1966
As the father of two young girls, I have come to the realization that they are just as messy as boys but the dirt that they create around the house is comprised of at least 50% glitter. ~Andrew K. Keller, 2012
...but boys will be boys, and so will girls too, for that matter. ~Judy, or the London Serio-Comic Journal, 1879
Boys will be boys, they say, that's all about it,
And though of course I don't presume to doubt it,
I often listen through the noise and squall,
And vainly ask why boys are boys at all?
I cannot think what fate decreed the plan,
Or mixed the ingredients for the future man;
But I maintain the mixture must have been
Just scrapings up to leave all matters clean.
The refuse left from half-a-thousand ills,
Stirred up as quackery might mix its pills;
Profoundly wonderful, in action sure,
A mystery that is bound to work a cure.
Boys may be boys, but still I fail to see
Why boys such imps of mischief need to be;
All Nature's elements in one combined,
From July's sunshine to November's wind.
A human hurricane, to rush and tear
Without civility or common care,
The puzzle's so profoundly dense; indeed,
We lean a little to the Darwin creed.
But boys are boys, and 'tisn't you nor me
Can make them other than they will to be;
So Heaven preserve us through their din and noise,
And God, for ever, bless our happy boys.
~Lizzie Marshall Berry (1847–1919), "Boys," Heart Echoes: Original Miscellaneous and Devotional Poems, 1886
And of all animals, the boy is the most unmanageable, inasmuch as he has the fountain of reason in him not yet regulated; he is the most insidious, sharp-witted, and insubordinate of animals... ~Plato, translated by Benjamin Jowett, 1878
Little children, sweet and lovely
Buds from Heaven sent to earth!
Let us love them, teach them, guide them,
Fill their lives with joy and mirth...
Looking up with eyes of laughter,
Holding out their tiny hands;
Bless these little ones, oh, Master!
Precious children of all lands!
~Gertrude Tooley Buckingham, "Little Children," 1940s
A child seldom needs a good talking to as a good listening to. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com
If we would listen to our kids, we'd discover that they are largely self-explanatory. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com
Child... curly, dimpled lunatic. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Nature"
I have compared these boys and girls to things
Of beauty and of promise; they have stirred
My mind to seeking for the unknown word
To name the marvel of their wonderings.
But like the distant whisper of the wings
Of some untouchable and nameless bird,
Or like the mystery of music heard
In half-forgotten dream that ever sings
And fades, the naming has eluded me.
They are like blossoms, but no bud shall yield
So rich a blooming; I might call them seed
But yet no searching eye could reach to see
The fertile borders of the mighty field
In which their growth and harvest is decreed.
~Gerald Raftery (1905–1986), "Schoolroom Soliloquy," c.1936 [What a beautiful ode to students! Raftery was a poet as well as a junior high school teacher and librarian.
Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man. ~Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds
Beloved Children, — Look at those happy, light-hearted young people. How gaily and gladly they trip upon the grass! It cheers one's heart even to look at such a joyous band... When the sunshine floods the earth and all appears most charming, what so nice as 'the play-hour' to young hearts! When the bloom of health mantles the cheek — when brilliancy lights up the eye, and buoyancy adds grace to the frame, how delightful is the play-hour; then care vanishes, and sadness flies away; the young spirit is glad and free and enters fully into enjoyment... Be all as merry as possible when it is proper to do so. ~"The Play-Hour," The Dew-Drop: A Monthly Magazine for the Young, 1858
Tarry a moment to watch the chaos of a playground, crayola-colored shirts of running children, all trying out their wings. ~Dr. SunWolf, @WordWhispers, tweet, 2012, professorsunwolf.com
The laughing faces of children on a school playground. A thousand gifts. ~Dr. SunWolf, @WordWhispers, tweet, 2017, professorsunwolf.com
The vivacity of children is always charming, because it is always sincere. A grave child is a rose without fragrance. ~Anonymous, Aphorisms; or, A Glance at Human Nature, in Original Maxims, 1820
A torn jacket is soon mended; but hard words bruise the heart of a child. ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882), "Drift Wood, A Collection of Essays: Table-Talk," Prose Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1857
I love these little people; and it is not a slight thing when they, who are so fresh from God, love us. ~Charles Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop, 1840
Women gather together to wear silly hats, eat dainty food, and forget how unresponsive their husbands are. Men gather to talk sports, eat heavy food, and forget how demanding their wives are. Only where children gather is there any real chance of fun. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1963
If you haven't time to respond to a tug at your pants leg, your schedule is too crowded. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com
In the United States today, there is a pervasive tendency to treat children as adults, and adults as children. The options of children are thus steadily expanded, while those of adults are progressively constricted. The result is unruly children and childish adults. ~Thomas Szasz, The Untamed Tongue: A Dissenting Dictionary, 1990
If our American way of life fails the child, it fails us all. ~Pearl S. Buck, Children for Adoption, 1964
Long before they grow out of their susceptibility to such childhood scourges as measles, mumps, and chicken pox, modern school children fall prey to another great epidemic ailment — romance. I've noticed that little girls from the age of ten onward seem to be the carriers of the virus; and while little boys of the same age display great powers of resistance to the contagion, along with a remarkable ability to shake off any of the symptoms, they're almost invariably affected to some extent. ~Gerald Raftery, "Boys vs. the Birds and Bees," in The New York Herald Tribune, 1960
Boys are perhaps beyond the range of anybody's sure understanding, at least when they are between the ages of eighteen months and ninety years. ~James Thurber