Kids: Understanding. Loving. Nurturing. Learning from.
What you will see in this post is a blending of my own observations about children, from the perspective of a father, grandfather and educator, with thoughts about kids from famous people. It’s an interesting mix, one that I hope might stimulate your thinking and stir your compassion.
If I don’t assign a person’s name to a quote, you will know it’s one of mine. But no matter what, please feel free to use any of this information in whatever manner you might find beneficial.
Oh, keep teenagers in mind as you review this list. Many of these quotes apply equally to them. Sometimes when we say the word children, we only think of the little guys.
- Children are our connections to all that is.
- If our American way of life fails the child, it fails us all. – Pearl S. Buck
- There is no place for guns in schools.
- “A child needs your love most when he deserves it least.” – Erma Bombeck
- “Kids don’t remember what you try to teach them. They remember what you are.” – Jim Henson
- Kids know a lot more than you think.
- “Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands.” – Anne Frank
Read to a child today.- “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” – Frederick Douglass
- Reading to a child is an investment in the future.
- “There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- Take a walk in the rain with a child & become young again.
- “Your children need your presence more than your presents.” – Jesse Jackson
- Pretend with a child and learn what life is really all about.
- “You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.” – Khalil Gibran
- See the infinity of existence in the eyes of a child.
- “The soul is healed by being with children.” – Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Lead a child to knowledge and learn lessons you will never forget.
- “Children are educated by what the grown-up is and not by his talk.” – Carl Jung
Sitting close to a child in silence is sometimes the best communications of all.- “One must ask children and birds how cherries and strawberries taste.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- Enter a child’s world today and discover missing pieces of yourself.
- “There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.” – Nelson Mandela
- Dance with a child and feel the rhythms of the universe.
- “Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.” – James A. Baldwin
- Play with a child and receive more than you can possibly give.
“Never have more children than you have car windows.” – Erma Bombeck- Listen to children and make wondrous connections with them.
- “Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children.” – Alex Haley
- Teach a child to think and enrich the world.
- “Our greatest natural resource is the minds of our children.” – Walt Disney
- Draw with a child and help her construct the future.
- “Parents were invented to make children happy by giving them something to ignore.” – Ogden Nash
- Laugh with a child and feel a pure essence of being.
- “Let us put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children.” –Sitting Bull
- Singing with a child unites two souls on a common journey.
- “This is the moment when we must come together to save this planet. Let us resolve that we will not leave our children a world where the oceans rise and famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands.” – Barack Obama
Ask children questions and then listen carefully no matter what they say.- “Adults are obsolete children.” – Dr. Seuss
- Color with a child and add to the brightness of existence.
- “If you bungle raising your children, I don’t think whatever else you do matters very much.” – Jackie Kennedy
- Imagine with a child and watch the unfolding of exquisite potential.
- “You see a child play, and it is so close to seeing an artist paint, for in play a child says things without uttering a word. You can see how he solves his problems. You can also see what’s wrong. Young children, especially, have enormous creativity, and whatever’s in them rises to the surface in free play.” – Erik Erikson
- Write with a child and teach her the full magic of words.
- “
Being considerate of others will take your children further in life than any college degree.” – Marian Wright Edelman - Protect a child and build for the future.
- “Tell the children the truth.” – Bob Marley
- Walk with a child and see the world through his eyes.
- “A child is a curly dimpled lunatic.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Kneel to speak to a child so you can see eye-to-eye.
- “There are only two things a child will share willingly — communicable diseases and his mother’s age.” – Dr. Benjamin Spock
- Tell a child a story and bring joy to her life.
- “Having a two-year-old is like having a blender that you don’t have the top for.” -Jerry Seinfeld
Plan an event with a child and watch her grow.- “Your children will see what you’re all about by what you live rather than what you say.” – Wayne Dyer
- Give a child the gift of your full and undivided presence.
- “A torn jacket is soon mended; but hard words bruise the heart of a child.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Paint with a child and watch the world around you come alive.
- “For unflagging interest and enjoyment, a household of children, if things go reasonably well, certainly all other forms of success and achievement lose their importance by comparison.” – Theodore Roosevelt
- Love a child and bring the world into being
- “Pretty much all the honest truth telling there is in the world is done by children.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes
- Kids’ picture books rock. Read one to a child today.
- “I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.” – Harry S. Truman
- Share the holidays with a child and become a kid again.
“If children grew up according to early indications, we should have nothing but geniuses.” – Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe- Children mirror the behaviors they see and hear. Watch yourself!
- “There never was a child so lovely, but his mother was glad to get him asleep.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Take a magical walk thru a toy store with a child and find pure joy.
- “If there is anything that we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves.” – C.G. Jung
- Hug a child and warm your heart.
“Do not handicap your children by making their lives easy.” – Robert A Heinlein- Behind the eyes of a child lies the timelessness of the human soul.
- “If a child is to keep his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in.” – Rachel Carson
- Children are the treasured hope of the world.
- “Always be nice to your children because they are the ones who will choose your rest home.” – Phyllis Diller
- Fish with a child and bring joy to his heart.
- Showing a child the stars puts her in touch with the essence of existence.
- Hitting a child teaches them disrespect and violence.
- Give a child the gift of your full attention and reap the rewards.
- Play with a child and watch the time stretch in fascinating and unimaginable ways.
- Find images in a cloud with a child and create lasting memories.
Enter a child’s imaginary world and become a welcomed partner.- Take a child to the library and connect him to the richness of books.
- Be silly with a child and contact a lost part of yourself.
- Kids can see through you so be careful what you say and how you do things.
Here are some interesting links to children’s organizations you may or may not have heard about:
Child Welfare League Association
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