children - children 2
children 4 - children 5

People with bad consciences always
fear the judgment of children.

Mary McCarthy

   
Children who are decked with prince's robes and who have jeweled chains round their necks lose all pleasure in play; their dress hampers them at every step.  In fear that it may be frayed, or stained with dust, they keep themselves from the world and are afraid ever to move.  
   Mother, it is no gain, thy bondage of finery, if it keep one shut off from the healthful dust of the earth, if it rob one of the right of entrance to the great fair of common human life.

Rabindranath Tagore

      

Children have a remarkable talent for not taking the adult world with the kind of respect that we are so confident it ought to be given. To the irritation of authority figures of all sorts, children expend considerable energy in “clowning around.”  They refuse to appreciate the gravity of our monumental concerns, while we forget that if we were to become more like children our concerns might not be so monumental.

Conrad Hyers

  

Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning.  But for children play is serious learning.  Play is really the work of childhood.

Fred Rogers

   

Grown people can learn from very little children, for the hearts of little children are pure.  Therefore, the Great Spirit may show to them many things which older people miss.

Black Elk
   
   
Don't limit a child to your own way of loving, for the child was born in another time.

from a Rabbinical saying

    

Parents need to fill a child's bucket of self-esteem so high
that the rest of the world can't poke enough holes in it to drain it dry.

Alvin Price

   

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Children ask better questions than adults.  "May I have a cookie?"
"Why is the sky blue?" and  "What does a cow say?" are far more
likely to elicit a cheerful response than "Where's your manuscript?"
"Why haven't you called?"  and  "Who's your lawyer?"

Fran Lebowitz

   

Children are living beings--more living than grown-up
people who have built shells of habit around
themselves.  Therefore it is absolutely necessary for their
mental health and development that they should not have mere
schools for their lessons, but a world whose guiding spirit
is personal love.
    
Rabindranath Tagore

   

Before we can teach children life, we've got to learn again how to simply talk
with them.  I would like to write a book called "How to Talk with Children,"
because all I can see that goes on among adults and children is we're always talking
at them, we're always talking through them or beyond them.  We're never communicating
with them.  In order to really communicate with the kids, we've got to practice
deep knee bends.  We've got to get down there so we're face-to-face with them.
We've got to try to get into their world and stop telling them about ours.
Listen to them.  Ask them to tell us what they see and feel and hear, because,
you may be surprised, they may teach you something.  It may get you back
in touch with some of the wonder that was you and which you've forgotten.

Leo Buscaglia

    

children - children 2
children 4 - children 5

If we are to reach real
peace in the world,
we shall have
to begin with children.

Mohandas Gandhi

 

Let us put our minds
together and see
what we will make
for our children.

Chief Sitting Bull

   

Children are curious and are risk takers.
They have lots of courage.
They venture out into a world that is immense and dangerous.
A child initially trusts life and the processes of life.

John Bradshaw

   

   
If you want your children to keep their feet on the ground,
put some responsibility on their shoulders.

Abigail van Buren
   

The first duty to children is to make them happy.
If you have not made them so, you have wronged them.
No other good they may get can make up for that.

Charles Buxton

   

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Children are not things to be molded, but are people to be unfolded.

Jess Lair

   

If you can't hold children in your arms, please hold them in your heart.

Mother Clara Hale

    

What's done to children, they will do to society.

Karl Menninger

  

What a parent says to his or her children is not heard
by the world; but it will be heard by posterity.

Jean Paul Richter

   

If children are to keep alive their inborn sense of wonder, they need
the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering
with them the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world we live in.

Rachel Carson

  

Showing we love our children is important.  We can feel love in our hearts
but we must also express our love and allow our children to express their
love for us.  In this busy world we live in, it is easy to let the days and weeks
flow through our fingers and forget to say and to show, I love you.  Today,
I express my love for my children.  I love them, I tell them that I love them,
and I show it.  Children are full-fledged human beings
and they have a right to recognition and support.

unattributed
Happiness One Day at a Time

   
   

   
The innocence of children is their wisdom, the simplicity of children is
their egolessness.  The freshness of the child is the freshness of your
consciousness, which never becomes old, which always remains young.

Osho
    

The fact of the matter is that many children see. . . . Most of those who see
are considered to be oddballs and every effort is made to correct them.

Carlos Castaneda

  

Children learn about the nature of the world from their family.  They
learn about power and about justice, about peace and about compassion
within the family.  Whether we oppress or liberate our children in our
relationships with them will determine whether they grow up to oppress
and be oppressed or to liberate and be liberated.

Desmond Tutu

   

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children - children 2
children 4 - children 5

A Prayer for the World's Children
Ina Hughs

We pray for children
who sneak popsicles before supper,
who erase holes in math workbooks,
who can never find their shoes.

And we pray for those
who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire,
who can't bound down the street in a new pair of sneakers,
who never "counted potatoes,"
who are born in places where we wouldn't be caught dead,
who never go to the circus,
who live in an X-rated world.

We pray for children
who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions,
who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money.

And we pray for those
who never get dessert,
who have no safe blanket to drag behind them,
who watch their parents watch them die,
who can't find any bread to steal,
who don't have any rooms to clean up,
whose pictures aren't on anyone's dresser,
whose monsters are real.

We pray for children
who spend all  their allowances before Tuesday,
who throw tantrums in the grocery store and pick at their food,
who like ghost stories,
who shove dirty clothes under the bed and never rinse out the tub,
who get visits from the tooth fairy,
who don't like to be kissed in front of the carpool,
who squirm in church or temple and scream in the phone,
whose tears we sometimes laugh at and whose smiles can make us cry.

And we pray for those
whose nightmares come in the daytime,
who will eat anything,
who have never seen a dentist,
who aren't spoiled by anyone,
who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep,
who live and move, but have no being.

We pray for the children who want to be carried and for those who must,
for those who never give up and for those who don't get a second chance, for those we smother. . . and for those who will grab the hand of anyone kind enough to offer it.

Amen
  

    
If nothing has helped you decide, go ask a child.  Children know what they
need, and more surprisingly, the know what we need.  Adults think.  Kids
respond with their feelings.  They don't think about what you will think of
their answer, so they just speak the truth--if you can get to them before
junior high school age.  At that time, they grow up, stop feeling loved, become
depressed and start thinking--and what they are thinking about worries me.

Bernie Siegel
Prescriptions for Living
   

The time and the quality of the time that their parents devote to them
indicate to children the degree to which they are valued by their
parents. . . . When children know that they are valued, when they
truly feel valued in the deepest parts of themselves, then they
feel valuable.  This knowledge is worth more than any gold.

M. Scott Peck
The Road Less Traveled

   

Children are the artisans of joy.  With their miniature bodies, the laugh and run
and roll about, they bounce and take off in all directions.  They get agitated
when you take them into your arms, and they are so full of energy that you spot
them as soon as they enter a room.  They like touching and tasting everything
they come into contact with.  And they can look into your eyes with an honesty
that is so charming, that for a second you'll wonder how to respond.  They do
so many funny things. . . Life is full of ridiculous things and children
have the gift of seeing them clearly.

Judy Ford

   
  
We inculcate in our children the sensibilities of raccoons, a fascination
with shiny objects and an appetite for garbage, and then carp about "the
texting generation" as if thirteen- and fourteen-year-olds who couldn't
boil an egg are capable of creating a culture.  They grow on what we feed
them.  It has never been otherwise.  The only thing that changes is the food.

Garret Keizer
Getting Schooled
  

Children thrive best in an atmosphere of genuine love, undergirded by
reasonable, consistent discipline. . . . Loving discipline works!  It stimulates
tender affection, made possible by mutual respect between a parent and
a child.  It bridges the gap which otherwise separates family members
who should love and trust each other.

Charles Dobson
The New Dare to Discipline

   

Perhaps God gives us children not so much to perpetuate the human race;
God gives us children to give us companions who will make every possible effort
to help us remember to be fully present and to live in the present.  Children are
the ultimate reminders that life is nothing more than a process, and that as we
participate in it, it changes.  Children are willing to take on people who have
started to become static, to busy themselves with unimportant things,
and to lose contact with the world around them.
   We are given children to help us to remember to live our lives,
not just rush through them.

Anne Wilson Schaef

  

      
   

Found online:
 

 
(Found online images come from a variety of unattributed
sources from various social media pages.  They're too nice
not to share!)

    
   

Yes, life can be mysterious and confusing--but there's much of life that's actually rather dependable and reliable.  Some principles apply to life in so many different contexts that they can truly be called universal--and learning what they are and how to approach them and use them can teach us some of the most important lessons that we've ever learned.
My doctorate is in Teaching and Learning.  I use it a lot when I teach at school, but I also do my best to apply what I've learned to the life I'm living, and to observe how others live their lives.  What makes them happy or unhappy, stressed or peaceful, selfish or generous, compassionate or arrogant?  In this book, I've done my best to pass on to you what I've learned from people in my life, writers whose works I've read, and stories that I've heard.  Perhaps these principles can be a positive part of your life, too!
Universal Principles of Living Life Fully.  Awareness of these principles can explain a lot and take much of the frustration out of the lives we lead.