children - children 2
children 3 - children 4

A great person is one who
has not lost the child's heart.

Mencius

 
Love your children with all your hearts, love them enough to discipline them before it is too late. . . Praise them for important things, even if you have to stretch them a bit.  Praise them a lot.  They live on it like bread and butter and they need it more than bread and butter.

Lavina Christensen Fugal
  
What the majority of American children needs is to stop being pampered, stop being indulged, stop being chauffeured, stop being catered to. In the final analysis, it is not what you do for your children but what you have taught them to do for themselves that will make them successful human beings.

Ann Landers
  
It seems to me that since I've had children, I've grown richer and deeper.  They may have slowed down my writing for a while, but when I did write, I had more of a self to speak from.

Anne Tyler
  
To carry feelings of childhood into the powers of adulthood, to combine the child's sense of wonder and novelty with the appearances which every day for years has rendered familiar, this is the character and privilege of genius, and one of the marks which distinguish it from talent.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

    

When they tell you to grow up, they mean stop growing.

Tom Robbins

   

quotations - contents - welcome page - obstacles
the people behind the words - our current e-zine - articles and excerpts
Daily Meditations, Year One - Year Two - Year Three - Year Four
     

Sign up for your free daily spiritual or general quotation
~ ~ Sign up for your free daily meditation

   

    

All teenagers need support from their parents.  However, parents also
need to step back and allow their children to learn through their own
experiences, which will add to their inner strength and help develop vital
coping skills so they're better prepared to tackle whatever life throws their
way.  Teenagers learn far more about life from their own actions than they
learn from listening to others.  All teens make mistakes, but it's often the
case that the eventual outcome is a positive experience that leads to
self-growth.  Teens learn many lessons by tackling life's challenges
on their own, without parental help or interference.  Likewise, the process
of fixing their own mistakes can also be a learning experience for teens.

Bill Resler
The Heart of the Team

    

It's not our job to toughen our children up to face a cruel and
heartless world.  It's our job to raise children who will make the
world a little less cruel and heartless.

L.R. Knost

    
We find these joys to be self evident:  That all children are created whole, endowed with innate intelligence, with dignity and wonder, worthy of respect.  The embodiment of life, liberty and happiness, children are original blessings, here to learn their own song.  Every girl and boy is entitled to love, to dream and belong to a loving “village.”  And to pursue a life of purpose.

We affirm our duty to nourish and nurture the young, to honour their caring ideals as the heart of being human.  To recognize the early years as the foundation of life, and to cherish the contribution of young children to human evolution.

We commit ourselves to peaceful ways and vow to keep from harm or neglect these, our most vulnerable citizens.  As guardians of their prosperity we honour the bountiful Earth whose diversity sustains us.  Thus we pledge our love for generations to come.

Raffi
   

   

children - children 2
children 3 - children 4

We find delight in the beauty and happiness of children
that makes the heart too big for the body.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
    

Little children are still the symbol of the eternal
marriage between love and duty.

George Eliot

  

If you are like me, most valuable parts of your childhood did not
take place in a special classroom or perfect practice field. Sure,
you had teachers and parents to encourage you to do your best
and work toward a goal, but that was balanced by plenty of other
worthwhile pursuits such as tearing apart a Stretch Armstrong doll
to see what was inside, building bike ramps in the driveway,
and racing leaf boats through a drainage ditch in a rainstorm.
   But we've sacrificed these things in pursuit of an ideal, and we've
turned our children into little mini-adults in the process. Tiny
professionals who have no time for brain-building, soul-boosting
play during the week, so they desperately cram it into a weekend
schedule packed with structured sports and recitals.
   It's sad.

Scott Dannemiller

   

  

We have to get children to understand that not only do they have this
incredible uniqueness, but they also have something that sometimes
we forget about.  They are also potentiality.  They are much more
undiscovered than they are discovered.  And there's the wonder of it.
It doesn't matter where they are, they're only just beginning and the big
magical trip of life is digging it all out and discovering the wonderful you.

Leo Buscaglia

  

When the milk is splattered all over the floor and those little eyes are looking
at you for your reaction, remember what really matters.  It takes five minutes
to clean up spilled milk; it takes much longer to clean up a broken spirit.

Rebecca Eanes

   

Thus children learn, by wiggling skills through their fingers and
their toes, into themselves.  By soaking up habits and attitudes
of those around them, by pushing and pulling their own worlds.
Thus children learn, more through trial than error, more through
pleasure than pain, more through experience than suggestion
and telling, and more through suggestion than direction.  And thus
children learn through affection, through love, through patience,
through understanding, through belonging, through doing and
being.  Day by day children come to know a little bit of what you
know, a little bit more of what you think and understand.  That
which you dream and believe are in truth what is becoming those
children.  As you perceive dully or clearly, as you think fuzzily or
sharply, as you believe foolishly or wisely, as you dream drably
or goldenly, as you bear false witness or tell the truth,
thus children learn.

Frederick Moffett

   

  
The greatest dreams on Earth I trust to you my child.
You are the seed of humankind, the hope, the future of the world.

Trán Düc Uyén
  

Children learn more from what you are than what you teach.

W.E.B. DuBois

  
Parents sometimes forget that after the child emerges from the utter physical and mental helplessness of infancy, it is becoming more and more an individual.  As an individual it may show decided tastes, preferences and inclinations in some direction.  No parent and no person can break or alter these tastes and preferences.  No one can make that child's mind over into something else.
   For the child's mind as we call it, is really a mind or spirit, which has lived other physical lives from infancy to maturity, if not to old age, and as it comes into possession of its new body, and acquires a relative control over that body, it will begin to act out the man or woman as it was in its former life, and that may be a man or woman very closely related to the parent or hardly related at all.  But in any event, the parent is dealing with an individual, who is growing more and more into tastes, preferences, and traits of character which belong to and are a part of it These must have expression.  They will have expression in mind or spirit, whether allowed to physically or not.
   If the boy is ever longing to go to sea, and the parent forbids, the boy is on the sea in mind; and if so in mind, it is far better that his body should follow, for there is only damage when mind and body are not working in correspondence together.  If the mother refuse to allow the boy to go to sea because she fears its dangers for him, still she is loving her own fears and her own way, too, more than she does her son.

Prentice Mulford
The Prentice Mulford Premium Collection
  

  

children - children 2
children 3 - children 4

  
Most children experience life more fully than we do.  Children are
aware of the particulars.  For a child the time between Halloween
and Christmas is made up of thousands and thousands of fully
experienced moments.  That takes longer to live through, longer
to go by.  After forty, Christmas seems to come three times a year.

Rachel Naomi Remen
Kitchen Table Wisdom
   

There once was a child, and he strolled about a good deal, and thought of
a number of things.  He had a sister, who was a child too, and his constant
companion.  These two used to wonder all day long.  They wondered at
the beauty of the flowers; they wondered at the height and blueness
of the sky; they wondered at the depth of the bright water; they wondered
at the goodness and the power of God who made the lovely world.

Charles Dickens

   

Wisdom is to the Taoist a child's state.  Children are born with it;
most adults have lost it, or a good deal of it.  And those who
haven't are, in one way or another, like children.  Is it Mere
Coincidence that the Chinese suffix tse, which has come to
mean "master," which literally means child?  As the Confucianist-
yet-surprisingly-Taoist philosopher Meng-tse wrote,
"Great man retains child's mind."

Benjamin Hoff
The Te of Piglet

    

   
If my heart can become pure and simple like that of a child,
I think there can be no happiness greater than this.

Kitaro Nishida
    

Adults find pleasure in deceiving a child.  They consider it
necessary, but they also enjoy it.  The children very quickly
figure it out and then practice deception themselves.

Elias Canetti

  

Parents are often so busy with the physical rearing of
children that they miss the glory of parenthood, just as
the grandeur of the trees is lost when raking leaves.

Marcelene Cox

   

  

We have some inspiring and motivational books that may interest you.  Our main way of supporting this site is through the sale of books, either physical copies or digital copies for your Amazon Kindle (including the online reader).  All of the money that we earn through them comes back to the site in one way or another.  Just click on the picture to the left to visit our page of books, both fiction and non-fiction!

   

Have you ever watched small children playing alone in a room?  They will
talk to themselves, and they will answer.  They will dress themselves up.
They sing and dance.
A small child in a room all alone can have a marvelous time entertaining him-
or herself.  Children can do this not only because they have an innocence that
helps them to rise above the cares of the world; they don’t mind being alone
with their thoughts and dreams.  They don’t mind acting out their fantasies.
They can live their lives beyond the expectations of others.  In a room all alone,
children have no inhibitions.
They have nothing to prove and no one to satisfy but themselves.  They feel free!
They are unencumbered by opinions and directives.
It happens because nobody is watching them.
   Live your life like nobody is watching you.

Iyanla Vanzant

   

As far as the education of children is concerned I think
they should be taught not the little virtues but the great ones.
Not thrift but generosity and an indifference to money; not caution
but courage and a contempt for danger; not shrewdness but frankness
and a love of truth; not tact but love for one’s neighbor and
self-denial; not a desire for success but a desire to be and to know.

Natalia Ginzburg

   

Children are a wonderful gift.  They are young and small persons with minds
and ideas, hating to be talked down to.  They have an extraordinary capacity
to see into the heart of things and to expose sham and humbug for what they are.

Desmond Tutu

    

quotations - contents - welcome page - obstacles
the people behind the words - our current e-zine - articles and excerpts
Daily Meditations, Year One - Year Two - Year Three - Year Four
     

Sign up for your free daily spiritual or general quotation
~ ~ Sign up for your free daily meditation

   
Whatever they grow up to be, they are still our children, and the one most
important of all the things we can give to them is unconditional love.  Not
a love that depends on anything at all except that they are our children.

Rosaleen Dickson
  

A child's world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and
excitement.  It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed
vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is
dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood.

Rachel Carson

  

While we try to teach our children all about life,
our children teach us what life is all about.

Angela Schwindt

children - children 2
children 3 - children 4

A child should be taught from its earliest life to find entertainment in
every kind of condition or weather.  If it hears its elders cursing and
bemoaning a rainy day the child's plastic mind is quick to receive
the impression that a rainy day is a disaster.  How much better to
expatiate in its presence on the blessing of rain, and to teach it the
enjoyment of all nature's varying moods, which other young animals feel.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox
The Heart of the New Thought
   

Children are the happiest people on the planet because they are not dragging
the baggage of a long heavy past around with them.  If they trip and fall or get
upset, they get over it quickly.  Nor are they pondering or planning what comes
next.  The now moment provides them with all the entertainment and fulfillment
they need.  At some point we all got hung up on time and we abandoned the
current moment.  We have distracted ourselves with what is not here.

Alan Cohen
The Tao Made Easy

   
Creative Fantasy
Wilferd A. Peterson

To enter the kingdom of ideas, become as a little child.

"There is nothing more resembles God's eyes," wrote Nikos Kazantzakis, "than the eyes of a child."

A child does not block the flow of goodness into her life by thoughts of fear and prejudice.  Her mind is as open as her eyes.  She experiences the wonder of life.

A child lives in the world of fantasy, where all great ideas are born.  It was probably a child who first dreamed of flying through the air, of hearing music from the sky.  A child believes in fairies and in magic lamps.

A child is an explorer.  He is curious and is constantly asking, "Why?"  He loves to experiment.

A child has the gift of imagination.  She may see things that aren't there.  She creates in her mind the kind of world she wants to live in.  Each child visualizes his or her self as many different personalities--a doctor, lawyer, dancer, poet, pilot, singer. . . .

A child has freshness of response.  The world is ever new and full of miracles and adventures.  The child greets each new discovery of the day with joy and enthusiasm.

A child follows the simple way.  Not bogged down by the complex and obscure, he or she seeks the obvious in a natural, direct, and sincere manner.

A child is confident.  He or she believes in their ability, because they have not learned all the reasons why things cannot be done.  Obstacles are ignored because a child doesn't know that they exist.  To a child everything is possible.

Children have much to teach us about creativity.  Usually the more childlike we are in our approach to problems that more creative we will be.

So why not try the creative approach of a child?
    

       
    

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.

   
   

       

Explore all of our quotations pages--these links will take you to the first page of each topic, and those pages will contain links to any additional pages on the same topic.

HOME - contents - Daily Meditations - abundance - acceptance - achievement - action - adversity
advertising - aging - ambition- anger - anticipation - anxiety - apathy - appreciation - arrogance
art - attitude - authenticity - awakening - awareness - awe - balance - beauty - being yourself
beliefs - body - brooding - busyness - caring - celebration - challenges -
change - character
charity - children - choices - Christianity - coincidence - commitment - common sense - community
comparison
- compassion - competition - complaining - compliments - compromise - confidence
conformity - conscience - contentment - control - cooperation - courage -
covetousness
creativity - crisis - criticism - cruelty -  death - decisions - desire - determination - disappointment
discipline - discouragement - diversity - doubt - dreams - earth - education - ego - emotions
encouragement - enlightenment - enthusiasm - envy - eternity - ethics - example - exercise
experience - failure - faith - fame - family - fate - fathers - fault-finding - fear - feelings - finances
flowers - forgiveness - freedom - friendship - frustration - fun - the future - garden of life - gardening
generosity - gentleness - giving - goals - God - goodness - grace - gratitude - greatness - greed - grief
growing up - guilt - habit - happiness - hatred - healing - health - heart - helpfulness - home
honesty - hope - hospitality - humility - hurry - ideals - identity - idleness  - idolatry - ignorance
illusion - imagination - impatience - individuality - the inner child - inspiration - integrity - intimacy
introspection - intuition - jealousy - journey of life - joy - judgment - karma - kindness - knowledge
language - laughter - laziness - leadership - learning - letting go - life - listening - loneliness
love - lying - magic - marriage - materialism - meanness - meditation - mindfulness - miracles
mistakes - mistrust - moderation - money - mothers - motivation - music - mystery - nature
negative attitude - now - oneness - open-mindedness - opportunity - optimism - pain - parenting
passion - the past - patience - peace - perfectionism - perseverance - perspective - pessimism
play - poetry - positive thoughts - possessions - potential - poverty - power - praise - prayer
prejudice - pride - principle - problems - progress - prosperity - purpose - reading -recreation
reflection - relationships - religion - reputation - resentment - respect - responsibility - rest
revenge - risk - role models - running - ruts - sadness - safety - seasons of life - self - self-love
self-pity - self-reliance - self-respect selfishness - serving others - shame - silence - simplicity
slowing down - smiles -solitude - sorrow - spirit - stories - strength - stress - stupidity - success
suffering - talent - the tapestry of life - teachers - thoughts - time - today - tolerance - traditions
trees - trust - truth - unfulfilled dreams - values - vanity - virtue - vulnerability - walking - war
wealth - weight issues - wisdom - women - wonder - work - worry - worship - youth - Zen sayings

spring
- summer - fall - winter
Christmas - Thanksgiving - New Year - America
Native American wisdom - The Law of Attraction
obstacles to living life fully - e-zine archives - quotations contents
our most recent e-zine - Great Thinkers - the people behind the words - articles & excerpts