Stay a child while you can be a child.~STEPHEN SONDHEIM, Into the Woods~

All of us have moments in out lives that test our courage. Taking children into a house with a white carpet is one of them.~ERMA BOMBECK~

Truly wonderful the mind of a child is.~YODA, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones~

Old men can make war, but it is children who will make history.~RAY MERRITT, Full of Grace~

The more we shelter children from every disappointment, the more devastating future disappointments will be.~FRED G. GOSMAN, How to Be a Happy Parent ... In Spite of Your Children~

I learn things from my kids constantly. Most of their knowledge comes from Snapple caps.~JIMMY KIMMEL, TV Guide, June 12-18~

Self-esteem is the real magic wand that can form a child’s future. A child’s self-esteem affects every area of her existence, from friends she chooses, to how well she does academically in school, to what kind of job she gets, to even the person she chooses to marry.~STEPHANIE MARTSON, The Magic of Encouragement~

The family is both the fundamental unit of society as well as the root of culture. It ... is a perpetual source of encouragement, advocacy, assurance, and emotional refueling that empowers a child to venture with confidence into the greater world and to become all that he can be.~MARIANNE E. NEIFERT, Dr. Mom's Parenting Guide~

Never lend your car to anyone to whom you have given birth.~ERMA BOMBECK~

Not having children makes less work—but it makes a quiet house.~SUSAN GLASPELL, Trifles~

If we could destroy custom at a blow and see the stars as a child sees them, we should need no other apocalypse.~G.K. CHESTERTON, "A Defence of Baby-Worship"~

If from infancy you treat children as gods they are liable in adulthood to act as devils.~P.D. JAMES, The Children of Men~

Children's games are hardly games. Children are never more serious than when they play.~MONTAIGNE, Essays~

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe,

She had so many children she didn't know what to do;

She gave them some broth without any bread,

She whipped them all well and put them to bed. ~ANONYMOUS, nursery rhyme~

Children need models more than they need critics.~JOSEPH JOUBERT, Pensées~

In old days there were angels who came and took men by the hand and led them away from the city of destruction. We see no white-winged angels now. But yet men are led away from threatening destruction: a hand is put into theirs, which leads them forth gently towards a calm and bright land, so that they look no more backward; and the hand may be a little child's.~GEORGE ELIOT, Silas Marner~

Children are a comfort to men because the youngsters cannot contradict them.~ABRAHAM MILLER, Unmoral Maxims~

We know that the outcasts and misfits are the children most likely to become violent, so it only follows that we must pull them into the arms of love and/or acceptance, and find a place where they fit. If our system doesn't have a place where a child fits, there's something wrong with the system, not the child.~WILLIAM G. DEFOORE, Anger~

Parents of young children should realize that few people, and maybe no one, will find their children as enchanting as they do.~BARBARA WALTERS, How to Talk with Practically Anybody About Practically Anything~

Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.~BIBLE, Mark 10:14~

Motherhood is an early retirement position. Your children do grow up.~COLLEEN PARRO, PBS interview~

Life doesn't count for much unless you're willing to do your small part to leave our children – all of our children – a better world. Even if it's difficult. Even if the work seems great. Even if we don't get very far in our lifetime.~BARACK OBAMA, speech, Jun. 15, 2008~

Children sweeten labours, but they make misfortunes more bitter.~FRANCIS BACON, Essays~

Train a child in the way he should go,

and when he is old he will not turn from it. ~BIBLE, Proverbs 22:6~

Children are the brightest treasures we bring forth into this world, but too large a percentage of the population continues to treat them as inconveniences and nuisances, when they're not treating them as possessions or toys.~CHARLES DE LINT, The Onion Girl~

Only to children children sing,

Only to youth will spring be spring. ~RALPH WALDO EMERSON, The Harp~

The deeds of the children are a testament to the upbringing they received from their parents.~CHRISTOPHER PAOLINI, Brisingr~

A strange mixture of fear and joy comes with driving off from the hospital with your firstborn in the vehicle. There's a powerful sense of transition and new beginning, and yet fear as well. It's a fear closely attached to the question, "What do I do with this thing?" It's a healthy fear born out of an awareness of the fragility of new life.~CHRIS SEIDMAN, Little Buddy~

To lose a child ... was something that could end one's world. One could never get back to how it was before. The stars went out. The moon disappeared. The birds became silent.~ALEXANDER MCCALL SMITH, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency~

Have you never, when waves were breaking, watched children at sport on the beach,

With their little feet tempting the foam-fringe, till with stronger and further reach

Than they dreamed of, a billow comes bursting, how they turn and scamper and screech! ~ALFRED AUSTIN, "A Woman's Apology"~

Something in the heart of most human beings simply cannot abide pain inflicted on the innocent, especially children. Even broken men serving in the worst correctional facilities will often first take out their own rage on those who have caused suffering to children. Even in such a world of relative morality, causing harm to a child is still considered absolutely wrong. Period!~WM. PAUL YOUNG, The Shack~

There is more in the education of children than the everlasting iteration of the word "don't!"~AUSTIN O'MALLEY, Keystones of Thought~

Nothing you do for a child is ever wasted.~GARRISON KEILLOR, Leaving Home~

If a child is given love, he becomes loving ... If he's helped when he needs help, he becomes helpful. And if he has been truly valued at home ... he grows up secure enough to look beyond himself to the welfare of others.~DR. JOYCE BROTHERS, Good Housekeeping, Aug. 2010~

The soul is healed by being with children.~FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY, The Idiot~

The brightest light, the light of Italy, the purest sky of Scandinavia in the month of June is only a half-light when one compares it to the light of childhood. Even the nights were blue.~EUGENE IONESCO, Present Past / Past Present~