"A childhood without books – that would be no childhood. That would be like being shut out from the enchanted place where you can go and find the rarest kind of joy."
— Astrid Lindgren
"Children must be taught how to think, not what to think."
— Margaret Mead
"Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, and though they are with you, yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts. For they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday."
— Khalil Gibran
"Complete and unqualified respect is and must be the foundation stone of any mutually satisfying relationship, and must be the basis from which we enter into relationships with our children. Without it, we all inevitably end up in humiliation and disgrace. ... I think adultism — treating young people with less than complete respect — is grounded in a fundamental distortion in how we see and experience the nature of the world and especially the nature of human beings ... we carry a heavy load of shame about our nature and a horrible wound from being torn apart from our naturally complete interconnectedness with all of life. The sum total of our experience has resulted in an awful misunderstanding about the nature of being human. Incredibly, we are pulled to view our children as inherently lazy, irresponsible, stupid and manipulative in the worst sense of these words. So we justify disrespectful attempts to control or punish them as necessary to shape them properly or correct their brutish, natural tendencies; all this is done 'for their own good,' of course."
— John Breeding, Ph.D.
"I think the person who takes a job in order to live - that is to say, for the money (not for purpose or passion) — has turned himself into a slave."
— Joseph Campbell
"The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire."
— Ferdinand Foch
"Pause and remember— Every morning is a new page in the story of your life. You are creating your life at every moment. Think wisely about the day you want to create for yourself."
— Jenni Young McGill
"It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are."
— E.E. Cummings
"Cultivate a vibrant surrounding and commit yourself to making choices that will help you release the greatest expression of your unique beauty and purpose."
