Maria Montessori Quotes

“Children are human beings to whom respect is due, superior to us by reason of their innocence and of the greater possibilities of their future.”

“Children become like the things they love.”

“Do not erase the designs the child makes in the soft wax of his inner life.”

“Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war.”

“If education is always to be conceived along the same antiquated lines of a mere transmission of knowledge, there is little to be hoped from it in the bettering of man's future.”

“Imagination does not become great until human beings, given the courage and the strength, use it to create.”

“It is not enough for the teacher to love the child. She must first love and understand the universe. She must prepare herself, and truly work at it.”

“It is true that we cannot make a genius. We can only give to teach child the chance to fulfil his potential possibilities.”

“Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed.”

“No social problem is as universal as the oppression of the child.”

“Of all things love is the most potent.”

“Only through freedom and environmental experience is it practically possible for human development to occur.”

“Our care of the child should be governed, not by the desire to make him learn things, but by the endeavor always to keep burning within him that light which is called intelligence.”

“Preventing war is the work of politicians, establishing peace is the work of educationists.”

“Respect all the reasonable forms of activity in which the child engages and try to understand them.”

“The environment acts more strongly upon the individual life the less fixed and strong this individual life may be.”

“The environment must be rich in motives which lend interest to activity and invite the child to conduct his own experiences.”

“The essence of independence is to be able to do something for one’s self.”

“The greatest sign of success for a teacher is to be able to say: The children are now working as if I did not exist.”

“The task of the educator lies in seeing that the child does not confound good with immobility and evil with activity.”

“The things he sees are not just remembered; they form a part of his soul.”

“To assist a child we must provide him with an environment which will enable him to develop freely.”

“To stimulate life, leaving it free, however, to unfold itself--that is the first duty of the educator.”

“We cannot know the consequences of suppressing a child's spontaneity when he is just beginning to be active. We may even suffocate life itself.

That humanity which is revealed in all its intellectual splendor during the sweet and tender age of childhood should be respected with a kind of religious veneration.

It is like the sun which appears at dawn or a flower just beginning to bloom. Education cannot be effective unless it helps a child to open up himself to life.”

“We shall walk together on this path of life, for all things are part of the universe and are connected with each other to form one whole unity.”

“Within the child lies the fate of the future.”

“What is generally known as discipline in traditional schools is not activity, but immobility and silence. It is not discipline, but something that festers inside a child, arousing his rebellious feelings.”

“Children must grow not only in the body but in the spirit, and the mother longs to follow the mysterious spiritual journey of the beloved one who tomorrow will be the intelligent, divine creation, man.”

“Scientific observation then has established that education is not what the teacher gives; education is a natural process spontaneously carried out by the human individual, and is acquired not by listening to words but by experiences upon the environment.”

“As a rule, however, we do not respect our children. We try to force them to follow us without regard to their special needs.

We are overbearing with them, and above all, rude; and then we expect them to be submissive and well-behaved, knowing all the time how strong is their instinct of imitation and how touching their faith in and admiration of us.”