Education [is] not an end in itself but [is] the first step in a progress which should continue during a lifetime.
A lifetime is not too long to spend in learning about the world.
It is only in retrospect that the high points of our lives rise up, flaunting banners.
Children do not grow up all of a piece; look for the child of seven, especially to take many backward glances at the way he has come, while bounds and leaps unevenly ahead in his growth.
The child, unhampered, does not waste time.
Childhood’s work is learning, and it is in his play...that the child works at his job.
The freest child is the child who is most interested in what he is doing, and at whose hand are the materials for his work or play.
Children learn eagerly and well when they have need of the knowledge.
Children...need most of the same things adults need--consideration, respect for their work, the knowledge that they and the things they do are taken seriously.
A school’s job [is] to begin education.
The most important phase of a child’s life was the beginning of it. He must be started right.