Maria Montessori

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Within the child lies the fate of the future.

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.

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.