# Quotes about childhood

- Quotes: 163
- Authors: 111
- Topic page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood
- JSON version (same data): https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.json

## Quotes

> Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.

[Antoine de Saint-Exupéry](https://www.leafyquotes.com/antoine-de-saint-exupery.md) · [The Little Prince](https://www.leafyquotes.com/antoine-de-saint-exupery/the-little-prince.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/antoine-de-saint-exupery/the-little-prince/grown-ups-never-understand.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> You’re doing nothing when you walk, nothing but walking. But having nothing to do but walk makes it possible to recover the pure sensation of being, to rediscover the simple joy of existing, the joy that permeates the whole of childhood. So that walking, by unburdening us, prising us from the obsession with doing, puts us in touch with that childhood eternity once again. I mean that walking is so to speak child’s play. To marvel at the beauty of the day, the brightness of the sun, the grandeur of the trees, the blue of the sky: to do that takes no experience, no ability.

[Frederic Gros](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frederic-gros.md) · [A Philosophy of Walking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frederic-gros/a-philosophy-of-walking.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frederic-gros/a-philosophy-of-walking/youre-doing-nothing.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [joy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/joy.md)

> The great man is the one who does not lose his child's heart.

[Mencius](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mencius.md) · [Mencius](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mencius/mencius.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mencius/mencius/the-great-man.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> I was reading even before I could spell properly, even though I couldn't necessarily understand what I was reading. Being able to identify a word I knew was like finding a signpost on the road telling me I was on the right path, heading in the right direction. And so it was, in this rather unusual way, Diário by Diário, month by month, pretending not to hear the jokey comments made by the adults in the house, who were amused by the way I would stare at the newspaper as if at a wall, that my moment to astonish them finally came, when, one day, nervous but triumphant, I read out loud, in one go, without hesitation, several consecutive lines of print.

[José Saramago](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jose-saramago.md) · [Small Memories](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jose-saramago/small-memories.md) · p. 87 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jose-saramago/small-memories/i-was-reading.md)

Topics: [reading](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reading.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> So strong is habit in tender years.

[Virgil](https://www.leafyquotes.com/virgil.md) · [The Georgics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/virgil/the-georgics.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/virgil/the-georgics/so-strong-is-habit.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [habits](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/habits.md)

> There was often a great deal of grown-up fuss that seemed disproportionate to causes.
>
> The ways of the world were very puzzling. . . .

[John Wyndham](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham.md) · [The Chrysalids](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/the-chrysalids.md) · p. 391 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/the-chrysalids/there-was-often.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> I felt before I thought: this is the common lot of humanity. I experienced it more than others. I do not know what I did until I was five or six years old. I do not know how I learned to read; I only remember my earliest reading, and the effect it had upon me; from that time I date my uninterrupted self-consciousness. My mother had left some romances behind her, which my father and I began to read after supper. At first it was only a question of practising me in reading by the aid of amusing books; but soon the interest became so lively, that we used to read in turns without stopping, and spent whole nights in this occupation. We were unable to leave off until the volume was finished. Sometimes, my father, hearing the swallows begin to twitter in the early morning, would say, quite ashamed, ‘Let us go to bed; I am more of a child than yourself.’ In a short time I acquired, by this dangerous method, not only extreme facility in reading and understanding what I read, but a knowledge of the passions that was unique in a child of my age. I had no idea of things in themselves, although all the feelings of actual life were already known to me. I had conceived nothing, but felt everything. These confused emotions, which I felt one after the other, certainly did not warp the reasoning powers which I did not as yet possess; but they shaped them in me of a peculiar stamp, and gave me odd and romantic notions of human life, of which experience and reflection have never been able wholly to cure me.

[Jean Jacques Rousseau](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau.md) · [Confessions](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/confessions.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/confessions/i-felt-before.md)

Topics: [reading](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reading.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> That first feeling of violence and injustice has remained so deeply graven on my soul, that all the ideas connected with it bring back to me my first emotion; and this feeling, which, in its origin, had reference only to myself, has become so strong in itself and so completely detached from all personal interest, that, when I see or hear of any act of injustice – whoever is the victim of it, and wherever it is committed – my heart kindles with rage, as if the effect of it recoiled upon myself. When I read of the cruelties of a ferocious tyrant, the crafty atrocities of a rascally priest, I would gladly set out to plunge a dagger into the heart of such wretches, although I had to die for it a hundred times. I have often put myself in a perspiration, pursuing or stoning a cock, a cow, a dog, or any animal which I saw tormenting another merely because it felt itself the stronger. This impulse may be natural to me, and I believe that it is; but the profound impression left upon me by the first injustice I suffered was too long and too strongly connected with it, not to have greatly strengthened it.

[Jean Jacques Rousseau](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau.md) · [Confessions](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/confessions.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/confessions/that-first-feeling.md)

Topics: [justice](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/justice.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> It may be that nothing in the world is so hard to comprehend as a terror whose time has come and gone - which may be why parents can scold their children for their fear of the boogeyman, when as children themselves they had to cope with exactly the same fears (and the same sympathetic but uncomprehending parents). That may be why one generation's nightmare becomes the next generation's sociology, and even those who have walked through the fire have trouble remembering exactly what those burning coals felt like.

[Stephen King](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king.md) · [Danse Macabre](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king/danse-macabre.md) · p. 158 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king/danse-macabre/it-may-be-that.md)

Topics: [fear](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> Before drifting away entirely, he found himself reflecting — not for the first time — on the peculiarity of adults. They took laxatives, liquor, or sleeping pills to drive away their terrors so that sleep would come, and their terrors were so tame and domestic: the job, the money, what the teacher will think if I can't get Jennie nicer clothes, does my wife still love me, who are my friends. They were pallid compared to the fears every child lies cheek and jowl with in his dark bed, with no one to confess to in hope of perfect understanding but another child. There is no group therapy or psychiatry or community social services for the child who must cope with the thing under the bed or in the cellar every night, the thing which leers and capers and threatens just beyond the point where vision will reach. The same lonely battle must be fought night after night and the only cure is the eventual ossification of the imaginary faculties, and this is called adulthood.

[Stephen King](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king.md) · [‘Salem’s Lot](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king/salems-lot.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king/salems-lot/before-drifting-away.md)

Topics: [fear](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [growing up](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/growing-up.md)

> And you couldn't explain that to your mother and father, who were creatures of the light. No more than you could explain to them how, at the age of three, the spare blanket at the foot of the crib turned into a collection of snakes that lay staring at you with flat and lidless eyes. No child ever conquers those fears, he thought. If a fear cannot be articulated, it can't be conquered. And the fears locked in small brains are much too large to pass through the orifice of the mouth. Sooner or later you found someone to walk past all the deserted meeting houses you had to pass between grinning babyhood and grunting senility. Until tonight. Until tonight when you found out that none of the old fears had been staked— only tucked away in their tiny, child-sized coffins with a wild rose on top.

[Stephen King](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king.md) · [‘Salem’s Lot](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king/salems-lot.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king/salems-lot/and-you-couldnt.md)

Topics: [fear](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> “It was not fair, it was not fair, it was not fair. So cried his child's heart, and then his child's heart died a little. For that is also the way of the world.”

[Stephen King](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king.md) · [The Wind through the Keyhole](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king/the-wind-through-the-keyhole.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king/the-wind-through-the-keyhole/it-was-not.md)

Topics: [justice](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/justice.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> His own [childhood] seemed so long ago that it was as is someone had lived it for him.

[Sebastian Faulks](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sebastian-faulks.md) · [Birdsong](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sebastian-faulks/birdsong.md) · p. 425 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sebastian-faulks/birdsong/his-own-childhood.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> ‘The greatest privilege of childhood’, she said, ‘is to live safely in the present.’

[Simon Sebag Montefiore](https://www.leafyquotes.com/simon-sebag-montefiore.md) · [One Night in Winter](https://www.leafyquotes.com/simon-sebag-montefiore/one-night-in-winter.md) · p. 320 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/simon-sebag-montefiore/one-night-in-winter/the-greatest-privilege.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [the present moment](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-present-moment.md)

> Everything is filled with stories, an old woman neighbour told me once, the same old woman neighbour, as it happens, who taught me to sew. This is when I was extremely little, too little to understand that most things don’t mean exactly what they seem, that meaning is a flighty thing. Because of what she said, I split the seam down the back of my favourite teddy, Mr Buddy, with a serrated kitchen knife. I was searching for stories, commanding words to tumble out and configure into horizontal lines like the ones inside my story books. Instead I found Mr Buddy was all stuffed with minute clouds.

[Sara Baume](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sara-baume.md) · [Spill Simmer Falter Wither](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sara-baume/spill-simmer-falter-wither.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sara-baume/spill-simmer-falter-wither/everything-is-filled.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [stories](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stories.md)

> Fair seedtime had my soul, and I grew up
>
> Fostered alike by beauty and by fear.

[William Wordsworth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-wordsworth.md) · [The Prelude](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-wordsworth/the-prelude.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-wordsworth/the-prelude/fair-seedtime-had.md)

Topics: [fear](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear.md), [beauty](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/beauty.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> Oh! give us once again the wishing cap
>
> Of Fortunatus, and the invisible coat
>
> Of Jack the Giant-killer, Robin Hood,
>
> And Sabra in the forest with St. George!
>
> The child, whose love is here, at least, doth reap
>
> One precious gain, that he forgets himself.

[William Wordsworth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-wordsworth.md) · [The Prelude](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-wordsworth/the-prelude.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-wordsworth/the-prelude/oh-give-us-once.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [stories](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stories.md)

> When you are a child you are yourself and you know and see everything prophetically. And then suddenly something happens and you stop being yourself; you become what others force you to be. You lose your wisdom and your soul. (chapter 12)

[Jean Rhys](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-rhys.md) · [After Leaving Mr Mackenzie](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-rhys/after-leaving-mr-mackenzie.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-rhys/after-leaving-mr-mackenzie/when-you-are.md)

Topics: [identity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/identity.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> The hearts of small children are delicate organs. A cruel beginning in this world can twist them into curious shapes. The heart of a hurt child can shrink so that forever afterward it is hard and pitted as the seed of a peach. Or again, the heart of such a child may fester and swell until it is a misery to carry within the body, easily chafed and hurt by the most ordinary things.

[Carson McCullers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carson-mccullers.md) · [The Ballad of the Sad Café](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carson-mccullers/the-ballad-of-the-sad-cafe.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carson-mccullers/the-ballad-of-the-sad-cafe/the-hearts-of-small.md)

Topics: [suffering](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering.md), [emotions](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/emotions.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> She was such a little girl that one did not expect to see such a look on her small face. It would have been an old look for a child of twelve, and Sara Crewe was only seven. The fact was, however, that she was always dreaming and thinking odd things and could not herself remember any time when she had not been thinking things about grown-up people and the world they belonged to. She felt as if she had lived a long, long time.

[Frances Hodgson Burnett](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frances-hodgson-burnett.md) · [A Little Princess](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frances-hodgson-burnett/a-little-princess.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frances-hodgson-burnett/a-little-princess/she-was-such.md)

Topics: [imagination](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/imagination.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> He had a brief but vivid memory of being seven years old at his grandmother’s vineyard in Nortcoor, looking into the night sky and seeing it for the first time as infinity towering above him like God, only worse because it was real.

[James S. A. Corey](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey.md) · [The Mercy of Gods](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey/the-mercy-of-gods.md) · p. 60 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey/the-mercy-of-gods/he-had-a-brief.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> The dysfunctions and idiosyncrasies of childhood became the self-evident norms of adulthood.

[James S. A. Corey](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey.md) · [Leviathan Falls](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey/leviathan-falls.md) · p. 96 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey/leviathan-falls/the-dysfunctions-and.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [growing up](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/growing-up.md)

> We lived in fact, throughout our childhoods, easily and unthinkingly crossing thresholds between one place and another—Ain Shams, Zatoun, our school—places that formed their own particular and different worlds with their own particular and different underlying beliefs, ideals, assumptions.

[Leila Ahmed](https://www.leafyquotes.com/leila-ahmed.md) · [A Border Passage](https://www.leafyquotes.com/leila-ahmed/a-border-passage.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/leila-ahmed/a-border-passage/we-lived-in-fact.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> This was a double game: he was trying to save his childhood, to preserve it and trap it in amber, but to do that he was calling on things that partook of the world beyond childhood, whose touch would leave him even less innocent than he already was. What would that make him? Neither a child nor an adult, neither innocent nor wise. Perhaps that is what a monster is.

[Lev Grossman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lev-grossman.md) · [The Magician's Land](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lev-grossman/the-magicians-land.md) · p. 232 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lev-grossman/the-magicians-land/this-was-a-double.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [innocence](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/innocence.md)

> Everybody has their own idiopathic reaction to their childhood home.

[Lev Grossman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lev-grossman.md) · [The Magicians](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lev-grossman/the-magicians.md) · p. 202 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lev-grossman/the-magicians/everybody-has-their.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [home](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/home.md)

> In different ways they had both discovered the same truth: that to live out childhood fantasies as a grown-up was to court and wed and bed disaster.

[Lev Grossman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lev-grossman.md) · [The Magicians](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lev-grossman/the-magicians.md) · p. 397 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lev-grossman/the-magicians/in-different-ways.md)

Topics: [dreams and aspirations](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dreams-and-aspirations.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> “Sometimes I wonder if man was really meant to discover magic,” Fogg said expansively. “It doesn’t really make sense. It’s a little too perfect, don’t you think? If there’s a single lesson that life teaches us, it’s that wishing doesn’t make it so. Words and thoughts don’t change anything. Language and reality are kept strictly apart—reality is tough, unyielding stuff, and it doesn’t care what you think or feel or say about it. Or it shouldn’t. You deal with it, and you get on with your life.
>
> “Little children don’t know that. Magical thinking: that’s what Freud called it. Once we learn otherwise we cease to be children. The separation of word and thing is the essential fact on which our adult lives are founded.”

[Lev Grossman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lev-grossman.md) · [The Magicians](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lev-grossman/the-magicians.md) · p. 216 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lev-grossman/the-magicians/sometimes-i-wonder.md)

Topics: [reality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reality.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [magic](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/magic.md)

> The only thing that had ever done me any good in my father’s house was thinking: no one had cared what I wanted, or whether I was happy. I’d had to find my own way to anything I wanted. I’d never been grateful for that before now, when what I wanted was my life.

[Naomi Novik](https://www.leafyquotes.com/naomi-novik.md) · [Spinning Silver](https://www.leafyquotes.com/naomi-novik/spinning-silver.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/naomi-novik/spinning-silver/the-only-thing.md)

Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> Trauma isn’t just the sadness that comes from being beaten, or neglected, or insulted. That’s just one layer of it. Trauma also is mourning the childhood you could have had. The childhood other kids around you had. The fact that you could have had a mom who hugged and kissed you when you skinned your knee. Or a dad who stayed and brought you a bouquet of flowers at your graduation. Trauma is mourning the fact that, as an adult, you have to parent yourself.

[Stephanie Foo](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephanie-foo.md) · [What My Bones Know](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephanie-foo/what-my-bones-know.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephanie-foo/what-my-bones-know/trauma-isnt-just.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [trauma](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/trauma.md)

> the sadness of a lost childhood feels like yearning, impossible desire. It feels like a hollow, insatiable hunger.

[Stephanie Foo](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephanie-foo.md) · [What My Bones Know](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephanie-foo/what-my-bones-know.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephanie-foo/what-my-bones-know/the-sadness-of-a-lost.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [sadness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/sadness.md), [longing](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/longing.md)

> The world in which I work and live is a long way from home, but the early bearings I took as a child on the prairie, surrounded by working people and the communities they established, often in difficult circumstances, have been a steadying and reassuring presence. They are familiar markers and sentinels, useful and reliable even now, forty years after I left the land and the people that launched me.

[Tom Brokaw](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-brokaw.md) · [A Long Way from Home](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-brokaw/a-long-way-from-home.md) · p. 233 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-brokaw/a-long-way-from-home/the-world-in-which.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [home](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/home.md)

> If your parents’ faces never lit up when they looked at you, it’s hard to know what it feels like to be loved and cherished. If you come from an incomprehensible world filled with secrecy and fear, it’s almost impossible to find the words to express what you have endured. If you grew up unwanted and ignored, it is a major challenge to develop a visceral sense of agency and self-worth.

[Bessel van der Kolk](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bessel-van-der-kolk.md) · [The Body Keeps the Score](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bessel-van-der-kolk/the-body-keeps-the-score.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bessel-van-der-kolk/the-body-keeps-the-score/if-your-parents.md)

Topics: [love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [parents](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/parents.md), [self-acceptance](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/self-acceptance.md)

> Be the person you would have looked up to in childhood.

[Nedra Glover Tawwab](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nedra-glover-tawwab.md) · [Drama Free](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nedra-glover-tawwab/drama-free.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nedra-glover-tawwab/drama-free/be-the-person.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [authority figures](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authority-figures.md)

> Children stay in alignment with their true self if the important adults in their lives support doing so. However, when they’re criticized or shamed, they learn to feel embarrassed by their true desires. By pretending to be what their parents want, children think they’ve found the way to win their parents’ love. They silence their true selves and instead follow the guidance of their role-selves and fantasies. In the process, they lose touch with both their inner and outer reality.

[Lindsay C. Gibson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lindsay-c-gibson.md) · [Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lindsay-c-gibson/adult-children-of-emotionally-immature-parents.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lindsay-c-gibson/adult-children-of-emotionally-immature-parents/children-stay-in-alignment.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [parents](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/parents.md), [authenticity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authenticity.md)

> Being well cared for in nonemotional areas can create confusion in people who grow up feeling emotionally lonely. They have overwhelming physical evidence that their parents loved and sacrificed for them, but they feel a painful lack of emotional security and closeness with their parents.

[Lindsay C. Gibson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lindsay-c-gibson.md) · [Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lindsay-c-gibson/adult-children-of-emotionally-immature-parents.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lindsay-c-gibson/adult-children-of-emotionally-immature-parents/being-well-cared.md)

Topics: [loneliness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [parents](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/parents.md)

> Many children of such parents learn to subjugate themselves to other people’s wishes (Young and Klosko 1993). Because they grew up anticipating their parent’s stormy emotional weather, they can be overly attentive to other people’s feelings and moods, often to their own detriment.

[Lindsay C. Gibson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lindsay-c-gibson.md) · [Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lindsay-c-gibson/adult-children-of-emotionally-immature-parents.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lindsay-c-gibson/adult-children-of-emotionally-immature-parents/many-children-of-such.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [parents](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/parents.md)

> People who lacked emotional engagement in childhood, men and women alike, often can’t believe that someone would want to have a relationship with them just because of who they are. They believe that if they want closeness, they must play a role that always puts the other person first.

[Lindsay C. Gibson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lindsay-c-gibson.md) · [Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lindsay-c-gibson/adult-children-of-emotionally-immature-parents.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lindsay-c-gibson/adult-children-of-emotionally-immature-parents/people-who-lacked.md)

Topics: [love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [relationships](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/relationships.md)

> No one knows you like a person with whom you've shared a childhood. No one will ever understand you in quite the same way. (p84)

[Alice Hoffman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alice-hoffman.md) · [Practical Magic](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alice-hoffman/practical-magic.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alice-hoffman/practical-magic/no-one-knows.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> Childhood is a state of mind, whether it's a nostalgic return to innocence or a sudden flashback to unease and dread. If the innocence of childhood is being protected and comforted, the precarity of childhood is when one feels the least protected and comfortable.

[Cathy Park Hong](https://www.leafyquotes.com/cathy-park-hong.md) · [Minor Feelings](https://www.leafyquotes.com/cathy-park-hong/minor-feelings.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/cathy-park-hong/minor-feelings/childhood-is-a-state.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [innocence](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/innocence.md)

> "Are dragons never to sail through the skies again, on jewel-colored, airy wings, or light up world once more with the glory of their fiery breath?
>
> "Are we to say good-bye forever to the magic, and the dreaming and the flying of our childhoods?
>
> "I say NO!" cried Hiccup.

[Cressida Cowell](https://www.leafyquotes.com/cressida-cowell.md) · [How to Train Your Dragon](https://www.leafyquotes.com/cressida-cowell/how-to-train-your-dragon.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/cressida-cowell/how-to-train-your-dragon/are-dragons-never.md)

Topics: [dreams and aspirations](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dreams-and-aspirations.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> When you’re four, forever and ever can mean yesterday.

[Ben Aaronovitch](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch.md) · [The Furthest Station](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/the-furthest-station.md) · p. 78 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/the-furthest-station/when-youre-four.md)

Topics: [time](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> Nothing contains a greater metaphysical mystery than the fact that a single thing presents two separate sides if you change the direction of your eyes, that a single phenomenon has a hidden "secret side." A long time ago, when I was a child, I would look at a framed painting hanging on the wall and become obsessed with the thought: What kind of world is secretly hidden behind that framed landscape? I often removed the oil painting to peer at its back. This question I had as a child remains for me, an adult today, as an unsolvable mystery.

[Sakutaro Hagiwara](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sakutaro-hagiwara.md) · [Cat Town](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sakutaro-hagiwara/cat-town.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sakutaro-hagiwara/cat-town/nothing-contains-a-greater.md)

Topics: [secrets](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/secrets.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [the senses](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-senses.md)

> I have been astonished before, and doubtless shall be again, how the kindliest and most sympathetic of women can pettify and downgrade the searing anguishes of childhood.

[John Wyndham](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham.md) · [Chocky](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/chocky.md) · p. 118 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/chocky/i-have-been.md)

Topics: [suffering](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> 'Nobody,' she said, 'nobody but a child, or a child-minded person, expects life to be fair.'

[John Wyndham](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham.md) · [The Midwich Cuckoos](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/the-midwich-cuckoos.md) · p. 70 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/the-midwich-cuckoos/nobody-she-said.md)

Topics: [justice](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/justice.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> As a child I feared the size of the world. The farther away the sound of howling dogs, the farther away the sound of the trains, the tighter I curled myself under the quilt. The trains sounded deeper and deeper into the night. They had not reached the end of the world before I stopped hearing them, the last long moan diminishing toward China. How large the world must be to make my grandmother only a taste by the time she reaches me. (p99)

[Maxine Hong Kingston](https://www.leafyquotes.com/maxine-hong-kingston.md) · [The Woman Warrior](https://www.leafyquotes.com/maxine-hong-kingston/the-woman-warrior.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/maxine-hong-kingston/the-woman-warrior/as-a-child.md)

Topics: [fear](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> Always remember that the only riches we possess are the dreams we have as children. They are the fuel of our lives, the only force that pushes us to keep on going even when things have gone all wrong.

[Fausto Brizzi](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fausto-brizzi.md) · [100 Days of Happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fausto-brizzi/100-days-of-happiness.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fausto-brizzi/100-days-of-happiness/always-remember-that.md)

Topics: [dreams and aspirations](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dreams-and-aspirations.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> A lot of my childhood playmates ended up behind bars and I don’t mean as bartenders.

[Fredric Brown](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fredric-brown.md) · [The Lights in the Sky are Stars](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fredric-brown/the-lights-in-the-sky-are-stars.md) · p. 214 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fredric-brown/the-lights-in-the-sky-are-stars/a-lot-of-my-childhood.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [prison](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prison.md)

> Home is a damaged word, bruisable as fruit, in the cruel glossaries of the language I choose to describe the long, fearful march of my childhood.

[Pat Conroy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/pat-conroy.md) · [The Pat Conroy Cookbook](https://www.leafyquotes.com/pat-conroy/the-pat-conroy-cookbook.md) · p. 45 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/pat-conroy/the-pat-conroy-cookbook/home-is-a-damaged.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [home](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/home.md)

> My passion for eating springs from a childhood not deprived of food but deprived of good food.

[Pat Conroy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/pat-conroy.md) · [The Pat Conroy Cookbook](https://www.leafyquotes.com/pat-conroy/the-pat-conroy-cookbook.md) · p. 8 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/pat-conroy/the-pat-conroy-cookbook/my-passion-for.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [food](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/food.md)

> Don't grudge Anne Cordelia her fancies, Diana. I'm always sorry for children who don't spend a few years in fairyland.

[Lucy Maud Montgomery](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lucy-maud-montgomery.md) · [Anne of Ingleside](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lucy-maud-montgomery/anne-of-ingleside.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lucy-maud-montgomery/anne-of-ingleside/dont-grudge-anne.md)

Topics: [imagination](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/imagination.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> “There are some of us who in after years say to Fate, 'Now deal us your hardest blow, give us what you will; but let us never again suffer as we suffered when we were children.' The barb in the arrow of childhood's suffering is this: its intense loneliness, its intense ignorance.”

[Olive Schreiner](https://www.leafyquotes.com/olive-schreiner.md) · [The Story of an African Farm](https://www.leafyquotes.com/olive-schreiner/the-story-of-an-african-farm.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/olive-schreiner/the-story-of-an-african-farm/there-are-some.md)

Topics: [suffering](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering.md), [loneliness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> Well, I left the fairy tales lying on the floor of the nursery, and I have not found any books so sensible since.

[G. Chesterton](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton.md) · [Orthodoxy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/orthodoxy.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/orthodoxy/well-i-left.md)

Topics: [literature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/literature.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> The last days of my childhood were also the last days of the village.  I belonged to that generation which saw, by chance, the end of a thousand years' life.

[Laurie Lee](https://www.leafyquotes.com/laurie-lee.md) · [Cider With Rosie](https://www.leafyquotes.com/laurie-lee/cider-with-rosie.md) · p. 262 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/laurie-lee/cider-with-rosie/the-last-days.md)

Topics: [transience](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/transience.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> This tiny, white-washed Infants’ room was a brief but cosy anarchy.  In that short time allowed us we played and wept, broke things, fell asleep, cheeked the teacher, discovered the things we could do to each other, and exhaled our last guiltless days.

[Laurie Lee](https://www.leafyquotes.com/laurie-lee.md) · [Cider With Rosie](https://www.leafyquotes.com/laurie-lee/cider-with-rosie.md) · p. 52 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/laurie-lee/cider-with-rosie/this-tiny-white-washed.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> Wisdom leads us back to childhood.

[Blaise Pascal](https://www.leafyquotes.com/blaise-pascal.md) · [Pensees](https://www.leafyquotes.com/blaise-pascal/pensees.md) · p. 404 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/blaise-pascal/pensees/wisdom-leads-us-back.md)

Topics: [wisdom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/wisdom.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> That’s almost like the daft things you believe when you’re really little, like I use to believe I could fly. I believed it for years, but it had to be kept secret. I knew if I ever told anyone or showed it off to anyone, I’d lose the power. And if I doubted it, and tried it out just to see, I’d lose the power — so I didn’t. I believed in it. I knew I would be able to fly when there really was a need. Which, fortunately for me, there never was.

[Jane Rogers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-rogers.md) · [The Testament of Jessie Lamb](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-rogers/the-testament-of-jessie-lamb.md) · p. 6 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-rogers/the-testament-of-jessie-lamb/thats-almost-like.md)

Topics: [faith](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/faith.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> According to Freud (who was speaking from experience, since he was his mother’s darling), spoiled children have a confidence that stays with them all their lives.

[Robert Greene](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-greene.md) · [The Art of Seduction](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-greene/the-art-of-seduction.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-greene/the-art-of-seduction/according-to-freud.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [self-confidence](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/self-confidence.md)

> I was a boy, and what boy does not wish to find secret powers hidden in himself?

[George RR Martin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin.md) · [A Clash of Kings](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-clash-of-kings.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-clash-of-kings/i-was-a-boy.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> At a certain age children are greatly intrigued by the possibility of locating themselves on a map. It appears strange that one's familiar life should actually have all occurred in an area delineated by a set of quite impersonal (and hitherto unfamiliar) coordinates on the surface of the map. The child's exclamations of "I was there" and "I am here right now" betray the astonishment that the place of last summer's vacation, a place marked in memory by such sharply personal events as the ownership of one's first dog or the secret assembling of a collection of worms, should have specific latitudes and longitudes devised by strangers to one's dog, one's worms, and oneself. This locating of oneself in configurations conceived by strangers is one of the important aspects of what, perhaps euphemistically, is called "growing up". One participates in the real world of grown-ups by having an address. The child who only recently might have mailed a letter addressed "To my Granddaddy" now informs a fellow worm-collector of his exact address – street, town, state and all – and finds his tentative allegiance to the grown-up world view dramatically legitimated by the arrival of the letter.

[Peter L. Berger](https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-l-berger.md) · [Invitation to Sociology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-l-berger/invitation-to-sociology.md) · p. 81 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-l-berger/invitation-to-sociology/at-a-certain.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [growing up](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/growing-up.md)

> I had done this all by myself. No one had performed the magic for me. I and the shapes were alone together, revealing themselves in a silently respectful dialogue. Since I could bare lines into living reality, I was all powerful. I could read.

[Alberto Manguel](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alberto-manguel.md) · [A History of Reading](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alberto-manguel/a-history-of-reading.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alberto-manguel/a-history-of-reading/i-had-done.md)

Topics: [reading](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reading.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> Unconditional love: childhood’s greatest magic.

[N. K. Jemisin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/n-k-jemisin.md) · [The Kingdom Of Gods](https://www.leafyquotes.com/n-k-jemisin/the-kingdom-of-gods.md) · p. 35 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/n-k-jemisin/the-kingdom-of-gods/unconditional-love-childhoods.md)

Topics: [love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> Unreasoning optimism is a fundamental element of childishness.

[N. K. Jemisin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/n-k-jemisin.md) · [The Kingdom Of Gods](https://www.leafyquotes.com/n-k-jemisin/the-kingdom-of-gods.md) · p. 237 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/n-k-jemisin/the-kingdom-of-gods/unreasoning-optimism-is-a-fundamental.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [optimism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/optimism.md)

> I have retained a belief that it is the popular sporty kids at school who grow up to have the least interesting lives, and the unhappy young souls who develop into the most extraordinary adults. Whoever heard of a creative genius being understood as a child and well loved by his class mates? Who like to imagine an artist who emerged into adulthood content with his lot? And, conversely, how satisfying to hear that almost without exception, the untroubled, popular kids at school have ended up blandly as accountants, solicitors or ‘in IT’. Hold on, misfits, your day will come.

[Derren Brown](https://www.leafyquotes.com/derren-brown.md) · [Confessions of a Conjuror](https://www.leafyquotes.com/derren-brown/confessions-of-a-conjuror.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/derren-brown/confessions-of-a-conjuror/i-have-retained.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [otherness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/otherness.md)

> Jonas did not want to go back. He did not want the memories, didn't want the honor, didn't want the wisdom, didn't want the pain. He wanted his childhood again, his scraped knees and ball games. He sat in his dwelling alone, watching through the window, seeing children at play, citizens bicycling home from uneventful days at work, ordinary lives free of anguish because he had been selected, as others before him had, to bear their burden. But the choice was not his. He returned each day to the Annex room.

[Lois Lowry](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lois-lowry.md) · [The Giver](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lois-lowry/the-giver.md) · p. 121 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lois-lowry/the-giver/jonas-did-not.md)

Topics: [responsibility](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/responsibility.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> It was a game he had often played with the other children, a game of good guys and bad guys, a harmless pasttime that used up their contained energy and ended only when they all lay posed in freakish postures on the round. He had never recognized it before as a game of war.

[Lois Lowry](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lois-lowry.md) · [The Giver](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lois-lowry/the-giver.md) · p. 133 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lois-lowry/the-giver/it-was-a-game.md)

Topics: [war](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> When we are children we seldom think of the future. This innocence leaves us free to enjoy ourselves as few adults can. The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind.

[Patrick Rothfuss](https://www.leafyquotes.com/patrick-rothfuss.md) · [The Name of the Wind](https://www.leafyquotes.com/patrick-rothfuss/the-name-of-the-wind.md) · p. 88 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/patrick-rothfuss/the-name-of-the-wind/when-we-are.md)

Topics: [the future](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> I think that Vietnam is what we had instead of happy childhoods.

[Michael Herr](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-herr.md) · [Dispatches](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-herr/dispatches.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-herr/dispatches/i-think-that.md)

Topics: [war](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> It felt like being a child again, though it was not. Being a child is like nothing. It’s only being. Later, when we think about it, we make it into youth.

[China Miéville](https://www.leafyquotes.com/china-mieville.md) · [Embassytown](https://www.leafyquotes.com/china-mieville/embassytown.md) · p. 66 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/china-mieville/embassytown/it-felt-like.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> She can be anything, Boo told me, and this is what I remember most, her freckled face so solemn, as if she knew she was the first to tell me. And so can you.

[Sarah Dessen](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sarah-dessen.md) · [Dreamland](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sarah-dessen/dreamland.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sarah-dessen/dreamland/she-can-be-anything.md)

Topics: [dreams and aspirations](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dreams-and-aspirations.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> Never lose the child-like wonder. It's just too important. It's what drives us.

[Randy Pausch](https://www.leafyquotes.com/randy-pausch.md) · [The Last Lecture](https://www.leafyquotes.com/randy-pausch/the-last-lecture.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/randy-pausch/the-last-lecture/never-lose-the.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [curiosity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/curiosity.md)

> When you're eight or nine years old and you look at the TV set men are landing on the moon — anything is possible. And that is something we need to not lose sight of, is that the inspiration and permission to dream is immense. … It's important to have specific dreams.

[Randy Pausch](https://www.leafyquotes.com/randy-pausch.md) · [The Last Lecture](https://www.leafyquotes.com/randy-pausch/the-last-lecture.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/randy-pausch/the-last-lecture/when-youre-eight.md)

Topics: [dreams and aspirations](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dreams-and-aspirations.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> Oh, I'm burning! I wish I were out of doors. I wish I were a girl again, half savage and hardy, and free, and laughing at injuries, not maddening under them! Why am I so changed?

[Emily Brontë](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emily-bronte.md) · [Wuthering Heights](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emily-bronte/wuthering-heights.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emily-bronte/wuthering-heights/oh-im-burning.md)

Topics: [freedom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> Maybe he understood for the first time that to the boy he was himself an alien. A being from a planet that no longer existed. The tales of which were suspect. He could not construct for the child’s pleasure the world he’d lost without constructing the loss as well and he thought perhaps the child has known this better than he.

[Cormac McCarthy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy.md) · [The Road](https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy/the-road.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy/the-road/maybe-he-understood.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [loss](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loss.md)

> Children know precious little, but that profound ignorance comes from profound innocence. People really mean to say that innocence is bliss. And bliss is short-lived.

[Nick Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nick-sagan.md) · [Idlewild](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nick-sagan/idlewild.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nick-sagan/idlewild/children-know-precious.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [ignorance](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ignorance.md), [innocence](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/innocence.md)

> As a child, coming home at sunset through the infinite chain of backyards that led from the schoolyard to our house, I would catch glimpses in windows of dining rooms, tables set for supper; of crayon drawings tacked to refrigerators, cartons of milk standing on counters; of feet on low hassocks, framed photographs, and empty sofas, all lit by the bland light of the television; and these quickly shifting tableaux, of strange furniture and the lives and families they divulged, would send me into a trance of curiosity. For a long time I thought that one became a spy in order to watch the houses of other people, to be confronted by the simple, wondrous fact of other kitchens, other clocks, and ottomans.

[Michael Chabon](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-chabon.md) · [The Mysteries of Pittsburgh](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-chabon/the-mysteries-of-pittsburgh.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-chabon/the-mysteries-of-pittsburgh/as-a-child.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [curiosity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/curiosity.md)

> Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates.

[Mark Twain](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain.md) · [Life on the Mississippi](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/life-on-the-mississippi.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/life-on-the-mississippi/now-and-then.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [dreams and aspirations](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dreams-and-aspirations.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> A cemetery is an affront to the rational mind. One reason is its eerily wasted space, this tribute to the dead that inevitably degenerates into ancestor worship as, on birthdays and anniversaries, humans of every faith and no faith at all brave whatever weather may that day threaten, in order to stand before these rows of silent stone markers, praying, yes, and remembering, of course, but very often actually speaking to the deceased, an oddly pagan ritual in which we engage, this shared pretense that the rotted corpses in warped wooden boxes are able to hear and understand us if we stand before their graves.The other reason a cemetery appeals to the irrational side is its obtrusive, irresistible habit of sneaking past the civilized veneer with which we cover the primitive planks of our childhood fears. When we are children, we know that what our parents insist is merely a tree branch blowing in the wind is really the gnarled fingertip of some horrific creature of the night, waiting outside the window, tapping, tapping, tapping, to let us know that, as soon as our parents close the door and sentence us to the gloom which they insist builds character, he will lift the sash and dart inside and...And there childhood imagination usually runs out, unable to give shape to the precise fears that have kept us awake and that will, in a few months, be forgotten entirely. Until we next visit a cemetery, that is, when, suddenly, the possibility of some terrifying creature of the night seems remarkably real.

[Stephen L. Carter](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-l-carter.md) · [The Emperor of Ocean Park](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-l-carter/the-emperor-of-ocean-park.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-l-carter/the-emperor-of-ocean-park/a-cemetery-is-an-affront.md)

Topics: [death](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death.md), [fear](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> Death, who had once lived in a fairy-tale forest where a fairy-tale wolf was creeping up on a fairy-tale goat, was no longer confined to the pages of a book. For the first time David felt very clearly that he himself was mortal, not just in a fairy-tale way, but in actual fact. ' He understood that one day his mother would die. And it wasn’t from the fairy-tale forest and the dim light of its fir-trees that Death would come for him and his mother – it would come from this very air, from these walls, from life itself, and there was no way they would be able to hide from it. ' He sensed Death with a depth and clarity of which only small children or great philosophers are capable, philosophers who are themselves almost childlike in the power and simplicity of their thinking.

[Vasily Grossman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/vasily-grossman.md) · [Life and Fate](https://www.leafyquotes.com/vasily-grossman/life-and-fate.md) · p. 193 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/vasily-grossman/life-and-fate/death-who-had.md)

Topics: [death](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [philosophy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/philosophy.md)

> People with happy childhoods never overdo; they don't strive or exert themselves. They're moderate, pleasant, well liked, and good citizens. Society needs them. But the tremendous drive and dedication necessary to succeed in any field- not only show business- often seems to be rooted in a disturbed childhood. I wasn't an unloved or an unwanted child, but I was moved around a lot, and then death and cruel circumstances brought many painful separations.

[Lucille Ball](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lucille-ball.md) · [Love, Lucy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lucille-ball/love-lucy.md) · p. 21 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lucille-ball/love-lucy/people-with-happy.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [success and failure](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/success-and-failure.md), [ambition](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ambition.md)

> Kids grow up connected to nothing these days, plugged-in and living lives boosted to them from other people. Hand-me-down adventures."

[Chuck Palahniuk](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk.md) · [Rant](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/rant.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/rant/kids-grow-up-connected.md)

Topics: [technology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/technology.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> Each holiday tradition acts as an exercise in cognitive development, a greater challenge for the child. Despite the fact that most parents don't recognize this function, they still practice the exercise. Rant also saw how resolving the illusions is crucial to how the child uses any new skills. A child who is never coached with Santa Claus may never develop an ability to imagine. To him, nothing exists except the literal and tangible. A child who is disillusioned abruptly, by his peers or his siblings, being ridiculed for his faith and imagination, may choose never to believe in anything--tangible or intangible--again. To never trust or wonder. But a child who relinquishes the illusions of Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy, that child may come away with the most important skill set. That child may recognize the strength of his own imagination and faith. He will embrace the ability to create his own reality. That child becomes his own authority. He determines the nature of his world. His own vision. And by doing so, by the power of his example, he determines the reality of the other two types: those who can't imagine, and those who can't trust."

[Chuck Palahniuk](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk.md) · [Rant](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/rant.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/rant/each-holiday-tradition.md)

Topics: [faith](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/faith.md), [imagination](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/imagination.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> The words of our childhood became strangers to us- we couldn't use them in the same way and so we chose not to use them at all. Life demanded a new language.

[Nicole Krauss](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nicole-krauss.md) · [The History of Love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nicole-krauss/the-history-of-love.md) · p. 6 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nicole-krauss/the-history-of-love/the-words-of-our.md)

Topics: [language](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/language.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> Hard as it is to believe, in the entire world there is not a single faculty in which a degree is offered in the study of psychic injuries in childhood.

[Alice Miller](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alice-miller.md) · [Breaking Down The Wall Of Silence](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alice-miller/breaking-down-the-wall-of-silence.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alice-miller/breaking-down-the-wall-of-silence/hard-as-it.md)

Topics: [education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/education.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> Psychoanalysis does not distort the truth by accident. It does so by necessity. It is an effective system for the suppression of the truth about childhood, a truth feared by our entire society. Not surprisingly, it enjoys great esteem among intellectuals... Fear of the truth about child abuse is a leitmotif of nearly all forms of therapy known to me.

[Alice Miller](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alice-miller.md) · [Breaking Down The Wall Of Silence](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alice-miller/breaking-down-the-wall-of-silence.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alice-miller/breaking-down-the-wall-of-silence/psychoanalysis-does-not.md)

Topics: [truth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> If one day the secret of childhood were to become no longer a secret, the state would be able to save immense sums that it spends on hospitals, psychiatric clinics, and prisons maintaining our blindness. That this might deliberately happen is almost too incredible a thought.

[Alice Miller](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alice-miller.md) · [Breaking Down The Wall Of Silence](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alice-miller/breaking-down-the-wall-of-silence.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alice-miller/breaking-down-the-wall-of-silence/if-one-day.md)

Topics: [society](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> I should have liked, I do confess, to have had the lightest license of a child, and yet to have been man enough to know its value.

[Charles Dickens](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens.md) · [A Christmas Carol](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-christmas-carol.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-christmas-carol/i-should-have.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fireside and his quiet home!

[Charles Dickens](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens.md) · [The Pickwick Papers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/the-pickwick-papers.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/the-pickwick-papers/happy-happy-christmas.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> Children find everything in nothing, men find nothing in everything.

[Giacomo Leopardi](https://www.leafyquotes.com/giacomo-leopardi.md) · [Zibaldone: The Notebooks of Leopardi](https://www.leafyquotes.com/giacomo-leopardi/zibaldone-the-notebooks-of-leopardi.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/giacomo-leopardi/zibaldone-the-notebooks-of-leopardi/children-find-everything.md)

Topics: [imagination](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/imagination.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> The years of childhood...My memory runs head-on into a scene that is like a symbol of those years. To me as I am today, that scene represents childhood itself, past and irrecoverable.When I saw the scene I felt the hand of farewell with which childhood would take its leave of me. I had a premonition at that instant that all my feeling of subjective time, or timelessness, might one day gush forth from within me and flood into the mold of that scene, to become an exact imitation of its people and movements and sounds; that simultaneous with the completion of this copy, the original might melt away into the distant perspectives of real and objective time;and that I might be left with nothing more than the mere imitation or, to say it another way, with nothing more than an accurately stuffed specimen of my childhood.

[Yukio Mishima](https://www.leafyquotes.com/yukio-mishima.md) · [Confessions of a Mask](https://www.leafyquotes.com/yukio-mishima/confessions-of-a-mask.md) · p. 18 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/yukio-mishima/confessions-of-a-mask/the-years-of-childhood-my.md)

Topics: [memory](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> He might have been blushing. “I’m sorry. You live there. I don’t need to tell you how fabulous they are.”
>
> “Well, for me it is—was—just home. When one grows up in a place, no matter how exotic it may seem to others, it is still where all the usual banalities and indignities of childhood occurred. Home is always the norm. It is everywhere else that is marvellous.”

[Iain M. Banks](https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks.md) · [Matter](https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/matter.md) · p. 369 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/matter/he-might-have.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [home](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/home.md)

> "There's too little pleasant in this nasty dying world. We all need to remember how to play, how to be children together for a little while." (Gadi, twenty-eight: HOW CAN WE TELL THE DANCER FROM THE DANCE?)

[Marge Piercy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marge-piercy.md) · [He, She and It](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marge-piercy/he-she-and-it.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marge-piercy/he-she-and-it/theres-too-little.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [play](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/play.md)

> I confess I have often fancied myself transformed into some other person, and have felt a certian pleasure in seeing myself in my new chracter. One of our first amusements as children (if we have any imagination at all) is to get out of our own characters, and to try the characters of other personages as a change—to be fairies, to be queens, to be anything, in short, but what we really are.

[Wilkie Collins](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wilkie-collins.md) · [The Law and the Lady](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wilkie-collins/the-law-and-the-lady.md) · p. 195 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wilkie-collins/the-law-and-the-lady/i-confess-i-have.md)

Topics: [imagination](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/imagination.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> In grammar school—and as new to American history as to the American tongue—I nevertheless puzzled through several junior biographies of Franklin because young Ben’s ambition magnified my own. I kept lists in those years of the books I read. I recognized the yearning to escape the limits of family—“a strong inclination for the sea”—as well as some more vertical yearning: a boy becomes a man by gaining wisdom; each book a rung therefore; each rung a classical tag. I weighed the shame of the sordid candle shop where Franklin was forced to work for his father against the optimism of old New England.

[Richard Rodriguez](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez.md) · [Brown](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/brown.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/brown/in-grammar-school-and.md)

Topics: [reading](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reading.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [ambition](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ambition.md)

> Once upon a time, I was a ‘socially disadvantaged’ child. An enchantedly happy child. Mine was a childhood of intense family closeness. And extreme public alienation.

[Richard Rodriguez](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez.md) · [Hunger of Memory](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/hunger-of-memory.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/hunger-of-memory/once-upon-a-time.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [family](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/family.md)

> She was only eight years old, and still confused the way things should have been with the way they were.

[Harry Turtledove](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove.md) · [The Great War: Breakthroughs](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/the-great-war-breakthroughs.md) · p. 171 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/the-great-war-breakthroughs/she-was-only.md)

Topics: [reality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reality.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> Childhood is analogous to language learning. It has a biological basis but cannot be realized unless a social environment triggers and nurtures it, that is, has need of it. If a culture is dominated by a medium that requires the segregation of the young in order that they learn unnatural, specialized, and complex skills and attitudes, then childhood, in one form or another, will emerge, articulate and indispensable.

[Neil Postman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-postman.md) · [The Disappearance of Childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-postman/the-disappearance-of-childhood.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-postman/the-disappearance-of-childhood/childhood-is-analogous.md)

Topics: [language](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/language.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [culture](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture.md)

> Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see. From a biological point of view it is inconceivable that any culture will forget that it needs to reproduce itself. But it is quite possible for a culture to exist without a social idea of children. Unlike infancy, childhood is a social artifact, not a biological category.

[Neil Postman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-postman.md) · [The Disappearance of Childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-postman/the-disappearance-of-childhood.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-postman/the-disappearance-of-childhood/children-are-the.md)

Topics: [children](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/children.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [culture](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture.md)

> Mud-pies gratify one of our first and best instincts. So long as we are dirty, we are pure.

[Charles Dudley Warner](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dudley-warner.md) · [My Summer in a Garden](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dudley-warner/my-summer-in-a-garden.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dudley-warner/my-summer-in-a-garden/mud-pies-gratify-one.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [innocence](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/innocence.md)

> Unaware of history's higher significance, I slumbered through the bliss of infancy, feeling no impulse whatever to make something of myself.

[Russell Baker](https://www.leafyquotes.com/russell-baker.md) · [Growing Up](https://www.leafyquotes.com/russell-baker/growing-up.md) · p. 43 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/russell-baker/growing-up/unaware-of-historys.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> a child’s major attention has to be concentrated on how to fit into a world which, with every passing hour, reveals itself as merciless.

[James Baldwin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-baldwin.md) · [Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-baldwin/tell-me-how-long-the-trains-been-gone.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-baldwin/tell-me-how-long-the-trains-been-gone/a-childs-major.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> It's never too late to have a happy childhood.

[Tom Robbins](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-robbins.md) · [Still Life with Woodpecker](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-robbins/still-life-with-woodpecker.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-robbins/still-life-with-woodpecker/its-never-too.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> A childish feeling, I admit, but, when we retire from the conventions of society and draw close to nature, we involuntarily become children: each attribute acquired by experience falls away from the soul, which becomes anew such as it was once and will surely be again.

[Mikhail Lérmontov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mikhail-lermontov.md) · [A Hero of Our Time](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mikhail-lermontov/a-hero-of-our-time.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mikhail-lermontov/a-hero-of-our-time/a-childish-feeling.md)

Topics: [nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> He had lost the precocious clearness of the child which transfigures and explains the universe, offering answers of miraculous insight and beauty.

[E.M. Forster](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster.md) · [Maurice](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/he-had-lost.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> All parents damage their children. It cannot be helped. Youth, like pristine glass, absorbs the prints of its handlers. Some parents smudge, others crack, a few shatter childhoods completely into jagged little pieces, beyond repair.

[Mitch Albom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mitch-albom.md) · [The Five People You Meet in Heaven](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mitch-albom/the-five-people-you-meet-in-heaven.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mitch-albom/the-five-people-you-meet-in-heaven/all-parents-damage.md)

Topics: [children](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/children.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [parents](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/parents.md)

> It might have seemed ridiculous to anyone watching, this white-haired maintenance worker, all alone, making like an airplane. But the running boy is inside every man, no matter how old he gets.

[Mitch Albom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mitch-albom.md) · [The Five People You Meet in Heaven](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mitch-albom/the-five-people-you-meet-in-heaven.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mitch-albom/the-five-people-you-meet-in-heaven/it-might-have.md)

Topics: [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> Bzya touched his shoulder. “But that’s why you and I are here, old man. To keep the world away from boys like Farr and Cris—to give them a place that seems as stable and eternal as your parents did when you were a child—until they are old enough to cope with the truth.”

[Stephen Baxter](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-baxter.md) · [Flux](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-baxter/flux.md) · p. 484 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-baxter/flux/bzya-touched-his.md)

Topics: [truth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> “Perhaps I should not say so, but it occasionally crosses my mind to wonder why, in all the mystic cosmologies, even in some of the modern so-called parasciences, our own age is always described as the age of chaos and contention. A comment, my logical side argues, on why people turn to mysticism. The past age was always better.”
>
> “Childhood is the happiest time of life except when you’re a child,” said Jerry.
>
> “I understand you. True.”

[Michael Moorcock](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock.md) · [The Final Programme](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock/the-final-programme.md) · p. 7 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock/the-final-programme/perhaps-i-should.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [nostalgia](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nostalgia.md)

> I felt that pressure of time that is perhaps the surest indication we have left childhood behind.

[Gene Wolfe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gene-wolfe.md) · [The Shadow of the Torturer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gene-wolfe/the-shadow-of-the-torturer.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gene-wolfe/the-shadow-of-the-torturer/i-felt-that.md)

Topics: [time](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> Childhood is that time in which we never question the fact that every adult act is not only an autonomous occurrence in the universe, but that it is also filled, packed, overflowing with meaning, whether that meaning works for ill or good, whether the ill or good is or is not comprehended.
>
> Adulthood is that time in which we see that all human actions follow forms, whether well or badly, and it is the perseverance of the forms that is, whether for better or worse, their meaning.
>
> Various cultures make the transition at various ages, which transition period lasts for varying lengths of time, one accomplishing it in a week with careful dances, ancient prayers, and isolate and specified rituals; another, letting it take its own course, offering no help for it, and allowing it to run on frequently for years. But at the center of the changeover there is a period—whether it be a moment’s vision or a year-long suspicion—where the maturing youth sees all adult behavior as merely formal and totally meaningless.

[Samuel R. Delany](https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany.md) · [Tales of Neveryon](https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany/tales-of-neveryon.md) · p. 114 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany/tales-of-neveryon/childhood-is-that.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [growing up](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/growing-up.md)

> Before adolescence, memory is more interested in the future than the past...

[Gabriel Garcia Marquez](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gabriel-garcia-marquez.md) · [Living to Tell the Tale](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gabriel-garcia-marquez/living-to-tell-the-tale.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gabriel-garcia-marquez/living-to-tell-the-tale/before-adolescence-memory.md)

Topics: [memory](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> I thought how strange it had never occurred to me before that I was only purely happy until I was nine years old.

[Sylvia Plath](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sylvia-plath.md) · [The Bell Jar](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sylvia-plath/the-bell-jar.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sylvia-plath/the-bell-jar/i-thought-how.md)

Topics: [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> When I call to mind my earliest impressions, I wonder whether the process ordinarily referred to as growing up is not actually a process of growing down; whether experience, so much touted among adults as the thing children lack, is not actually a progressive dilution of the essentials by the trivialities of living.

[Aldo Leopold](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold.md) · [A Sand County Almanac](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold/a-sand-county-almanac.md) · p. 120 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldo-leopold/a-sand-county-almanac/when-i-call.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [experience](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/experience.md)

> “I am not my childhood," Snowman says out loud.

[Margaret Atwood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/margaret-atwood.md) · [Oryx and Crake](https://www.leafyquotes.com/margaret-atwood/oryx-and-crake.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/margaret-atwood/oryx-and-crake/i-am-not.md)

Topics: [identity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/identity.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> So the first step out of childhood is made all at once, without looking before or behind, without caution, and nothing held in reserve.

[Ursula K. Le Guin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin.md) · [The Farthest Shore](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin/the-farthest-shore.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin/the-farthest-shore/so-the-first.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> I just want always to be a little boy and have fun.

[J.M. Barrie](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jm-barrie.md) · [Peter Pan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jm-barrie/peter-pan.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jm-barrie/peter-pan/i-just-want.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [play](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/play.md)

> Childhood, after all, has to be an age of discovery. These are days you'll remember vividly all your life, even when you're old and forget why you came into a room. It must never be allowed to become the age of anxiety.
>
> The anxiety has been greatly increased by this government's multiplication of exams and emphasis on starting training as a middle manager in a computer company from the age of six. Parents have made things worse by worrying unduly about exam results and seeing that their children work a great deal harder than most middle managers in computer companies.

[John Mortimer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-mortimer.md) · [Where There's a Will](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-mortimer/where-theres-a-will.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-mortimer/where-theres-a-will/childhood-after-all.md)

Topics: [education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/education.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> Every person in his first trip to a foreign country, where he knows neither the people nor the language, experiences childhood.

[Shulamith Firestone](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shulamith-firestone.md) · [The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shulamith-firestone/the-dialectic-of-sex-the-case-for-feminist-revolution.md) · p. 103 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shulamith-firestone/the-dialectic-of-sex-the-case-for-feminist-revolution/every-person-in-his.md)

Topics: [travel](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/travel.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> Children, then, are not freer than adults. They are burdened by a wish fantasy in direct proportion to the restraints of their narrow lives; with an unpleasant sense of their own physical inadequacy and ridiculousness; with constant shame about their dependence, economic and otherwise (‘Mother, may I?’); and humiliation concerning their natural ignorance of practical affairs. Children are repressed at every waking minute. Childhood is hell.

[Shulamith Firestone](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shulamith-firestone.md) · [The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shulamith-firestone/the-dialectic-of-sex-the-case-for-feminist-revolution.md) · p. 103 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shulamith-firestone/the-dialectic-of-sex-the-case-for-feminist-revolution/children-then-are.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> In the Middle Ages there was no such thing as childhood. The medieval view of children was profoundly different from ours.

[Shulamith Firestone](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shulamith-firestone.md) · [The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shulamith-firestone/the-dialectic-of-sex-the-case-for-feminist-revolution.md) · p. 76 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shulamith-firestone/the-dialectic-of-sex-the-case-for-feminist-revolution/in-the-middle.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> I knew more things in the first ten years of my life than I believe I have known at any time since. I knew everything there was to know about our house for a start. I knew what was written on the undersides of tables and what the view was like from the tops of bookcases and wardrobes. I knew what was to be found at the back of every closet, which beds had the most dust balls beneath them, which ceilings the most interesting stains, where exactly the patterns in wallpaper repeated. I knew how to cross every room in the house without touching the floor, where my father kept his spare change and how much you could safely take without his noticing (one-seventh of the quarters, one-fifth of the nickels and dimes, as many of the pennies as you could carry). I knew how to relax in an armchair in more than one hundred positions and on the floor in approximately seventy- five more. I knew what the world looked like when viewed through a Jell-O lens. I knew how things tasted—damp washcloths, pencil ferrules, coins and buttons, almost anything made of plastic that was smaller than, say, a clock radio, mucus of every variety of course—in a way that I have more or less forgotten now. I knew and could take you at once to any illustration of naked women anywhere in our house, from a Rubens painting of fleshy chubbos in Masterpieces of World Painting to a cartoon by Peter Arno in the latest issue of The New Yorker to my father’s small private library of girlie magazines in a secret place known only to him, me, and 111 of my closest friends in his bedroom.

[Bill Bryson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-bryson.md) · [The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-bryson/the-life-and-times-of-the-thunderbolt-kid.md) · p. 36 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-bryson/the-life-and-times-of-the-thunderbolt-kid/i-knew-more.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> Even where the affections are not strongly moved by any superior excellence, the companions of our childhood always possess a certain power over our minds which hardly any later friend can obtain. They know our infantine dispositions, which, however they may be afterwards modified, are never eradicated; and they can judge of our actions with more certain conclusions as to the integrity of our motives.

[Mary Shelley](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley.md) · [Frankenstein](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/even-where-the.md)

Topics: [friendship](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/friendship.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> Then Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh walked hand in hand down the forest path and they said goodbye. So they went off together. But wherever they go, and whatever happens to them along the way, in that enchanted place on the top of the forest a little boy and his bear will always be playing.

[A.A. Milne](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aa-milne.md) · [The House at Pooh Corner](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aa-milne/the-house-at-pooh-corner.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aa-milne/the-house-at-pooh-corner/then-christopher-robin.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> When I was One,
>
> I had just begun.
>
> When I was Two,
>
> I was nearly new.
>
> When I was Three
>
> I was hardly me.
>
> When I was Four,
>
> I was not much more.
>
> When I was Five,
>
> I was just alive.
>
> But now I am Six,
>
> I'm as clever as clever,
>
> So I think I'll be six now for ever and ever.

[A.A. Milne](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aa-milne.md) · [Now We Are Six: Classic Gift Edition](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aa-milne/now-we-are-six-classic-gift-edition.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aa-milne/now-we-are-six-classic-gift-edition/when-i-was.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> When a child first catches adults out — when it first walks into his grave little head that adults do not have divine intelligence, that their judgments are not always wise, their thinking true, their sentences just — his world falls into panic desolation. The gods are fallen and all safety gone. And there is one sure thing about the fall of gods: they do not fall a little; they crash and shatter or sink deeply into green muck. It is a tedious job to build them up again; they never quite shine. And the child’s world is never quite whole again. It is an aching kind of growing.

[John Steinbeck](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck.md) · [East of Eden](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck/east-of-eden.md) · p. 19 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck/east-of-eden/when-a-child.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [disappointment](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/disappointment.md)

> From infancy on, we are all spies; the shame is not this but that the secrets to be discovered are so paltry and few.

[John Hoyer Updike](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike.md) · [Bech: A Book](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/bech-a-book.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/bech-a-book/from-infancy-on-we-are.md)

Topics: [secrets](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/secrets.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> I have thought a good deal about trees; I like them. They speak eloquently of the balanced dubiety which I told you was the sceptical attitude. No splendid crown without the strong root that works in the dark, drawing its nourishment among the rocks, the soil, hidden waters, and all the little, burrowing things. A man is like that; his splendours and his fruits are to be seen, to win him love and admiration. But what about the root?
>
> Have you ever seen a bulldozer clearing land? It advances upon a great tree and shoves and pushes inexorably until the tree is down and thrust out of the way, and all of that effort is accompanied by a screaming and wrenching sounds from the tree as the great roots are torn from the ground. It is a particularly distressing kind of death. And when the tree is upturned, the root proves to be as big as the crown.
>
> What is the root of man? All sorts of things that nourish his visible part, but the deepest root of all, the tap-root, is that child he once was, of which I spoke to you when I was amusing you with the story of my life. That is the root which goes deepest because it is reaching downward towards the ancestors.

[Robertson Davies](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies.md) · [The Cornish Trilogy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-cornish-trilogy.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-cornish-trilogy/i-have-thought.md)

Topics: [human nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> A happy childhood has spoiled many a promising life.

[Robertson Davies](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies.md) · [The Cornish Trilogy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-cornish-trilogy.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-cornish-trilogy/a-happy-childhood.md)

Topics: [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> What really shapes and conditions and makes us is somebody only a few of us ever have the courage to face: and that is the child you once were, long before formal education ever got its claws into you — that impatient, all-demanding child who wants love and power and can't get enough of either and who goes on raging and weeping in your spirit till at last your eyes are closed and all the fools say, "Doesn't he look peaceful?" It is those pent-up, craving children who make all the wars and all the horrors and all the art and all the beauty and discovery in life, because they are trying to achieve what lay beyond their grasp before they were five years old.

[Robertson Davies](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies.md) · [The Cornish Trilogy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-cornish-trilogy.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-cornish-trilogy/what-really-shapes.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> A strange child, perhaps, but I wouldn't give a pinch of dust for a child who was not strange. Is not every child strange, by adult accounting, if we could only learn to know it? If it has no strangeness, what is the use of it? To grow up into another humanoid turnip?

[Robertson Davies](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies.md) · [The Cornish Trilogy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-cornish-trilogy.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-cornish-trilogy/a-strange-child.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [being different](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/being-different.md)

> The Wart was not a proper son. He did not understand this, but it made him feel unhappy, because Kay seemed to regard it as making him inferior in some way. Also it was different not having a father and mother, and Kay had taught him that being different was wrong.

[T. H. White](https://www.leafyquotes.com/t-h-white.md) · [The Sword in the Stone](https://www.leafyquotes.com/t-h-white/the-sword-in-the-stone.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/t-h-white/the-sword-in-the-stone/the-wart-was.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [being different](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/being-different.md)

> It’s a family joke that when I was a tiny child I turned from the window out of which I was watching a snowstorm, and hopefully asked, "Momma, do we believe in winter?"

[Philip Roth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-roth.md) · [Portnoy's Complaint](https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-roth/portnoys-complaint.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-roth/portnoys-complaint/its-a-family.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> It is hard to shake off any taboos a child is indoctrinated with in his earliest years. Even if he learns later that they are nonsense.

[Robert A. Heinlein](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein.md) · [Time Enough For Love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/time-enough-for-love.md) · p. 445 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/time-enough-for-love/it-is-hard.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [upbringing](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/upbringing.md)

> I spent my boyhood the way every boy does — trying to keep my elders from finding out what I was up to.

[Robert A. Heinlein](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein.md) · [Time Enough For Love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/time-enough-for-love.md) · p. 22 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/time-enough-for-love/i-spent-my-boyhood.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> 'One sacred memory from childhood is perhaps the best education,' said Fyodor Dostoevsky. I believe that, and I hope that many Earthling children will respond to the first human footprint on the moon as a sacred thing. We need sacred things. The footprint could mean, if we let it, that Earthlings have done an unbelievably difficult and beautiful thing which the Creator, for Its own reasons, wanted Earthlings to do.Footprint.

[Kurt Vonnegut](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut.md) · [Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/wampeters-foma-granfalloons.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/wampeters-foma-granfalloons/one-sacred-memory.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [holiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/holiness.md)

> Nafai knew the rule: when a man acts like a child, he's boyish, and everyone's delighted; when a boy acts the same way, he's childish, and everyone tells him to be a man.

[Orson Scott Card](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card.md) · [The Memory Of Earth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/the-memory-of-earth.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/the-memory-of-earth/nafai-knew-the.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> Isn't it true that you start your life a sweet child, believing in everything under your father's roof? Then comes the day of the Laodiceans, when you know you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, and with the visage of a gruesome, grieving ghost you go shuddering through nightmare life.

[Jack Kerouac](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-kerouac.md) · [On the Road](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-kerouac/on-the-road.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-kerouac/on-the-road/isnt-it-true.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [disappointment](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/disappointment.md)

> When I grow up I want to be a little boy.

[Joseph Heller](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-heller.md) · [SOMETHING HAPPENED](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-heller/something-happened.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-heller/something-happened/when-i-grow.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [growing up](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/growing-up.md)

> I started out just as a regular person, growing up in the Northwest. My father was a research scientist for the Department of Agriculture, studying trees. So I was in the woods a lot. And the woods for a child are magical. I lived in what people call small towns. My world was what would be considered about a city block, maybe two blocks. Everything occurred in that space. All the dreaming, all my friends existed in that small world. But to me it seemed so huge and magical. There was plenty of time available to dream and be with friends.
>
> I liked to paint and I liked to draw. And I often thought, wrongly, that when you got to be an adult, you stopped painting and drawing and did something more serious.

[David J. Lynch](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-j-lynch.md) · [Catching the Big Fish](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-j-lynch/catching-the-big-fish.md) · p. 9 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-j-lynch/catching-the-big-fish/i-started-out.md)

Topics: [dreams and aspirations](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dreams-and-aspirations.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> Step back in time; look closely at the child in the very arms of his mother; see the external world reflected for the first time in the yet unclear mirror of his understanding; study the first examples which strike his eyes; listen to the first words which arouse within him the slumbering power of thought; watch the first struggles which he has to undergo; only then will you comprehend the source of his prejudices, the habits, and the passions which are to rule his life. The entire man, so to speak, comes fully formed in the wrappings of his cradle.

[Alexis de Tocqueville](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville.md) · [Democracy in America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america/step-back-in-time.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [upbringing](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/upbringing.md)

> At birth all of us imagine that we are the universe, and we don't distinguish the boundaries between ourselves and those around us. ...in some social situations, there is the sense that we are central, important. ...there was a natural projection of those attitudes upon the universe.

[Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md) · [The Varieties of Scientific Experience](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/the-varieties-of-scientific-experience.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/the-varieties-of-scientific-experience/at-birth-all.md)

Topics: [selfishness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/selfishness.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> Many scientists deeply involved in the exploration of the solar system (myself among them) were first turned in that direction by science fiction. And the fact that some of that science fiction was not of the highest quality is irrelevant. Ten-year-olds do not read the scientific literature.

[Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md) · [Broca's Brain](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/brocas-brain.md) · p. 172 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/brocas-brain/many-scientists-deeply.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [reading](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reading.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> I was a normal child. Which is to say, I was selfish and I was not entirely convinced of the existence of things that were not me, and I was certain, rock-solid unshakably certain, that I was the most important thing in creation. There was nothing that was more important to me than I was.

[Neil Gaiman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman.md) · [The Ocean at the End of the Lane](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman/the-ocean-at-the-end-of-the-lane.md) · p. 207 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman/the-ocean-at-the-end-of-the-lane/i-was-a-normal.md)

Topics: [selfishness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/selfishness.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> A human life, I think, should be well rooted in some spot of native land, where it may get the love of tender kinship for the face of earth, for the labours men go forth to, for the sounds and accents that haunt it, for whatever will give that early home a familiar unmistakeable difference amidst the future widening of knowledge: a spot where the definiteness of early memories may be inwrought with affection, and kindly acquaintance with all neighbours, even to the dogs and donkeys, may spread not by sentimental effort and reflection, but as a sweet habbit of the blood. At five years old, mortals are not prepared to be citizens of the world, to be stimulated by abstract nouns, to soar above preference into impartiality; and that prejudice in favour of milk with which we blindly begin, is a type of the way body and soul must get nourished at least for a time. The best introduction to astronomy is to think of the nightly heavens as a little lot of stars belonging to one's own homestead.

[George Eliot](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot.md) · [Daniel Deronda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/daniel-deronda.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/daniel-deronda/a-human-life.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [home](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/home.md), [homeland](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/homeland.md)

> These bitter sorrows of childhood! when sorrow is all new and strange, when hope has not yet got wings to fly beyond the days and weeks, and the space from summer to summer seems measureless.

[George Eliot](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot.md) · [The Mill on the Floss](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/the-mill-on-the-floss.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/the-mill-on-the-floss/these-bitter-sorrows.md)

Topics: [hope](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hope.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [sadness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/sadness.md)

> Childhood has no forebodings; but then, it is soothed by no memories of outlived sorrow.

[George Eliot](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot.md) · [The Mill on the Floss](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/the-mill-on-the-floss.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/the-mill-on-the-floss/childhood-has-no-forebodings.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> We could never have loved the earth so well if we had had no childhood in it...

[George Eliot](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot.md) · [The Mill on the Floss](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/the-mill-on-the-floss.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/the-mill-on-the-floss/we-could-never.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> He was only ten. It seemed to him that he could see them, the two of them, shadowy in the limbo from which time emerged and became time: the old bear absolved of mortality and himself who shared a little of it. Because he recognised now what he had smelled in the huddled dogs and tasted in his own saliva, recognised fear as a boy, a youth recognises the existence of love and passion and experience which is his heritage but not yet his patrimony, from entering by chance the presence of perhaps even merely the bedroom of a woman who has loved and been loved by many men.

[William Faulkner](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-faulkner.md) · [Go Down, Moses](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-faulkner/go-down-moses.md) · p. 195 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-faulkner/go-down-moses/he-was-only.md)

Topics: [fear](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> Even in childhood I watched the hours flow, independent of any reference, any action, any event, the disjunction of time from what was not itself, its autonomous existence, its special status, its empire, its tyranny. I remember quite clearly that afternoon when, for the first time, confronting the empty universe, I was no more than a passage of moments reluctant to go on playing their proper parts. Time was coming unstuck from being — at my expense.

[Emil Cioran](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran.md) · [The Trouble With Being Born](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born/even-in-childhood.md)

Topics: [time](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> [Footnote: There is no one who looks down upon childhood with such lofty scorn as those who are barely grown-up; just as there is no country where rank is more strictly regarded than that where there is little real inequality; everybody is afraid of being confounded with his inferiors.]

[Jean Jacques Rousseau](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau.md) · [Emile; or On Education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/footnote-there-is-no-one.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [contempt](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/contempt.md)

> But when I think of a child of ten or twelve, strong, healthy, well-grown for his age, only pleasant thoughts are called up, whether of the present or the future. I see him keen, eager, and full of life, free from gnawing cares and painful forebodings, absorbed in this present state, and delighting in a fullness of life which seems to extend beyond himself. I look forward to a time when he will use his daily increasing sense, intelligence and vigour, those growing powers of which he continually gives fresh proof. I watch the child with delight, I picture to myself the man with even greater pleasure. His eager life seems to stir my own pulses, I seem to live his life and in his vigour I renew my own.
>
> The hour strikes, the scene is changed. All of a sudden his eye grows dim, his mirth has fled. Farewell mirth, farewell untrammelled sports in which he delighted. A stern, angry man takes him by the hand, saying gravely, "Come with me, sir," and he is led away. As they are entering the room, I catch a glimpse of books. Books, what dull food for a child of his age! The poor child allows himself to be dragged away; he casts a sorrowful look on all about him, and departs in silence, his eyes swollen with the tears he dare not shed, and his heart bursting with the sighs he dare not utter.

[Jean Jacques Rousseau](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau.md) · [Emile; or On Education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/but-when-i-think.md)

Topics: [education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/education.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> Hold childhood in reverence, and do not be in any hurry to judge it for good or ill. Leave exceptional cases to show themselves, let their qualities be tested and confirmed, before special methods are adopted. Give nature time to work before you take over her business, lest you interfere with her dealings. You assert that you know the value of time and are afraid to waste it. You fail to perceive that it is a greater waste of time to use it ill than to do nothing, and that a child ill taught is further from virtue than a child who has learnt nothing at all. You are afraid to see him spending his early years doing nothing. What! is it nothing to be happy, nothing to run and jump all day? He will never be so busy again all his life long. Plato, in his Republic, which is considered so stern, teaches the children only through festivals, games, songs, and amusements. It seems as if he had accomplished his purpose when he had taught them to be happy; and Seneca, speaking of the Roman lads in olden days, says, "They were always on their feet, they were never taught anything which kept them sitting." Were they any the worse for it in manhood? Do not be afraid, therefore, of this so-called idleness. What would you think of a man who refused to sleep lest he should waste part of his life? You would say, "He is mad; he is not enjoying his life, he is robbing himself of part of it; to avoid sleep he is hastening his death." Remember that these two cases are alike, and that childhood is the sleep of reason.

[Jean Jacques Rousseau](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau.md) · [Emile; or On Education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/hold-childhood-in-reverence.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [play](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/play.md)

> It is no part of a child's business to know right and wrong, to perceive the reason for a man's duties. Nature would have them children before they are men. If we try to invert this order we shall produce a forced fruit immature and flavourless, fruit which will be rotten before it is ripe; we shall have young doctors and old children. Childhood has its own ways of seeing, thinking, and feeling; nothing is more foolish than to try and substitute our ways; and I should no more expect judgment in a ten-year-old child than I should expect him to be five feet high.

[Jean Jacques Rousseau](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau.md) · [Emile; or On Education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/it-is-no-part.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> When I thus get rid of children's lessons, I get rid of the chief cause of their sorrows, namely their books. Reading is the curse of childhood, yet it is almost the only occupation you can find for children. Emile, at twelve years old, will hardly know what a book is. "But," you say, "he must, at least, know how to read." When reading is of use to him, I admit he must learn to read, but till then he will only find it a nuisance.

[Jean Jacques Rousseau](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau.md) · [Emile; or On Education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/when-i-thus.md)

Topics: [education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/education.md), [reading](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reading.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> The new-born infant cries, his early days are spent in crying. He is alternately petted and shaken by way of soothing him; sometimes he is threatened, sometimes beaten, to keep him quiet. We do what he wants or we make him do what we want, we submit to his whims or subject him to our own. There is no middle course; he must rule or obey. Thus his earliest ideas are those of the tyrant or the slave. He commands before he can speak, he obeys before he can act, and sometimes he is punished for faults before he is aware of them, or rather before they are committed. Thus early are the seeds of evil passions sown in his young heart. At a later day these are attributed to nature, and when we have taken pains to make him bad we lament his badness.
>
> In this way the child passes six or seven years in the hands of women, the victim of his own caprices or theirs, and after they have taught him all sorts of things, when they have burdened his memory with words he cannot understand, or things which are of no use to him, when nature has been stifled by the passions they have implanted in him, this sham article is sent to a tutor. The tutor completes the development of the germs of artificiality which he finds already well grown, he teaches him everything except self-knowledge and self-control, the arts of life and happiness. When at length this infant slave and tyrant, crammed with knowledge but empty of sense, feeble alike in mind and body, is flung upon the world, and his helplessness, his pride, and his other vices are displayed, we begin to lament the wretchedness and perversity of mankind. We are wrong; this is the creature of our fantasy; the natural man is cast in another mould.

[Jean Jacques Rousseau](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau.md) · [Emile; or On Education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/the-new-born-infant.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [upbringing](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/upbringing.md), [tyranny](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tyranny.md)

> We lament the helplessness of infancy; we fail to perceive that the race would have perished had not man begun by being a child. We are born weak, we need strength; helpless, we need aid; foolish, we need reason. All that we lack at birth, all that we need when we come to man's estate, is the gift of education. This education comes to us from nature, from men, or from things. The inner growth of our organs and faculties is the education of nature, the use we learn to make of this growth is the education of men, what we gain by our experience of our surroundings is the education of things.

[Jean Jacques Rousseau](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau.md) · [Emile; or On Education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/we-lament-the.md)

Topics: [education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/education.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> Men, be kind to your fellow-men; this is your first duty, kind to every age and station, kind to all that is not foreign to humanity. What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness? Love childhood, indulge its sports, its pleasures, its delightful instincts. Who has not sometimes regretted that age when laughter was ever on the lips, and when the heart was ever at peace? Why rob these innocents of the joys which pass so quickly, of that precious gift which they cannot abuse? Why fill with bitterness the fleeting days of early childhood, days which will no more return for them than for you? Fathers, can you tell when death will call your children to him? Do not lay up sorrow for yourselves by robbing them of the short span which nature has allotted to them. As soon as they are aware of the joy of life, let them rejoice in it, go that whenever God calls them they may not die without having tasted the joy of life.

[Jean Jacques Rousseau](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau.md) · [Emile; or On Education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/men-be-kind.md)

Topics: [kindness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/kindness.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [joy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/joy.md)

> This collection of scattered thoughts and observations has little order or continuity; it was begun to give pleasure to a good mother who thinks for herself. My first idea was to write a tract a few pages long, but I was carried away by my subject, and before I knew what I was doing my tract had become a kind of book, too large indeed for the matter contained in it, but too small for the subject of which it treats. For a long time I hesitated whether to publish it or not, and I have often felt, when at work upon it, that it is one thing to publish a few pamphlets and another to write a book. After vain attempts to improve it, I have decided that it is my duty to publish it as it stands. I consider that public attention requires to be directed to this subject, and even if my own ideas are mistaken, my time will not have been wasted if I stir up others to form right ideas. A solitary who casts his writings before the public without any one to advertise them, without any party ready to defend them, one who does not even know what is thought and said about those writings, is at least free from one anxiety—if he is mistaken, no one will take his errors for gospel. I shall say very little about the value of a good education, nor shall I stop to prove that the customary method of education is bad; this has been done again and again, and I do not wish to fill my book with things which everyone knows. I will merely state that, go as far back as you will, you will find a continual outcry against the established method, but no attempt to suggest a better. The literature and science of our day tend rather to destroy than to build up. We find fault after the manner of a master; to suggest, we must adopt another style, a style less in accordance with the pride of the philosopher. In spite of all those books, whose only aim, so they say, is public utility, the most useful of all arts, the art of training men, is still neglected. Even after Locke's book was written the subject remained almost untouched, and I fear that my book will leave it pretty much as it found it.We know nothing of childhood; and with our mistaken notions the further we advance the further we go astray. The wisest writers devote themselves to what a man ought to know, without asking what a child is capable of learning. They are always looking for the man in the child, without considering what he is before he becomes a man.

[Jean Jacques Rousseau](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau.md) · [Emile; or On Education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/this-collection-of-scattered.md)

Topics: [education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/education.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> It is evident that this, among many other of the purposes of my father's scheme of education, could not have been accomplished if he had not carefully kept me from having any great amount of intercourse with other boys. He was earnestly bent upon my escaping not only the ordinary corrupting influence which boys exercise over boys, but the contagion of vulgar modes of thought and feeling; and for this he was willing that I should pay the price of inferiority in the accomplishments which schoolboys in all countries chiefly cultivate. The deficiencies in my education were principally in the things which boys learn from being turned out to shift for themselves, and from being brought together in large numbers.

[John Stuart Mill](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-stuart-mill.md) · [Autobiography](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-stuart-mill/autobiography.md) · p. 35 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-stuart-mill/autobiography/it-is-evident.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [father](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/father.md)

> My state of mind was not humility, but neither was it arrogance. I never thought of saying to myself, I am, or I can do, so and so. I neither estimated myself highly nor lowly. I did not estimate myself at all. If I thought anything about myself, it was that I was rather backward in my studies, since I always found myself so, in comparison with what my father expected from me. I assert this with confidence, though it was not the impression of various persons who saw me in my childhood. They, as I have since found, thought me greatly and disagreeably self-conceited; probably because I was disputatious, and did not scruple to give direct contradictions to things which I heard said. I suppose I acquired this bad habit from having been encouraged in an unusual degree to talk on matters beyond my age, and with grown persons, while I never had inculcated in me the usual respect for them. My father did not correct this ill-breeding and impertinence, probably from not being aware of it, for I was always too much in awe of him to be otherwise than extremely subdued and quiet in his presence.

[John Stuart Mill](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-stuart-mill.md) · [Autobiography](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-stuart-mill/autobiography.md) · p. 33 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-stuart-mill/autobiography/my-state-of-mind.md)

Topics: [self-knowledge](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/self-knowledge.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> I have no remembrance of the time when I began to learn Greek. I have been told that it was when I was three years old. My earliest recollection on the subject, is that of committing to memory what my father termed Vocables, being lists of common Greek words, with their signification in English, which he wrote out for me on cards. Of grammar, until some years later, I learnt no more than the inflexions of the nouns and verbs, but, after a course of vocables, proceeded at once to translation; and I faintly remember going through AEsop's Fables, the first Greek book which I read. The Anabasis, which I remember better, was the second. I learnt no Latin until my eighth year. At that time I had read, under my father's tuition, a number of Greek prose authors, among whom I remember the whole of Herodotus, and of Xenophon's Cyropaedia and Memorials of Socrates; some of the lives of the philosophers by Diogenes Laertius; part of Lucian, and Isocrates' ad Demonicum and ad Nicoclem. I also read, in 1813, the first six dialogues (in the common arrangement) of Plato, from the Euthyphron to the Theaetetus inclusive: which last dialogue, I venture to think, would have been better omitted, as it was totally impossible I should understand it. But my father, in all his teaching, demanded of me not only the utmost that I could do, but much that I could by no possibility have done. What he was himself willing to undergo for the sake of my instruction, may be judged from the fact, that I went through the whole process of preparing my Greek lessons in the same room and at the same table at which he was writing: and as in those days Greek and English lexicons were not, and I could make no more use of a Greek and Latin lexicon than could be made without having yet begun to learn Latin, I was forced to have recourse to him for the meaning of every word which I did not know. This incessant interruption, he, one of the most impatient of men, submitted to, and wrote under that interruption several volumes of his History and all else that he had to write during those years.

[John Stuart Mill](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-stuart-mill.md) · [Autobiography](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-stuart-mill/autobiography.md) · p. 5 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-stuart-mill/autobiography/i-have-no-remembrance.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [father](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/father.md)

> “What’s your name?”
>
> “Becky Thatcher. What’s yours? Oh, I know. It’s Thomas Sawyer.”
>
> “That’s the name they lick me by. I’m Tom when I’m good.”

[Mark Twain](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain.md) · [The Adventures of Tom Sawyer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/the-adventures-of-tom-sawyer.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/the-adventures-of-tom-sawyer/whats-your-name.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> There comes a time in every rightly constructed boy's life when he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure.

[Mark Twain](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain.md) · [The Adventures of Tom Sawyer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/the-adventures-of-tom-sawyer.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/the-adventures-of-tom-sawyer/there-comes-a-time.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> A brown spotted lady-bug climbed the dizzy height of a grass blade, and Tom bent down close to it and said, “Lady-bug, lady-bug, fly away home, your house is on fire, your children’s alone,” and she took wing and went off to see about it—which did not surprise the boy, for he knew of old that this insect was credulous about conflagrations, and he had practised upon its simplicity more than once.

[Mark Twain](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain.md) · [The Adventures of Tom Sawyer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/the-adventures-of-tom-sawyer.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/the-adventures-of-tom-sawyer/a-brown-spotted.md)

Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)