"This is education, understood as a help to life; an education from birth, which feeds a peaceful revolution and unites all in a common aim, attracting them as to a single centre. Mothers, fathers, politicians: all must combine in their respect and help for this delicate work of formation, which the little child carries on in the depth of a profound psychological mystery, under the tutelage of an inner guide. This is the bright new hope for mankind."
Quote collection
Maria Montessori quotes (page 5 of 17)
321 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"Preventing war is the work of politicians, establishing peace is the work of educationists."
"It is necessary for the teacher to guide the child without letting him feel her presence too much, so that she may always be ready to supply the desired help, but may never be the obstacle between the child and his experience."
"A child's work is to create the person she/he will become."
"Our care of the child should be governed, not by the desire to make him learn things, but by the endeavor always to keep burning within him that light which is called intelligence."
"The unknown energy that can help humanity is that which lies hidden in the child."
"A child's character develops in accordance with the obstacles he has encountered... or the freedom favoring his development that he has enjoyed."
"Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war."
"My vision of the future is no longer of people taking exams and proceeding from secondary school to University but of passing from one stage of independence to a higher, by means of their own activity and effort of will."
"Character formation cannot be taught. It comes from experience and not from explanation."
"We must support as much as possible the child's desires for activity; not wait on him, but educate him to be independent."
"The real preparation for education is a study of one's self. The training of the teacher...is something far more than a learning of ideas. It includes the training of character; it is a preparation of the spirit."
"Giving children the opportunity to stir up life and leave it free to discover."
"There is in the child a special kind of sensitivity which leads him to absorb everything about him, and it is this work of observing and absorbing that alone enables him to adapt himself to life"
"A child is mysterious and powerful; And contains within himself the secret of human nature."
"Social grace, inner discipline and joy. These are the birthright of the human being who has been allowed to develop essential human qualities."
"No social problem is as universal as the oppression of the child"
"The child is endowed with unknown powers, which can guide us to a radiant future. If what we really want is a new world, then education must take as its aim the development of these hidden possibilities."
"The needs of mankind are universal. Our means of meeting them create the richness and diversity of the planet. The Montessori child should come to relish the texture of that diversity."
"The role of education is to interest the child profoundly in an external activity to which he will give all his potential"