Maria Montessori

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

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

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

“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.”

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

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

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

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

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

“We cannot know the consequences of suppressing a child's spontaneity when he is just beginning to be active. We may even suffocate life itself. That humanity which is revealed in all its intellectual splendor during the sweet and tender age of childhood should be respected with a kind of religious veneration. It is like the sun which appears at dawn or a flower just beginning to bloom. Education cannot be effective unless it helps a child to open up himself to life.”

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

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