Top 90 Quotes About Childhood (2025 Update)

1. “Childhood is not a race to see how quickly a child can read, write and count. It is a small window of time to learn and develop at the pace that is right for each individual child. Earlier is not better.”

— Magda Gerber

Also featured in: Quotes About Children, Growing Up Quotes, Parenting Quotes, Inspirational Quotes for Teachers

2. “That’s the real trouble with the world. Too many people grow up.”

— Walt Disney

Also featured in: Optimistic Quotes, Imagination Quotes, Quotes About People, Quotes About Children

3. “In order to develop normally, a child requires progressively more complex joint activity with one or more adults who have an irrational emotional relationship with the child. Somebody’s got to be crazy about that kid. That’s number one. First, last and always.”

— Urie Bronfenbrenner

Also featured in: Crazy Quotes, Quotes About Kids, Growing Up Quotes, Parenting Quotes

4. “Children require long, uninterrupted periods of play and exploration.”

— Jean Piaget

Also featured in: Quotes About Kids, Growing Up Quotes

5. “The child is both a hope and a promise for mankind.”

— Maria Montessori

Also featured in: Education Quotes, Quotes About Kids

6. “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”

— Frederick Douglass

Also featured in: Emotional Quotes, Famous Quotes, Powerful Quotes, Quotes About Kids

7. “Receive the children in reverence, educate them in love, and send them forth in freedom.”

— Rudolf Steiner

Also featured in: Education Quotes, Short Positive Quotes, Encouraging Quotes for Students, Inspirational Quotes for Students

8. “It is in the small things we see it. The child’s first step, as awesome as an earthquake. The first time you rode a bike, wallowing up the sidewalk.”

— Anne Sexton

Also featured in: Courage Quotes

9. “Every child needs at least one adult who is irrationally crazy about him or her.”

— Urie Bronfenbrenner

Also featured in: Caring Quotes, Crazy Quotes, Quotes About Children, Quotes About Kids, Growing Up Quotes

10. “I think it’s the books that you read when you’re young that live with you forever.”

— J.K. Rowling

Also featured in: Quotes About Books And Reading, Storytelling Quotes, Reading Quotes, Quotes About Kids

11. “The education of even a small child, therefore, does not aim at preparing him for school, but for life.”

— Maria Montessori

Also featured in: Education Quotes, Lifelong Learning Quotes, School Quotes, Growing Up Quotes

12. “You make each day a special day. You know how, by just your being you.”

— Fred Rogers

Also featured in: Empathy Quotes, Friendship Quotes, Kindness Quotes, Have a Great Day Quotes, I Appreciate You Quotes

13. “The best way to raise positive children in a negative world is to have positive parents who love them unconditionally and serve as excellent role models.”

— Zig Ziglar

Also featured in: Unconditional Love Quotes, Family Quotes, Parenting Quotes

14. “There is no such thing as a baby, there is a baby and someone.”

— Donald Woods Winnicott

15. “History will judge us by the difference we make in the everyday lives of children.”

— Nelson Mandela

Also featured in: Care Quotes, Encouraging Quotes for Students, Legacy Quotes

16. “Don’t let them get you down. Be cheeky. And wild. And wonderful.”

— Astrid Lindgren

Also featured in: Cute Quotes, Cheer Quotes, Positive Quotes for Women, Boldness Quotes

17. “A person’s a person, no matter how small.”

— Dr. Seuss

Also featured in: Empathy Quotes, Cute Quotes, Human Nature Quotes, Quotes About Kids

18. “If you never did you should. These things are fun and fun is good.”

— Dr. Seuss

Also featured in: Enjoy Life Quotes, Cute Quotes, Sunday Quotes, Hilarious Quotes

19. “A child’s mental health is just as important as their physical health.”

— Kate Middleton

Also featured in: Wellness Wednesday Quotes, Growing Up Quotes, Motherhood Quotes

20. “Play is the work of the child.”

— Maria Montessori

Also featured in: Education Quotes, Quotes About Children, Quotes About Kids

21. “Curiosity in children is but an appetite for knowledge.”

— John Locke

Also featured in: Curiosity Quotes

22. “A father's smile has been known to light up a child's entire day.”

— Susan Gale

Also featured in: Cute Quotes, Affirmation Quotes, Smile Quotes, Good Day Quotes

23. “Children learn more from what you are than what you teach.”

— W. E. B. Du Bois

Also featured in: Influence Quotes

24. “Children are not vessels to be filled but lamps to be lit.”

— Chinmayananda Saraswati

Also featured in: Growing Up Quotes

25. “There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.”

— Nelson Mandela

Also featured in: Make A Difference Quotes

26. “Every time a child is saved from the dark side of life, every time one of us makes the effort to make a difference in a child’s life, we add light and healing to our own lives.”

— Oprah Winfrey

Also featured in: Empathy Quotes, Service Quotes, Generosity Quotes

27. “All kids need is a little help, a little hope and somebody who believes in them.”

— Magic Johnson

Also featured in: Be Kind Quotes, Affirmation Quotes, Inspirational Quotes for Students, You Got This Quotes

28. “May you grow up to be righteous, may you grow up to be true. May you always know the truth and see the lights surrounding you. May you always be courageous, stand upright and be strong. May you stay forever young.”

— Bob Dylan

Also featured in: Strong Quotes, Legacy Quotes, Good Luck Quotes

29. “A misbehaving child is a discouraged child.”

— Rudolf Dreikurs

30. “A child needs freedom within limits.”

— Maria Montessori

Also featured in: Education Quotes, Quotes About Children, Quotes About Kids, Parenting Quotes

31. “When little people are overwhelmed by big emotions, it’s our job to share our calm, not join their chaos.”

— L.R. Knost

Also featured in: Empathy Quotes, Wellness Wednesday Quotes, Parenting Quotes

32. “Reading should not be presented to children as a chore or duty. It should be offered to them as a precious gift.”

— Kate DiCamillo

Also featured in: Quotes About Books And Reading, Encouraging Quotes for Students, Reading Quotes

33. “I’m always Peter Pan in my heart.”

— Michael Jackson

34. ““Sometimes,” said Pooh, ‘the smallest things take up the most room in your heart.’”

— A. A. Milne

Also featured in: Love Life Quotes, Happy Valentine's Day Quotes, Meaningful Friendship Quotes, Thinking of You Quotes

35. “Experts in literacy and child development have discovered that if children know eight nursery rhymes by heart by the time they’re four years old, they’re usually among the best readers by the time they’re eight.”

— Mem Fox

36. “It’s never too late to have a happy childhood.”

— Tom Robbins

37. “Children spell love with four letters: T-I-M-E...”

— Max Lucado

Also featured in: Love Life Quotes, Making Memories Quotes, Blessed Family Quotes

38. “My business is making people, especially children, happy.”

— Walt Disney

Also featured in: Happy Sunday Quotes, Happy Friday Quotes, Being Happy Quotes

39. “I am Peter Pan. He represents youth, childhood, never growing up, magic, flying.”

— Michael Jackson

Also featured in: Quotes About Growing Up, Quotes About Laughter

40. “The more healthy relationships a child has, the more likely he will be to recover from trauma and thrive. Relationships are the agents of change and the most powerful therapy is human love.”

— Bruce D. Perry

Also featured in: Psychology Quotes, Mental Health Quotes, Compassion Quotes, Adversity Quotes, Quotes About Children

41. “What a child can do today with assistance, she will be able to do by herself tomorrow.”

— Lev S. Vygotsky

Also featured in: Education Quotes, Inspirational Quotes for Students, Teaching Quotes, Growing Up Quotes

42. “Be what you wish your children to be. Parents have perpetuated by precept and example their own stamp of character to their posterity.”

— Ellen G. White

Also featured in: Legacy Quotes, Expectations Quotes, Parenting Quotes

43. “We are storytelling creatures, and as children we acquire language to tell those stories that we have inside us.”

— Jerome S. Bruner

Also featured in: Quotes About Stories

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

— Maria Montessori

Also featured in: Education Quotes, Future Quotes, Quotes About Children, Quotes About Kids

45. “Children are human beings to whom respect is due, superior to us by reason of their innocence and of the greater possibilities of their future.”

— Maria Montessori

Also featured in: Education Quotes, Quotes About Children

46. “The magic, the wonder, the mystery and the innocence of a child’s heart are the seeds of creativity that will heal the world.”

— Michael Jackson

Also featured in: Creativity Quotes, Optimistic Quotes, Quotes About Heart, Quotes About Children

47. “Our children are our only hope for the future, but we are their only hope for their present and their future.”

— Zig Ziglar

Also featured in: Relationship Quotes, Positive Motivation Quotes, Personal Responsibility Quotes, Quotes About Children

48. “Anyone who does anything to help a child in his life is a hero to me.”

— Fred Rogers

Also featured in: Caring Quotes, Quotes About Children, Quotes About Kids, Parenting Quotes

49. “I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living.”

— Dr. Seuss

Also featured in: Funny Quotes, Creativity Quotes, Imagination Quotes, Different Quotes

50. “Oh the places you’ll go! There is fun to be done!”

— Dr. Seuss

Also featured in: Funny Quotes, Silly Quotes, Moving On Quotes, Travel Quotes