Top 250 Maria Montessori Quotes (2025 Update)
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151. “The hand is the prehensile organ of the mind.”

— Maria Montessori

152. “Work is necessary; it can be nothing less than a passion; a person is happy in accomplishment.”

— Maria Montessori

153. “Order is not goodness; but perhaps it is the indispensable road to arrive at it.”

— Maria Montessori

154. “Watching a child makes it obvious that the development of his mind comes through his movements.”

— Maria Montessori

155. “The environment itself will teach the child, if every error he makes is manifest to him, without the intervention of a parent of teacher, who should remain a quiet observer of all that happens.”

— Maria Montessori

156. “The child is the spiritual builder of mankind, and obstacles to his free development are the stones in the wall by which the soul of man has become imprisoned.”

— Maria Montessori

157. “The more the capacity to concentrate is developed, the more often the profound tranquility in work is achieved, then the clearer will be the manifestation of discipline within the child.”

— Maria Montessori

158. “The prize and punishments are incentives toward unnatural or forced effort, and, therefore we certainly cannot speak of the natural development of the child in connection with them.”

— Maria Montessori

159. “This is the treasure we need today – helping the child become independent of us and make his way by himself, receiving in return his gifts of hope and light.”

— Maria Montessori

160. “The child builds his inmost self out of the deeply held impressions he receives.”

— Maria Montessori

161. “In the psychological realm of relationship between teacher and child, the teacher’s part and its techniques are analogous to those of the valet; they are to serve, and to serve well: to serve the spirit.”

— Maria Montessori

162. “Our work is not to teach, but to help the absorbent mind in its work of development. How marvelous it would be if by our help, if by an intelligent treatment of the child, if by understanding the needs of his physical life and by feeding his intellect, we could prolong the period of functioning of the absorbent mind!”

— Maria Montessori

163. “The instructions of the teacher consist then merely in a hint, a touch-enough to give a start to the child. The rest develops of itself.”

— Maria Montessori

164. “If children are allowed free development and given occupation to correspond with their unfolding minds their natural goodness will shine forth.”

— Maria Montessori

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

— Maria Montessori

166. “The greatness of the human personality begins at the hour of birth. From this almost mystic affirmation there comes what may seem a strange conclusion: that education must start from birth.”

— Maria Montessori

167. “A vital force is active in every individual and leads it towards its own evolution.”

— Maria Montessori

168. “We must, therefore, quit our roles as jailers and instead take care to prepare an environment in which we do as little as possible to exhaust the child with our surveillance and instruction.”

— Maria Montessori

169. “The essential thing is to arouse such an interest that it engages the child’s whole personality.”

— Maria Montessori

170. “The first idea the child must acquire is that of the difference between good and evil.”

— Maria Montessori

171. “Our goal is not so much the imparting of knowledge as the unveiling and developing of spiritual energy.”

— Maria Montessori

172. “But if for the physical life it is necessary to have the child exposed to the vivifying forces of nature, it is also necessary for his psychical life to place the soul of the child in contact with creation.”

— Maria Montessori

173. “We must support as much as possible the child’s desires for activity; not wait on him, but educate him to be independent.”

— Maria Montessori

174. “Education demands, then, only this: the utilization of the inner powers of the child for his own instruction.”

— Maria Montessori

175. “When a child is given a little leeway, he will at once shout, “I want to do it!” But in our schools, which have an environment adapted to children’s needs, they say, “Help me to do it alone.” And these words reveal their inner needs.”

— Maria Montessori

176. “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.”

— Maria Montessori

177. “Children must grow not only in the body but in the spirit, and the mother longs to follow the mysterious spiritual journey of the beloved one who to-morrow will be the intelligent, divine creation, man.”

— Maria Montessori

178. “The greatest step forward in human evolution was made when society began to help the weak and the poor, instead of oppressing and despising them.”

— Maria Montessori

179. “Except when he has regressive tendencies, the child’s nature is to aim directly and energetically at functional independence.”

— Maria Montessori

180. “The teacher’s task is not a small easy one! She has to prepare a huge amount of knowledge to satisfy the child’s mental hunger. She is not like the ordinary teacher, limited by a syllabus. The needs of the child are clearly more difficult to answer.”

— Maria Montessori

181. “The concept of an education centered upon the care of the living being alters all previous ideas. Resting no longer on a curriculum, or a timetable, education must conform to the facts of human life.”

— Maria Montessori

182. “If I am going up a ladder, and a dog begins to bite at my ankles, I can do one of two things – either turn round and kick out at the it, or simply go on up the ladder. I prefer to go up the ladder!”

— Maria Montessori

183. “The child is much more spiritually elevated than is usually supposed. He often suffers, not from too much work, but from work that is unworthy of him.”

— Maria Montessori

184. “What is generally known as discipline in traditional schools is not activity, but immobility and silence. It is not discipline, but something that festers inside a child, arousing his rebellious feelings.”

— Maria Montessori

185. “The child is essentially alien to this society of men and might express his position in the words of the Gospel: My kingdom is not of this world.”

— Maria Montessori

186. “The principal agent is the object itself and not the instruction given by the teacher. It is the child who uses the objects; it is the child who is active, and not the teacher.”

— Maria Montessori

187. “It is easy to substitute our will for that of the child by means of suggestion or coercion; but when we have done this we have robbed him of his greatest right, the right to construct his own personality.”

— Maria Montessori

188. “All human victories, all human progress, stand upon the inner force.”

— Maria Montessori

189. “Bring the child to the consciousness of his own dignity, and he will be free. We see no limit to what should be offered to the child, for his will be an immense field of chosen activity.”

— Maria Montessori

190. “The child will reveal himself through work.”

— Maria Montessori

191. “There can be no substitute for work, neither affection nor physical well-being can replace it.”

— Maria Montessori

192. “The activity of the child has always been looked upon as an expression of his vitality.”

— Maria Montessori

193. “A child starts from nothing and advances alone. It is the child’s reason about which the sensitive periods revolve. The reason provides the initial force and energy, and a child absorbs his first images to assist the reason and act on it.”

— Maria Montessori

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

— Maria Montessori

195. “Little children, from the moment they are weaned, are making their way toward independence.”

— Maria Montessori

196. “An adult who does not understand that a child needs to use his hands and does not recognize this as the first manifestation of an instinct for work can be an obstacle to the child’s development.”

— Maria Montessori

197. “It is in the encounter of the maternal guiding instincts with the sensitive periods of the newly born that conscious love develops between parent and child.”

— Maria Montessori

198. “Solicitous care for living things affords satisfaction to one of the most lively instincts of the child’s mind. Nothing is better calculated than this to awaken an attitude of foresight.”

— Maria Montessori

199. “Sometimes very small children in a proper environment develop a skill and exactness in their work that can only surprise us.”

— Maria Montessori

200. “The teacher, when she begins work in our schools, must have a kind of faith that the child will reveal himself through work.”

— Maria Montessori