Maria Montessori Quotes

Nothing is created or destroyed in nature ...

Beauty lies in harmony, not in contrast; and harmony is refinement; therefore, there must be a fineness of the senses if we are to appreciate harmony.

Play is the work of the child.

With man, the life of the body depends on the life of the spirit.

Freedom in intellectual work is found to be the basis of internal discipline.

The child is an enigma ... He has the highest potentialities, but we do not know what he will be.

The hand is the prehensile organ of the mind.

Education should no longer be most imparting of knowledge, but must take a new path, seeking the release of human potentialities.

To aid life, leaving it free, however, that is the basic task of the educator.

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

In nature everything is transformed but nothing destroyed.

The development of the individual can be described as a succession of new births at consecutively higher levels.

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

The adult works to improve his environment while the child works to improve himself.

The child's parents are not his makers but his guardians.

How can any one paint who cannot grade colors? How can any one write poetry who has not learnt to hear and see?

Children display a universal love of mathematics, which is
par excellence the science of precision, order, and intelligence.

Only through freedom and environmental experience is it practically possible for human development to occur.

Only practical work and experience lead the young to maturity.

Children are not only sensitive to silence, but also to a voice which calls them ... Out of that silence.

Childhood constitutes the most important element in an adult's life, for it is in his early years that a man is made.

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

The child, in fact, once he feels sure of himself, will no longer seek the approval of authority after every step.

Such prizes and punishments are, if I may be allowed the expression, the bench of the soul, the instrument of slavery for the spirit.

The unknown energy that can help humanity is that which lies hidden in the child.

The fundamental basis of education must always remain that one must act for oneself. That is clear. One must act for him or herself.

The environment must be rich in motives which lend interest to activity and invite the child to conduct his own experiences.

Teach by teaching, not by correcting

The greatness of the human personality begins at the hour of birth.

A child needs freedom within limits.

When you have solved the problem of controlling the attention of the child, you have solved the entire problem of its education.

Character formation cannot be taught. It comes from experience and not from explanation.

Let us treat them [children], therefore, with all the kindness which we would wish to help to develop in them.

A child's work is to create the person she/he will become.

The human hand allows the mind to reveal itself.

Social grace, inner discipline and joy. These are the birthright of the human being who has been allowed to develop essential human qualities.

The social relations which are the basis of the reproduction of the species are founded upon the continuous union of parents in marriage.

We teachers can only help the work going on, as servants wait upon a master.

The child's conquests of independence are the basic steps in what is called his 'natural development'.

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

The only language men ever speak perfectly is the one they learn in babyhood, when no one can teach them anything!

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

To teach details is to bring confusion; to establish the relationship between things is to bring knowledge.

The child is both a hope and a promise for mankind.

The land is where our roots are. The children must be taught to feel and live in harmony with the Earth.

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.

Order is ... the true key to rapidity of reaction.

Woman was always the custodian of human sentiment, morality and honour, and in these respects, man always has yielded woman the palm.

The study of love and its utilization will lead us to the source from which it springs, The Child.

It is not in human nature for all men to tread the same path of development, as animals do of a single species.

There must be provision for the child to have contact with nature; to understand and appreciate the order, the harmony and the beauty in nature.

The child has other powers than ours, and the creation he achieves is no small one; it is everything.

At about a year and a half, the child discovers another fact, and that is that each thing has its own name.

To assist a child we must provide him with an environment which will enable him to develop freely.

We must therefore turn to the child as to the key to the fate of our future life.

The child can only develop fully by means of experience in his environment. We call such experience 'work'.

We shall walk together on this path of life, for all things are part of the universe and are connected with each other to form one whole unity.

Noble ideas, great sentiments have always existed and have always been transmitted, but wars have never ceased.

In nature nothing creates itself and nothing destroys itself.

Environment is undoubtedly a secondary factor in the phenomena of life; it can modify in that it can help or hinder, but it can never create.

Education, as conceived today, is something separated both from biological and social life.

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

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

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

If help and salvation are to come, they can only come from the children, for the children are the makers of men.

If the ways of the Almighty are not humanly logical, it is not the fault of the Almighty but of the limitations of human logic.

To stimulate life, leaving it free, however, to unfold itself
that is the first duty of the educator.

For what is the use of transmitting knowledge if the individual's total development lags behind?

The child, making use of all that he finds around him, shapes himself for the future.

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.

Peace is what every human being is craving for, and it can be brought about by humanity through the child.

Plainly, the environment must be a living one, directed by a higher intelligence, arranged by an adult who is prepared for his mission.

Education must start from birth.

Early childhood education is the key to the betterment of society.

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

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

It is true that we cannot make a genius. We can only give to teach child the chance to fulfil his potential possibilities.

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.

The world of education is like an island where people cut off from the world are prepared for life by exclusion from it.

The greatest source of discouragement is the conviction that one is unable to do something

If salvation and help are to come, it is through the child ; for the child is the constructor of man.

The task of the educator lies in seeing that the child does not confound good with immobility and evil with activity.

Within the child lies the fate of the future.

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

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

The work of education is divided between the teacher and the environment.

The man of character is the persistent man, the man who is faithful to his own word, his own convictions, his own affections.

The first aim of the prepared environment is, as far as it is possible, to render the growing child independent of the adult.

There are many things which no teacher can convey to a child of three, but a child of five can do it with ease.

The essence of independence is to be able to do something for one's self.

Joy is the evidence of inner growth.

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

He does it with his hands, by experience, first in play and then through work. The hands are the instruments of man's intelligence.

To give a child liberty is not to abandon him to himself.

Needless help is an actual hindrance to the development of natural forces.

All our handling of the child will bear fruit, not only at the moment, but in the adult they are destined to become.

The most important period of life is not the age of university studies, but the first one, the period from birth to the age of six.

Only when the child is able to identify its own center with the center of the universe does education really begin.

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

From the child itself he will learn how to perfect himself as an educator.