This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
"That the truths of the Bible have the power of awakening an intense moral feeling in every human being; that they make bad men good, and send a pulse of healthful feeling through all the domestic, civil, and social relations; that they teach men to love right, and hate wrong, and seek each other's welfare as children of a common parent; that they control the baleful passions of the heart, and thus make men proficient in self-government; and finally that they teach man to aspire after conformity to a being of infinite holiness, and fill him with hopes more purifying, exalted, and suited to his nature than any other book the world has ever known - these are facts as incontrovertible as the laws of philosophy, or the demonstrations of mathematics." - Francis Wayland
"Mythology is what grown-ups believe, folklore is what they tell the children, and religion is both." - Cedric Hubbell Whitman
"By exposing them continually to an adult world, which is basically materialistic, we have robbed children of the privilege of childhood. They have been told over and over again that things bring happiness and that happiness is the chief goal in life. We have sold our youth a big lie... Expose hedonism for what it is - a big lie, a mirage that always fades." -
"Art, not less eloquently than literature, teaches her children to venerate the single eye." - Robert Aris Willmott
"Wisdom sits with children round her knees." - William Wordsworth
"There are no illegitimate children- only illegitimate parents." - Leon R Yankwich, fully Leon Rene Yankwich
"Fools with bookish knowledge, are children with edged weapons, they hurt themselves, and put others in pain. The half-learned is more dangerous than the simpleton." - Johann Georg Ritter von Zimmermann
"What children expect from grownups is not to be 'understood', but only to be loved, even though this love may be expressed clumsily or in sternness. Intimacy does not exist between generations - only trust." - Carly Zucker
"Be just: the unjust never prosper. Be valiant: die rather than yield. Be merciful: slay neither old men, children, nor women. Destroy neither fruit trees, grain, nor cattle. Keep your word, even to your enemies." - Abu-Bakr NULL
"It’s a sad moment, really, when parents first become a bit frightened of their children." - Ama Ata Aidoo, fully Christina Ama Ata Aidoo
"The mother said, “This is a better day than the last, for my children have learned fortitude in the face of hardness. Yesterday I gave them courage. Today I have given them strength... This is the best day of all, for I have shown my children God... I have reached the end of my journey. And now I know that the end is better than the beginning, for my children can walk alone, and their children after them.” And the children said, “You will always walk with us, Mother, even when you have gone through the gates.”" - Temple Bailey, born Irene Temple Bailey
"The situation of our youth is not mysterious. Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them. They must, they have no other models." - James Baldwin, fully James Arthur Baldwin
"Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them." - James Baldwin, fully James Arthur Baldwin
"Parents belong to the world of the past; children belong to the world of the future. Both share the world of the present, but neither can enter or fully understand the other’s world and time. It is easier to communicate across miles than across years. We meet and laugh awhile; we separate and grieve awhile. And then we remember." - Joseph A. Bauer
"Next to the care of our own souls a right education of our children is greatest." - John Bellers
"The sexual act takes on qualitative significance and value which transcends the other meanings the sexual act can have, when lovers use the act purposely to become parents. For now the two lovers express their faith in love itself, in the possibilities open to their children within the social order and in this world." - Peter A. Bertocci, fully Peter Anthony Bertocci
"He who would see the Divinity must see him in his Children." - William Blake
"Ideas have consequences. If human life is not sacred, it is expendable. It we are mere brutes, then we can be bred for better pedigree like any dog… The eugenic idea is that we do not want to allow “defective stock” to be bred. Today we abort millions of children, often on the basis of a “high risk” of some disorder." - Joe Boot
"Reading to children at night, responding to their smiles, with a smile, returning their vocalizations with one of your own, touching them, holding them – all of these further a child’s brain development and future potential, even in the earliest months. Research demonstrates that the early responsiveness of caring parents sets the tone for future self-esteem, trust, problem solving, ability to communicate successfully and motivation for future learning." - T. Berry Brazelton, fully Thomas Berry Brazelton
"An optimist is a believer I the bet, and any man who believes that anything less than the best is the ultimate purpose of God, and so the ultimate possibility of God’s children, has no business to live upon the earth." - Phillips Brooks
"Always remember that the people are not fighting for ideas, nor for what is in men’s minds. The people fight and accept the sacrifices demanded by the struggle in order to gain material advantages, to live better and in peace, to benefit from progress, and for the better future of their children. National liberation, the struggle against colonialism, the construction of peace, progress and independence are hollow words devoid of any significance unless they can be translated into real improvement of living conditions." - Amilcar Cabral
"Two great things you can give your children: one is roots, the other is wings." - Hodding Carter II
"How good a parent you were is determined by your grandchildren. If I have not taught my children how to be good parents – principally by example – then I have not fulfilled my responsibility." - S. Truett Cathy
"Blind obedience is itself an abuse of human morality. It is a misuse of the human soul in the name of religious commitment. It is a sin against individual conscience. It makes moral children of the adults from whom moral agency is required. It makes a vow, which is meant to require religious figures to listen always to the law of God, beholden first to the laws of very human organizations in the person of very human authorities. It is a law that isn't even working in the military and can never substitute for personal morality." - Joan Chittister, fully Sister Joan D. Chittister
"As long as anger lives, she continues to be the fruitful mother of many unhappy children." - John Climacus, fully Saint John Climacus, aka John of the Ladder, John Scholasticus and John Sinaites
"The children need the bread of the mind." - Rafael Cordero y Molina
"The primary business of school is to train children to co-operative and mutually helpful living; to foster in them the consciousness of mutual interdependence." - John Dewey
"Tiny children want to learn to the degree that they are unable to distinguish learning from fun. They keep this attitude until we adults convince them that learning is not fun." - Glenn Doman
"When a man dies, if he can pass enthusiasm along to his children, he has left them an estate of incalculable value." - Thomas Edison, fully Thomas Alva Edison
"[A] society that pulls the needs of its children dead is a society “progressing” rapidly toward moral ruin." - Jean Bethke Elshtain
"Healthy children will not fear life if their elders have integrity enough not to fear death." - James W. Fowler III
"Children are completely egoistic,; they feel their needs intensely and strive ruthlessly to satisfy them." - Sigmund Freud, born Sigismund Schlomo Freud
"The greatest lessons in life, if we would but stoop and humble our selves, we would learn not from the grown-up learned men, but from the so-called ignorant children." - Mahatma Gandhi, fully Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, aka Bapu
"The best inheritance a parent can give to his children is a few minutes of their time each day." - M. Grundler
"If you can’t hold children in your arms, please hold them in your hearts." - Clara Hale
"Children who are not spoken to by… responsive adults will not learn to speak properly. Children who are not answered will stop asking questions. They will become incurious. And children who are not told stories and who are not read to will have few reasons for wanting to learn to read." - Gail E Haley
"The school system can’t make up for family failure. The total education of our children is a cooperative effort requiring community solidarity. Apathetic parents who foster a permissive home atmosphere create a problem for everyone." - John Hansgate
"Our children give us the opportunity to become the parents we always wished we’d had." - Louise Hart
"We humans have the capacity to change the world with acts of love and kindness. Let’s start by teaching our children the importance of compassion." - Goldie Hawn, fully Goldie Jeanne Hawn
"We have surrendered our responsibility to shape the inner life of our children to others." - Abraham Joshua Heschel
"The day the world turns our way, we are great philosophers and can close our eyes to possessions; but the day the world turns against us, we are bawling children, grasping for toys." - Mohammad Ḥejāzi, Moḥammad Moṭiʿ-Al-Dawla
"Children need love, especially when they do not deserve it." - Harold S. Hulbert