Childhood

"Alas! regardless of their doom, The little victims play; No sense have they of ills to come, Nor care beyond to-day."

"But still when the mists of doubt prevail, And we lie becalmed by the shores of age, We hear from the misty troubled shore The voice of the children gone before. Drawing the soul to its anchorage."

"I think that saving a little child And bringing him to his own, Is a derned sight better business Than loafing around the throne."

"Few sons attain the praise Of their great sires and most their sires' disgrace."

"Nondum enim quisquam suum parentem ipse cognosvit."

"Another tumble! that's his precious nose!"

"Oh, when I was a tiny boy My days and nights were full of joy. My mates were blithe and kind! No wonder that I sometimes sigh And dash the tear drop from my eye To cast a look behind!"

"Children, ay, forsooth, They bring their own love with them when they come, But if they come not there is peace and rest; The pretty lambs! and yet she cries for more: Why, the world's full of them, and so is heaven— They are not rare."

"Nil dictu fœdum visuque hæc limina tangat Intra quæ puer est."

": Let nothing foul to either eye or ear reach those doors within which dwells a boy."

"Les enfants n'ont ni passé ni avenir; et, ce qui ne nous arrive guère, ils jouissent du présent."

": Children have neither past nor future; and that which seldom happens to us, they rejoice in the present."

"Mais un fripon d'enfant (cet âge est sans pitié)."

": But a rascal of a child (that age is without pity)."

"A babe is fed with milk and praise."

"Oh, would I were a boy again, When life seemed formed of sunny years, And all the heart then knew of pain Was wept away in transient tears!"

"There was a little girl, And she had a little curl, Right in the middle of her forehead; When she was good she was very, very good, When she was bad she was horrid."

"Ah! what would the world be to us If the children were no more? We should dread the desert behind us Worse than the dark before."

"Perhaps there lives some dreamy boy, untaught In schools, some graduate of the field or street, Who shall become a master of the art, An admiral sailing the high seas of thought Fearless and first, and steering with his fleet For lands not yet laid down in any chart."

"Who can foretell for what high cause This darling of the gods was born?"

"When childhood dies, its corpses are called adults and they enter society, one of the politer names of Hell. That is why we dread children, even if we love them. They show us the state of our decay."

"And he who gives a child a treat Makes Joy-bells ring in Heaven's street, And he who gives a child a home Builds palaces in Kingdom come, And she who gives a baby birth, Brings Saviour Christ again to Earth."

"Lord, give to men who are old and rougher The things that little children suffer, And let keep bright and undefiled The young years of the little child."

"Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not."

"Ah, il n'y a plus d'enfant."

":Translation: Ah, there are no children nowadays."

"Parentes objurgatione digni sunt, qui nolunt liberos suos severa lege proficere."

": Parents deserve reproof when they refuse to benefit their children by severe discipline."

"The wildest colts make the best horses."

"A wise son maketh a glad father."

"Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old he will not depart from it."

"Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all."

"Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them."

"Each one could be a Jesus mild, Each one has been a little child, A little child with laughing look, A lovely white unwritten book; A book that God will take, my friend, As each goes out at journey's end."

"My lovely living Boy, My hope, my hap, my Love, my life, my joy."

"'Tis not a life, 'Tis but a piece of childhood thrown away."

"Childhood is measured out by sounds and smells And sights, before the dark of reason grows."

"CHILDHOOD, n. The period of human life intermediate between the idiocy of infancy and the folly of youth -- two removes from the sin of manhood and three from the remorse of age."

"Women know The way to rear up children (to be just); They know a simple, merry, tender knack Of tying sashes, fitting baby-shoes, And stringing pretty words that make no sense, And kissing full sense into empty words; Which things are corals to cut life upon, Although such trifles."

"[Witches] steal young children out of their cradles, ministerio dæmonum, and put deformed in their rooms, which we call changelings."

"Diogenes struck the father when the son swore."

"Besides, they always smell of bread and butter."

"A little curly-headed, good-for-nothing, And mischief-making monkey from his birth."

"Children, because of their helplessness, evoke our tenderness. But we must give them more than that: a vigilant sense of responsibility, an exquisite equilibrium between the extremes of exercising our authority and respecting their freedom. There is no greater satisfaction than a child who, when grown and at the age of accountability, is able to forgive us."

"Teach your child to hold his tongue, He'll learn fast enough to speak."

"By sports like these are all their cares beguil'd, The sports of children satisfy the child."

"No one knows you like a person with whom you've shared a childhood. No one will ever understand you in quite the same way."

"Childhood, whose very happiness is love."

"Jonas did not want to go back. He did not want the memories, didn't want the honor, didn't want the wisdom, didn't want the pain. He wanted his childhood again, his scraped knees and ball games. He sat in his dwelling alone, watching through the window, seeing children at play, citizens bicycling home from uneventful days at work, ordinary lives free of anguish because he had been selected, as others before him had, to bear their burden. But the choice was not his. He returned each day to the Annex room."

"Ay, these young things lie safe in our hearts just so long As their wings are in growing; and when these are strong They break it, and farewell! the bird flies!"