Childhood

"The sweetest roamer is a boy's young heart."

"Thy children like olive plants round about thy table."

"While here at home, in shining day, We round the sunny garden play, Each little Indian sleepy-head Is being kissed and put to bed."

"A simple child, That lightly draws its breath, And feels its life in every limb, What should it know of death?"

"Children are the keys of Paradise, They alone are good and wise, Because their thoughts, their very lives, are prayer."

"There is nothing more to say, They have all gone away From the house on the hill."

": Happy child! the cradle is still to thee a vast space; but when thou art a man the boundless world will be too small for thee."

"Every night my prayers I say, And get my dinner every day, And every day that I've been good, I get an orange after food."

"Ut quisque suum vult esse, ita est."

"Sweet childish days, that were as long As twenty days are now."

": As each one wishes his children to be, so they are."

"If there is anything that will endure The eye of God, because it still is pure, It is the spirit of a little child, Fresh from his hand, and therefore undefiled."

": Dare to err and to dream. Deep meaning often lies in childish plays."

"L'enfance est le sommeil de la raison."

"Pointing to such, well might Cornelia say, When the rich casket shone in bright array, "These are my Jewels!" Well of such as he, When Jesus spake, well might the language be, "Suffer these little ones to come to me!""

"Glücklicher Säugling! dir ist ein unendlicher Raum noch die Wiege, Werde Mann, und dir wird eng die unendliche Welt."

"A little child born yesterday A thing on mother's milk and kisses fed."

"When I am grown to man's estate I shall be very proud and great And tell the other girls and boys Not to meddle with my toys."

"Not a child: I call myself a boy," Says my king, with accent stern yet mild; Now nine years have brought him change of joy— "Not a child."

": For he who has acquired the habit of lying or deceiving his father, will do the same with less remorse to others. I believe that it is better to bind your children to you by a feeling of respect, and by gentleness, than by fear."

"In books, or work, or healthful play, Let my first years be past, That I may give for every day Some good account at last."

"The child is father of the man."

"Oh, for boyhood's time of June, Crowding years in one brief moon, When all things I heard or saw, Me, their master, waited for."

"Birds in their little nests agree: And 'tis a shameful sight, When children of one family Fall out, and chide, and fight."

"Nam qui mentiri, aut fallere insuerit patrem, aut Audebit: tanto magis audebit cæteros. Pudore et liberalitate liberos Retinere satius esse credo, quam metu."

"But still I dream that somewhere there must be The spirit of a child that waits for me."

"In winter I get up at night And dress by yellow candle-light. In summer, quite the other way, I have to go to bed by day."

"It is very nice to think The world is full of meat and drink With little children saying grace In every Christian kind of place."

"Wage du zu irren und zu träumen. Hoher Sinn liegt oft im kind'schen Spiel."

": Childhood is the sleep of reason."

"We have no such daughter, nor shall ever see That face of her again. Therefore begone Without our grace, our love, our benizon."

"O lord! my boy, my Arthur, my fair son! My life, my joy, my food, my all the world! My widow-comfort, and my sorrow's cure!"

"Childhood, whose very happiness is love."

"It is only when we start enjoying childhood that we have stepped out of it."

"And children know, Instinctive taught, the friend and foe."

"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."

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

"When we are children we seldom think of the future. This innocence leaves us free to enjoy ourselves as few adults can. The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind."

"If they (children) smash, the flower vase assumes a smile while turning into pieces. For a chance to be spilled by their hands, anything they hold gets spilled itself full of happiness. For a chance to play with them, water forgets about its own colourlessness."

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

"Even If they (children) fall during their play, the nature, having come under the spell of their creative sports, doesn’t know when they again start to play so full of jest. Believing that they fall unknowingly the ground, mostly, does not even hurt them."

"Once positioned on their(children's) lips, even the scariest of words come out as a melodious lisp."

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

"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."

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

"They are idols of hearts and of households; They are angels of God in disguise; His sunlight still sleeps in their tresses, His glory still gleams in their eyes; Those truants from home and from Heaven They have made me more manly and mild; And I know now how Jesus could liken The kingdom of God to a child."

"When the lessons and tasks are all ended, And the school for the day is dismissed, The little ones gather around me, To bid me good-night and be kissed; Oh, the little white arms that encircle My neck in their tender embrace Oh, the smiles that are halos of heaven, Shedding sunshine of love on my face."

"Childhood has no forebodings; but then, it is soothed by no memories of outlived sorrow."

"Wynken, Blynken and Nod one night Sailed off in a wooden shoe— Sailed on a river of crystal light Into a sea of dew."

"Better to be driven out from among men than to be disliked of children."