Fred Rogers Quotes

My childhood gave me resilience - and there's little that can surprise me in life.

Maybe I didn't have the childhood people think you should have, but I still went through the ages; I was still a child.

The more we shelter children from every disappointment, the more devastating future disappointments will be.

At every step the child should be allowed to meet the real experience of life; the thorns should never be plucked from his roses.

We're all human, and growing up you learn that the world isn't always kind.

I don't remember the first half of my life. All I say is a happy childhood is the worst possible preparation for life.

When a child can be brought to tears, and not from fear of punishment, but from repentance he needs no chastisement. When the tears begin to flow from the grief of their conduct you can be sure there is an angel nestling in their heart.

I have a real no-nonsense dad who taught me how to be resilient at a very young age.

We're so preoccupied with protecting children from disappointment and discomfort that we're inadvertently excusing them from growing up.

Children and teens need to explore the dark side as a healthy part of growing. If a child is protected from everything dreadful, he will have no coping mechanisms in place when finally confronted with disaster.

What I remember as a child is that other kids didn't care about suffering. I always did.

Jacqueline Woodson's books are such a gift to parents and children for their poignant subtlety and lyricism and their willingness to let a reader dwell in the pangs of realization that we sometimes try to protect our children from.

I learned everything the hard way - like, literally, everything. I know that God does that to people that he has lessons for. I just wish that I had learned less extreme lessons.

Understanding comes with life. As a man grows he sees life and death, he is happy and sad, he works, plays, meets people - sometimes it takes a lifetime to acquire understanding, because in the end understanding simply means having sympathy for people.

People who hadn't suffered a loss yet struck me as not quite grown up.

I met so many young girls and even older women who had literally been through so much that I couldn't even imagine. I was maybe a little more closed-minded, and I learned from them never to judge anyone.

Life is hard, and children have to be told how hard life can be…So they will be sympathetic to others. So they will understand that some people have it harder than they do and that a trip through this world can be a wildly different experience, depending on what chemicals are raging through one’s mind.

In teaching your child, do not forget that suffering is good too. It makes a person rich in character.

The sooner you learn that life is not fair, the better off you'll be.

To exult over the miseries of an unhappy creature is inhuman.

We have to go through certain things in order to appreciate life and learn lessons.

When we pass by another person without telling them we love them it’s cruel and wrong and we all know this.

But without painful experiences, we dont grow

When life leaves us blind, love keeps us kind.

Is it not enough that 'things are cruel and blind'? Must we also be cruel and blind?