Alice Meynell Quotes

Children are curious and are risk takers. They have lots of courage. They venture out into a world that is immense and dangerous. A child initially trusts life and the processes of life.

Don't limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time.

I loved the idea of seeing the world through a boy's eyes.

I think it's hard to write about children and to have an idea of innocence.

Watching my little 18 month old confidently waddle around his weekend exploring the world, I realized that one of the things that's so joyful about being around little one's is that they haven't absorbed all of our cultural programming yet.

There are 500 reasons I write for children.... Children read books, not reviews. They don't give a hoot about the critics.... They don't read to free themselves of guilt, to quench their thirst for rebellion, or to get rid of alienation. They still believe in God, the family, angels, devils, witches, goblins, logic, clarity, punctuation, and other such obsolete stuff.... They don't expect their beloved writer to redeem humanity. Young as they are, they know that it is not in his power. Only the adults have such childish illusions.

I'm sure I shall always feel like a child in the wood.

We should always do something that makes us feel like a child again. Keep learning, no matter what it is.

I think there's no question that there's a reason why small children make great art and why slightly bigger children don't. And it's because small children don't worry about what anybody else thinks and slightly bigger children start to worry about these things.

It was something every child knew how to do, maintain a direct and full connection with the world. Somehow you forgot about it as you grew up, and had to learn it again.

So far as I have myself observed, the distinctive character of a child is to live always in the tangible present.

The difference between the child and the man lies chiefly in the unlimited confidence and buoyancy of youth.

Your little child is the only true democrat.

The greatest poem ever known Is one all poets have outgrown: The poetry, innate, untold, Of being only four years old.

The weakness of little children's limbs is innocent, not their souls.

We start out in our lives as little children, full of light and the clearest vision.

This tree house became our galleon, our spaceship, our Fort Apache...Ours was a learning tree. Through it we learned to trust ourselves and our abilities.

The child's laughter is pure until he first laughs at a clown.

I thought children were pure and innocent, and that was inherently better.

It is indeed a mistake to confuse children with angels

All children are heartless. They have not grown a heart yet, which is why they can climb tall trees and say shocking things and leap so very high that grown-up hearts flutter in terror. Hearts weigh quite a lot. That is why it takes so long to grow one. But, as in their reading and arithmetic and drawing, different children proceed at different speeds. (It is well known that reading quickens the growth of a heart like nothing else.) Some small ones are terrible and fey, Utterly Heartless. Some are dear and sweet and Hardly Heartless at all.

Being a child is in itself a profession.

Imagine for a moment playing by children's rules. If you were at a party and saw someone you liked, you could just go and hold their hand. If they then try to kiss you and you don't like it, you can push them over. If your aunty gives you a Christmas present that you're not too keen on, you can throw it back in her face and burst into tears. You can gallop freely. You can skip. Children have got it right. The tragedy is, none of this is permissible as an adult. Although one thing surely is – and I'll bet you know what I'm going to say – that's right, the galloping. Such fun!