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A child is innately wise and realistic. If left to himself without adult suggestion of any kind, he will develop as far as he is capable of developing.

— A. S. Neill Summerhill (1960)

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More quotes by A. S. Neill

My own criterion of success is the ability to work joyfully and to live positively.

Summerhill (1960)

You cannot make children learn music or anything else without to some degree converting them into will-less adults.

Summerhill (1960)

If the emotions are free, the intellect will look after itself.

The Free Child (1953)

Hate breeds hate, and love breeds love.

Summerhill (1960)

No one has the right to make a boy learn Latin, because learning is a matter for individual choice; but if in a Latin class, a boy fools all the time, the class should throw him out, because he interferes with the freedom of others.

Summerhill (1960)

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Some of my youthful readers are developing wonderful imaginations. This pleases me.

L. Frank Baum Introduction to The Lost Princess of Oz (1917)

So what if a kid dies? God will take care of him.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev

Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man.

Rabindranath Tagore Stray Birds (1916)

Happiness is an imaginary condition, formerly attributed by the living to the dead, now usually attributed by adults to children, and by children to adults.

Thomas Szasz The Second Sin (1973)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: A. S. Neill (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.