In medieval society the idea of childhood did not exist; this is not to suggest that children were neglected, forsaken or despised.... The idea of childhood is not to be confused with affection for children; it corresponds to an awareness of the particular nature of childhood, that particular nature which distinguishes the child from he adult, even the young adult. . . . That is why, as soon as the child could live without the constant solicitude of his mother, his nanny or his cradle- rocker, he belonged to adult society.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
We like the idea of childhood but are not always crazy about the kids we know. We like it, that is, when we are imagining our own ...childhoods. So part of our apparent appreciation of youth is simply envy.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Children became an obsessive theme in Victorian culture at the same time that they were being exploited as never before. As the ho...rrors of life multiplied for some children, the image of childhood was increasingly exalted. Children became the last symbols of purity in a world which was seen as increasingly ugly.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The thought of our past years in me doth breed Perpetual benediction: not indeed... For that which is most worthy to be blest-- Delight and liberty, the simple creed Of Childhood, whether busy or at rest, With new-fledged hope still fluttering in his breast:--LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
All of childhood's unanswered questions must finally be passed back to the town and answered there. Heroes and bogey men, values a...nd dislikes, are first encountered and labeled in that early environment. In later years they change faces, places and maybe races, tactics, intensities and goals, but beneath those penetrable masks they wear forever the stocking-capped faces of childhood.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The nearer people approach old age the closer they return to a semblance of childhood, until the time comes for them to depart thi...s life, again like children, neither tired of living nor aware of death.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Psychiatric enlightenment has begun to debunk the superstition that to manage a machine you must become a machine, and that to rai...se masters of the machine you must mechanize the impulses of childhood.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I have had playmates, I have had companions, In my days of childhood, in my joyful school-days,... All, all are gone, the old familiar faces.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In all our efforts to provide "advantages" we have actually produced the busiest, most competitive, highly pressured and over-orga...nized generation of youngsters in our history--and possibly the unhappiest. We seem hell-bent on eliminating much of childhood.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
... no human being is master of his fate, and ... we are all motivated far more than we care to admit by characteristics inherited... from our ancestors which individual experiences of childhood can modify, repress, or enhance, but cannot erase.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »