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1 " The purpose of life is to obey the hidden command which ensures harmony among all and creates an ever better world. We are not created only to enjoy the world, we are created in order to evolve the cosmos. "
― Maria Montessori , The Absorbent Mind
2 " If salvation and help are to come, it is through the child ; for the child is the constructor of man. "
3 " Our work is not to teach, but to help the absorbent mind in its work of development. How marvelous it would be if by our help, if by an intelligent treatment of the child, if by understanding the needs of his physical life and by feeding his intellect, we could prolong the period of functioning of the absorbent mind! "
4 " Great tact and delicacy is necessary for the care of the mind of a child from three to six years, and an adult can have very little of it. "
5 " We serve the future by protecting the present. "
6 " you do not exist, you cannot hope to grow. That is the tremendous step the child takes, the step that goes from nothing to something. "
7 " This is what is intended by education as a help to life; an education from birth that brings about a revolution: a revolution that eliminates every violence, a revolution in which everyone will be attracted towards a common center. Mothers, fathers, statesmen all will be centered upon respecting and aiding this delicate construction which is carried on in psychic mystery following the guide of an inner teacher. This is the new shining hope for humanity. It is not so much a reconstruction, as an aid to the construction carried out by the human soul as it is meant to be, developed in all the immense potentialities with which the new-born child is endowed. "
8 " Childhood is now considered by psychologists as a very important period because they realize that if we wish to give new ideas to the people, if we wish to alter the habits and customs of the country, or if we wish to accentuate more vigorously the characteristics belonging to a people, we must take as our instrument the child, as very little can be done by acting upon adults. If one has really a vision of better conditions, of greater enlightenment for people, it is only the child that one can look upon in order to bring about the desired results. If there are people who think that their customs are degenerate, or others who want to revive old ones, the only individual with whom they can work is the child. "
9 " Others, after having studied children carefully, have come to the conclusion that the first two years are the most important of life. Education during this period must be intended as a help to the development of the psychic powers inherent in the human individual. "
10 " We need not impose poverty, but it must not frighten us, as it is the most favorable condition for spiritual development we can find, if accepted with assent. If we want to experiment in giving freedom to the child, the field of poverty is the best. "
11 " The child's is a type of life in which work, the fulfilment of one's task, brings joy and happiness, whereas in the field of adult, work is something which is usually a rather painful process. "
12 " the child has a type of mind that absorbs knowledge and instructs himself. "
13 " To let the child do as he likes when he has not yet developed any powers of control is to betray the idea of freedom. "
14 " What school worries about the kind of civilization the children are forced to live in? The only thing officialdom is bothered about is whether or not the syllabus has been followed. "
15 " Recognizing the merits of the child does not diminish the authority of the father and the mother for when they come to realize that they are not the constructors, but merely the helpers of this construction, then they will be able to do their duty better; they will help the child with a greater vision. "
16 " There are social deficiencies apt to strike the spirit of young men attending the university and which do strike them, but what is the official admonition? “You students should not concern yourselves with politics. You must attend to your studies and after you have formed yourselves, then go into the world,” Yes. That is quite so, but education today does not form an intelligence capable of visualizing the epoch and the problems of the times in which they live. "
17 " formular planes para una futura reconstrucción, la educación se considera universalmente como uno de los medios más eficaces para llevar a cabo esta reconstrucción; porque no cabe duda de que, desde el punto de vista psíquico, el género humano se halla por debajo "
18 " We weep in front of the dead and we aspire towards saving humanity from destruction, but it is not the salvation from dangers, it is the elevation that is the destiny of everyone of us which should stand before our mind’s eye. It is not death, but the lost paradise that should afflict us. "
19 " Who has ever heard of any ministry of education that is called upon to solve any social problem acutely felt in the country? Never has such a case occurred because the world of education is a sort of retreat where the individuals, for the whole of their scholastic life, remain isolated from the problems of the world. "
