Childhood

“When childhood dies, its corpses are called adults and they enter society, one of the politer names of Hell. That is why we dread children, even if we love them. They show us the state of our decay.”

“My lovely living Boy,My hope, my hap, my Love, my life, my joy.”

“'Tis not a life,'Tis but a piece of childhood thrown away.”

“Childhood is measured out by sounds and smellsAnd sights, before the dark of reason grows.”

“Women knowAlthough such trifles.”

“[Witches] steal young children out of their cradles, ministerio dæmonum, and put deformed in their rooms, which we call changelings.”

“Diogenes struck the father when the son swore.”

“Besides, they always smell of bread and butter.”

“A little curly-headed, good-for-nothing,And mischief-making monkey from his birth.”

“Teach your child to hold his tongue,He'll learn fast enough to speak.”

“By sports like these are all their cares beguil'd,The sports of children satisfy the child.”

“Childhood, whose very happiness is love.\t”

“Ay, these young things lie safe in our hearts just so long They break it, and farewell! the bird flies!”

“The childhood shows the man, As morning shows the day.”

“As children gath'ring pebbles on the shore.”

“Behold the child, by Nature's kindly law, Pleas'd with a rattle, tickled with a straw.”

“I wonder–never to return to them.”

“Once positioned on their(children's) lips,come out as a melodious lisp.”

“Even If they (children) fall during their play,the ground, mostly, does not even hurt them.”

“If they (children) smash, the flower vase assumes a smilewater forgets about its own colourlessness.”

“When we are children we seldom think of the future. This innocence leaves us free to enjoy ourselves as few adults can. The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind.”

“And children know, Instinctive taught, the friend and foe.”

“O lord! my boy, my Arthur, my fair son! My widow-comfort, and my sorrow's cure!”

“We have no such daughter, nor shall ever see Without our grace, our love, our benizon.”

“Fathers that wear rags Shall see their children kind.”

“It is a wise father that knows his own child.”

“Oh, 'tis a parlous boy; He's all the mother's from the top to toe.”

“Your children were vexation to your youth, But mine shall be a comfort to your age.”

“Behold, my lords, The very mould and frame of hand, nail, finger.”

“No sooner does a divine gift reveal itself in youth or maid than its market value becomes the decisive consideration, and the poor young creatures are offered for sale, as we might sell angels who had strayed among us.”

“From infancy you have known the holy writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired of God and beneficial for teaching, for reproving, for setting things straight, for disciplining in righteousness, so that the man of God may be fully competent, completely equipped for every good work.”

“You do not chop off a section of your imaginative substance and make a book specifically for children, for — if you are honest — you have no idea where childhood ends and maturity begins. It is all endless and all one.”

“The booby father craves a booby son,And by heaven's blessing thinks himself undone.”

“Adolescents are simply those people who haven't as yet chosen between childhood and adulthood. For as long as anyone tries to hold on to the advantages of childhood—the freedom from responsibility, principally—while seeking to lay claim to the best parts of adulthood, such as independence, he is an adolescent. [...] Eventually most people choose to be adults, or are forced into it. A very few retreat into childhood and never leave it again. A large number remain adolescents for life.”

“The children in Holland take pleasure in makingWhat the children in England take pleasure in breaking.”

“Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers, And that cannot stop their tears.”

“When I was a child, I spake as a child. I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”

“Better to be driven out from among men than to be disliked of children.”

“They are idols of hearts and of households; The kingdom of God to a child.”

“When the lessons and tasks are all ended, Shedding sunshine of love on my face.”

“Childhood has no forebodings; but then, it is soothed by no memories of outlived sorrow.”

“Wynken, Blynken and Nod one night Into a sea of dew.”

“Alas! regardless of their doom, Nor care beyond to-day.”

“But still when the mists of doubt prevail, Drawing the soul to its anchorage.”

“I think that saving a little child Than loafing around the throne.”

“Few sons attain the praiseOf their great sires and most their sires' disgrace.”

“Another tumble! that's his precious nose!”

“Oh, when I was a tiny boy To cast a look behind!”

“Children, ay, forsooth, They are not rare.”

“A babe is fed with milk and praise.”

“Oh, would I were a boy again, Was wept away in transient tears!”

“There was a little girl, When she was bad she was horrid.”

“Ah! what would the world be to us Worse than the dark before.”

“Perhaps there lives some dreamy boy, untaught For lands not yet laid down in any chart.”

“Who can foretell for what high cause This darling of the gods was born?”

“Each one could be a Jesus mild, As each goes out at journey's end.”

“And he who gives a child a treat Brings Saviour Christ again to Earth.”

“Lord, give to men who are old and rougher The young years of the little child.”

“Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.”

“The wildest colts make the best horses.”

“A wise son maketh a glad father.”

“Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old he will not depart from it.”

“Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all.”

“Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them.”

“Thy children like olive plants round about thy table.”

“There is nothing more to say, From the house on the hill.”

“Pointing to such, well might Cornelia say, "Suffer these little ones to come to me!"”

“A little child born yesterday A thing on mother's milk and kisses fed.”

“It is very nice to think In every Christian kind of place.”

“In winter I get up at night I have to go to bed by day.”

“When I am grown to man's estate Not to meddle with my toys.”

“Every night my prayers I say, I get an orange after food.”

“While here at home, in shining day, Is being kissed and put to bed.”

“Children are the keys of Paradise, Because their thoughts, their very lives, are prayer.”

“If there is anything that will endure Fresh from his hand, and therefore undefiled.”

“Not a child: I call myself a boy," "Not a child.”

“But still I dream that somewhere there must be The spirit of a child that waits for me.”

“Birds in their little nests agree:Fall out, and chide, and fight.”

“In books, or work, or healthful play, Some good account at last.”

“Oh, for boyhood's time of June,Me, their master, waited for.”

“The sweetest roamer is a boy's young heart.”

“The child is father of the man.”

“Sweet childish days, that were as longAs twenty days are now.”

“A simple child,What should it know of death?”