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Childhood is an elusive thing, since you can't really put a finger on what it is until you've left it — and by then, you might have lost some of the immediacy of childlike wonder. Still, that hasn't stopped people from trying to capture the essence of kids in words — and some people do a pretty good job.
These are the best quotes about kids, coming from everyone from writers and thinkers to actors and comedians. And since they're all coming from such different backgrounds, even though they're all still talking about kids, they're all hitting on a slightly different aspect of children, childhood and growing up. Some try to capture the essence of childhood as a magical time that's nonetheless gone too soon. Some try to highlight the differences between kids and adults, and how each looks at the world differently. Others talk about how adults don't give kids enough credit, or reflect upon what the state of our children say about us as adults. Still, they all hit on something, so whether you're looking for something to write in a birthday card or graduation card, an inspirational quote to get them going or just want to hit them with some words of wisdom, there's plenty to choose from.
1) Douglas Adams
Only a child sees things with perfect clarity, because it hasn't developed all those filters which prevent us from seeing things that we don't expect to see.
2) Hayao Miyazaki
We get strength and encouragement from watching children.
3) Agatha Christie
One of the luckiest things that can happen to you in life is, I think, to have a happy childhood.
4) Alice Munro
Every year, when you're a child, you become a different person.
5) Doris Lessing
Every child has the capacity to be everything.
6) Edna St. Vincent Millay
Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies.
7) Arthur Rimbaud
Genius is the recovery of childhood at will.
8) Fred Rogers
The child is in me still and sometimes not so still.
9) Jim Henson
As children, we all live in a world of imagination, of fantasy, and for some of us that world of make-believe continues into adulthood.
10) Helen Hayes
Childhood is a short season.
11) Lois Lowry
Kids deserve the right to think that they can change the world.
12) Michelle Obama
I am only as good as my children are.
13) Neil Gaiman
Adults follow paths. Children explore.
14) Tom Stoppard
If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older.
15) Horace
Mix a little foolishness with your serious plans. It is lovely to be silly at the right moment.
16) Rosa Parks
If I can sit down for freedom, you can stand up for children.
17) Charles Dickens
Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires and a touch that never hurts.
18) C.S. Lewis
Integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is watching.
19) Walt Disney
That's the real trouble with the world, too many people grow up.
20) James Baldwin
Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.
Ren Ecosystem