467 Quotes by Maria Montessori

Do not erase the designs the child makes in the soft wax of his inner life.

In nature nothing creates itself and nothing destroys itself.

Giving children the opportunity to stir up life and leave it free to discover.

Today, however, those things which occupy us in the field of education are the interests of humanity at large and of civilization, and before such great forces we can recognize only one country-the entire world.

An interesting piece of work, freely chosen, which has the virtue of inducing concentration rather than fatigue, adds to the child's energies and mental capacities, and leads him to self-mastery.

The development of the mind comes through movement

... the first thing his education demands is the provision of an environment in which he can develop the powers given him by nature. This does not mean just to amuse him and let him do what he likes. But it does mean that we have to adjust our minds to doing a work of collaboration with nature, to being obedient to one of her laws, the law which decrees that development comes from environmental experience.

Conventions which camouflage a man's true feelings are a spiritual lie which help him adapt himself to the organized deviations of society ...

The first duty of the educator, whether he is involved with the newborn infant or the older child, is to recognize the human personality of the young being and respect it.