467 Quotes by Maria Montessori

We must, therefore, quit our roles as jailers and instead take care to prepare an environment in which we do as little as possible to exhaust the child with our surveillance and instruction.

An adult who does not understand that a child needs to use his hands and does not recognize this as the first manifestation of an instinct for work can be an obstacle to the child’s development.

From the child itself he will learn how to perfect himself as an educator.

We must support as much as possible the child’s desires for activity; not wait on him, but educate him to be independent.

Love and the hope of it are not things one can learn; they are a part of life’s heritage.

But the love of man for man is a far more tender thing, and so simple that it is universal. To love in this way is not the privilege of any especially prepared intellectual class, but lies within the reach of all men.

We are the sowers – our children are those who reap. We labor so that future generations will be better and nobler than we are.

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

How often is the soul of man – especially in childhood – deprived because he is not allowed to come in contact with nature.