47 Inspiring Kids Quotes About Life, Success and the Things That Really Matter

“Mix a little foolishness with your serious plans. It is lovely to be silly at the right moment.” —Horace, ancient Roman poet

“Children are human beings to whom respect is due, superior to us by reason of their innocence and of the greater possibilities of their future.” —Maria Montessori, education philosopher and physician

“Children are like wet cement. Whatever falls on them makes an impression.” —Haim Ginott, educator and child psychologist

“One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world.” —Malala Yousafzai, education activist and Nobel Prize laureate

“What it’s like to be a parent: It’s one of the hardest things you’ll ever do but in exchange it teaches you the meaning of unconditional love.” —Nicholas Sparks, author, in The Notebook

“Children need models more than they need critics.” —Joseph Joubert, French moralist

“Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires and a touch that never hurts.” —Charles Dickens, author

“Old men can make war, but it is children who will make history.” —Ray Merritt, author

“The potential possibilities of any child are the most intriguing and stimulating in all creation.” —Ray L. Wilbur, doctor and politician

“My children are the reason I laugh, smile, and want to get up every morning.” —Gena Lee Nolin, actress and model

“Integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is watching.” —C.S. Lewis, author

“The first happiness of a child is to know that he is loved.” —Don Bosco, clergyman and educator

“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.” —Nelson Mandela, philanthropist and former president of South Africa

“Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.” —James Baldwin, writer and activist

“When I approach a child, he inspires in me two sentiments—tenderness for what he is and respect for what he may become.” —Louis Pasteur, chemist and biologist

“Children make your life important.” —Erma Bombeck, humorist and author

“Every child is born a genius.” —Buckminster Fuller, architect and inventor

“Children are one third of our population and all of our future.” —1981 Select Panel for the Promotion of Child Health

“The best way to make children good is to make them happy.” —Oscar Wilde, writer

“Children are not things to be molded, but are people to be unfolded.” —Jess Lair, self-help leader and writer

“The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence.” —Denis Waitley, motivational speaker and writer

“Children have one kind of silliness, as you know, and grown-ups have another kind.” —C.S. Lewis, author

“Kids: they dance before they learn there is anything that isn’t music.” —William E. Stafford, poet

“Only where children gather is there any real chance of fun.”  —Mignon McLaughlin, author and journalist

“We must teach our children to dream with their eyes open.” —Harry Edwards, sociologist, activist and author

“The soul is healed by being with children.” —Fyodor Dostoevsky, novelist

“While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.” —Angela Schwindt, family coach

“Pretty much all the honest truth telling there is in the world is done by children.” —Oliver Wendell Holmes, former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court

“Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.” —Margaret Mead, cultural anthropologist

“Anyone who does anything to help a child is a hero to me.” —Fred Rogers, children’s television host and producer

“Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.” —John F. Kennedy, former U.S. president

“Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.” —Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author, Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince)

“Children see magic because they look for it.” —Christopher Moore, author

“If you want children to keep their feet on the ground, put some responsibility on their shoulders.” —Abigail Van Buren, “Dear Abby” advice columnist

“It’s important to show your flaws and humanness to your children.” —Jada Pinkett Smith, actress and producer

“What I really got from the chimps were two important things. One, they had fun with their infants. They played with them, they laugh.” —Jane Goodall, primatologist and animal rights activist

“If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children.” —Mahatma Gandhi, lawyer and activist

“We owe our children, the most vulnerable citizens in our society, a life free of violence and fear.” —Nelson Mandela, philanthropist and former president of South Africa

“No one has yet realized the wealth of sympathy, the kindness, and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure.” —Emma Goldman, writer and political philosopher

“There are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child. There are seven million.” —Walt Streightiff, educator

“Children are not a zoo of entertainingly exotic creatures, but an array of mirrors in which the human predicament leaps out at us.” —John Updike, writer

“Children aren’t coloring books. You don’t get to fill them with your favorite colors.” —Khaled Hosseini, novelist and humanitarian

“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” —Frederick Douglass, abolitionist and orator

“Destroy the imagination of a child, and you have taken away its chances of success in life. Imagination transforms the commonplace into the great and creates the new out of the old.” —L. Frank Baum, author

“Children are likely to live up to what you believe of them.” —Lady Bird Johnson, former U.S. First Lady

“We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today.” —Stacia Tauscher, dancer

“Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.” —Fred Rogers, children’s television host and producer

Why trust us

At Reader’s Digest, we’ve been sharing our favorite quotes for more than 100 years. The sayings and quips that appear in the magazine’s “Quotable Quotes” (formerly “Remarkable Remarks”) are curated from interviews and essays originally published in the magazine, reprints from trusted titles and other verified sources. For this piece, Meghan Jones tapped her experience as a former Reader’s Digest editor who frequently covered quotes, facts and grammar to ensure that all information is accurate. We’ve gone the extra step and had Christine Coppa, a fact-checker with 20-plus years of experience, including serving as a staff research editor at Philadelphia magazine and Essence, verify that all quotes are attributed correctly and have credible sourcing. Read more about our team, our contributors and our editorial policies.