Maria Montessori Quotes & Sayings

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. — Maria Montessori

Our goal is not so much the imparting of knowledge as the unveiling and developing of spiritual energy. — Maria Montessori

The child's true constructive energy, a dynamic power, has remained unnoticed for thousands of years. Just as men have trodden the earth, and later tilled its surface, without thought for the immense wealth hidden in its depths, so the men of our day make progress after progress in civilized life, without noticing the treasures that lie hidden in the psychic world of infancy. — Maria Montessori

The child becomes a person through work. — Maria Montessori

It is true that we cannot make a genius. We can only give to teach child the chance to fulfil his potential possibilities. — Maria Montessori

I have for many years interested myself in the study of children from three years upwards. Many have urged me to continue my studies on the same lines with older children. But what I have felt to be most vital is the need for more careful and particularized study of the tiny child. — Maria Montessori

Education should no longer be most imparting of knowledge, but must take a new path, seeking the release of human potentialities. — Maria Montessori

It is not the child as a physical but as a psychic being that can provide a strong impetus to the betterment of mankind. It is the spirit of the child that can determine the course of human progress and lead it perhaps even to a higher form of civilization. — Maria Montessori

When children come into contact with nature, they reveal their strength. — Maria Montessori

What we need is a world full of miracles, like the miracle of seeing the young child seeking work and independence, and manifesting a wealth of enthusiasm and love. — Maria Montessori

But if for the physical life it is necessary to have the child exposed to the vivifying forces of nature, it is also necessary for his psychical life to place the soul of the child in contact with creation. — Maria Montessori

Of all things love is the most potent. — Maria Montessori

Independence is not a static condition; it is a continuous conquest, and in order to reach not only freedom, but also strength, and the perfecting on one's powers, it is necessary to follow this path of unremitting toil. — Maria Montessori

Respect all the reasonable forms of activity in which the child engages and try to understand them. — Maria Montessori

The aim of education should not be to teach how to use human energies to improve the environment, for we are finally beginning to realize that the cornerstone of education is the development of the human personality, and that in this regard education is of immediate importance for the salvation of mankind. — Maria Montessori

Every one in the world ought to do the things for which he is specially adapted. It is the part of wisdom to recognize what each one of us is best fitted for, and it is the part of education to perfect and utilize such predispositions. Because education can direct and aid nature but can never transform her. — Maria Montessori

The person who is developing freely and naturally arrives at a spiritual equilibrium in which he is master of his actions, just as one who has acquired physical poise can move freely. — Maria Montessori

Education must start from birth. — Maria Montessori

If the ways of the Almighty are not humanly logical, it is not the fault of the Almighty but of the limitations of human logic. — Maria Montessori

The greatest development is achieved during the first years of life, and therefore it is then that the greatest care should be taken. If this is done, then the child does not become a burden; he will reveal himself as the greatest marvel of nature. — Maria Montessori

It is not in human nature for all men to tread the same path of development, as animals do of a single species. — Maria Montessori

Children are not only sensitive to silence, but also to a voice which calls them ... Out of that silence. — 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 — Maria Montessori

Watch the unending activity of the flowing stream or the growing tree. See the breakers of the ocean, the unceasing movements of the earth, the planets, the sun and the stars. All creation is life, movement, work. — Maria Montessori

The essential thing is to arouse such an interest that it engages the child's whole personality. — Maria Montessori

We seek to sow life in the child rather than theories, to help him in his growth, mental and emotional as well as physical, and for that we must offer grand and lofty ideas to the human mind, — Maria Montessori

The principal agent is the object itself and not the instruction given by the teacher. It is the child who uses the objects; it is the child who is active, and not the teacher. — Maria Montessori

The teacher's first duty is to watch over the environment, and this takes precedence over all the rest. It's influence is indirect, but unless it be well done there will be no effective and permanent results of any kind, physical, intellectual or spiritual. — Maria Montessori

How can any one paint who cannot grade colors? How can any one write poetry who has not learnt to hear and see? — Maria Montessori

What the hand does the mind remembers. — Maria Montessori

Free choice is one of the highest of all the mental processes. — Maria Montessori

Little children, from the moment they are weaned, are making their way toward independence. — Maria Montessori

A child in his earliest years, when he is only two or a little more, is capable of tremendous achievements simply through his unconscious power of absorption, though he is himself still immobile. After the age of three he is able to acquire a great number of concepts through his own efforts in exploring his surroundings. In this period he lays hold of things through his own activity and assimilates them into his mind. — Maria Montessori

Supposing I said there was a planet without schools or teachers, where study was unknown, and yet the inhabitants
doing nothing but live and walk about
came to know all things, to carry in their minds the whole of learning; would you not think I was romancing? Well, just this, which seems so fanciful as to be nothing but the invention of a fertile imagination, is a reality. It is the child's way of learning. — Maria Montessori

A teacher, therefore, who would think that he could prepare himself for his mission through study alone would be mistaken. The first thing required of a teacher is that he be rightly disposed for his task. — Maria Montessori

We await the successsive births in the soul of the child. We give all possible material, that nothing may lack to the groping soul, and then we watch for the perfect faculty to come, safeguarding the child from interruption so that it may carry its efforts through. — Maria Montessori

The prize and punishments are incentives toward unnatural or forced effort, and, therefore we certainly cannot speak of the natural development of the child in connection with them. — Maria Montessori

Through machinery, man can exert tremendous powers almost as fantastic as if he were the hero of a fairy tale. Through machinery, man can travel with an ever increasing velocity; he can fly through the air and go beneath the surface of the ocean. — Maria Montessori

If the child shows through its conversation that the educational work of the school is being undermined by the attitude taken in his home, he will be sent back to his parents, to teach them thus how to take advantage of their good opportunities. — Maria Montessori

Children have an anxious concern for living beings, and the satisfaction of this instinct fills them with delight. It is therefore easy to interest them in taking care of plants and especially of animals. Nothing awakens foresight in a small child such as this. When he knows that animals have need of him, that little plants will dry up if he does not water them, he binds together with a new thread of love today's passing moments with those of the morrow. — Maria Montessori

This is education, understood as a help to life; an education from birth, which feeds a peaceful revolution and unites all in a common aim, attracting them as to a single centre. Mothers, fathers, politicians: all must combine in their respect and help for this delicate work of formation, which the little child carries on in the depth of a profound psychological mystery, under the tutelage of an inner guide. This is the bright new hope for mankind. — Maria Montessori

Do not tell them how to do it. Show them how to do it and do not say a word. If you tell them, they will watch your lips move. If you show them, they will want to do it themselves. — Maria Montessori

All work is noble; the only ignoble thing is to live without working. There is need to realize the value of work in all its forms whether manual or intellectual, to be called 'mate,' to have sympathetic understanding of all forms of activity. — Maria Montessori

The development of the child during the first three years after birth is unequaled in intensity and importance by any period that precedes or follows in the whole life of the child. — Maria Montessori

All our handling of the child will bear fruit, not only at the moment, but in the adult they are destined to become. — Maria Montessori

We recommend for the training of teachers not only a considerable artistic education in general but special attention to the art of reading. — Maria Montessori

The child, merely by going on with his life, learns to speak the language belonging to his race. It is like a mental chemistry that takes place in the child. — Maria Montessori

There is in every child a painstaking teacher so skillful that he obtains identical results in all children in all parts of the world. The only language men ever speak perfectly is the one they learn in babyhood, when no one teaches them anything. — Maria Montessori

At a given moment a child becomes interested in a piece of work, showing it by the expression of his face, by his intense attention, by his perseverance in the same exercise. That child has set foot upon the road leading to discipline. — Maria Montessori

Concentration is a part of life. It is not the consequence of a method of education. — Maria Montessori

If education recognizes the intrinsic value of the child's personality and provides an environment suited to spiritual growth, we have the revelation of an entirely new child whose astonishing characteristics can eventually contribute to the betterment of the world. — Maria Montessori

Movement, or physical activity, is thus an essential factor in intellectual growth, which depends upon the impressions received from outside. Through movement we come in contact with external reality, and it is through these contacts that we eventually acquire even abstract ideas. — Maria Montessori

The maternal duty of suckling her own children, prescribed to mothers by hygienists, is based on a physiological principle: the mother's milk nourishes an infant more perfectly than any other. — Maria Montessori

The little fellow had been about to feel himself a conqueror, and he found himself held within two imprisoning arms, impotent. The expression of joy, anxiety, and hope, which had interested me so much faded from his face and left on it the stupid expression of the child who knows that others will act for him. — Maria Montessori

Great tact and delicacy is necessary for the care of the mind of a child from three to six years, and an adult can have very little of it. — Maria Montessori

It is the child who makes the man, and no man exists who was not made by the child he once was. — Maria Montessori

The child is truly a miraculous being, and this should be felt deeply by the educator. — Maria Montessori

Rewards and punishments, to speak frankly, are the desk of the soul, that is, a means of enslaving a child's spirit, and better suited to provoke than to prevent deformities. — Maria Montessori

We must help the child to act for himself, will for himself, think for himself; this is the art of those who aspire to serve the spirit. — Maria Montessori

Order is not goodness; but perhaps it is the indispensable road to arrive at it. — Maria Montessori

The teacher must derive not only the capacity, but the desire, to observe natural phenomena. The teacher must understand and feel her position of observer: the activity must lie in the phenomenon. — Maria Montessori

Learning to speak, therefore, and the power it brings of intelligent converse with others, is a most impressive further step along the path of independence ... Learning to walk is especially significant, not only because it is supremely complex, but because it is done in the first year of life. — Maria Montessori

In the first three years of life, the foundations of physical and also of psychic health are laid. In these years, the child not only increases in size but passes through great transformations. This is the age in which language and movement develop. The child must be safeguarded in order that these activities may develop freely. — Maria Montessori

When you have solved the problem of controlling the attention of the child, you have solved the entire problem of its education. — Maria Montessori

The child who has felt a strong love for his surroundings and for all living creatures, who has discovered joy and enthusiasm in work, gives us reason to hope that humanity can develop in a new direction. — Maria Montessori

Only practical work and experience lead the young to maturity. — Maria Montessori

The hand is the prehensile organ of the mind. — Maria Montessori

Imagination does not become great until human beings, given the courage and the strength, use it to create. — Maria Montessori

A child starts from nothing and advances alone. It is the child's reason about which the sensitive periods revolve. The reason provides the initial force and energy, and a child absorbs his first images to assist the reason and act on it. — Maria Montessori

The greatness of the human personality begins at the hour of birth. — Maria Montessori

To aid life, leaving it free, however, that is the basic task of the educator. — Maria Montessori

All human victories, all human progress, stand upon the inner force. — Maria Montessori

Such prizes and punishments are, if I may be allowed the expression, the bench of the soul, the instrument of slavery for the spirit. — Maria Montessori

The ancient superficial idea of the uniform and progressive growth of the human personality has remained unaltered, and the erroneous belief has persisted that it is the duty of the adult to fashion the child according to the pattern required by society. — Maria Montessori

The undisciplined child enters into discipline by working in the company of others; not being told he is naughty." "Discipline is, therefore, primarily a learning experience and less a punitive experience if appropriately dealt with. — Maria Montessori

Character formation cannot be taught. It comes from experience and not from explanation. — Maria Montessori

If help and salvation are to come, they can only come from the children, for the children are the makers of men. — Maria Montessori

There can be no 'graduated exercises in drawing' leading up to an artistic creation. That goal can be attained only through the development of mechanical technique and through the freedom of the spirit. — Maria Montessori

We cannot create observers by saying 'observe', but by giving them the power and the means for this observation and these means are procured through education of the senses. — Maria Montessori

A child's character develops in accordance with the obstacles he has encountered ... or the freedom favoring his development that he has enjoyed. — Maria Montessori

Any child who is self-sufficient , who can ties his shoes, dress or undress himself, reflects in his joy and sense of achievement the image of human dignity which is derived from a sense of independence. — Maria Montessori

Only when the child is able to identify its own center with the center of the universe does education really begin. — Maria Montessori

The child is the spiritual builder of mankind, and obstacles to his free development are the stones in the wall by which the soul of man has become imprisoned. — Maria Montessori

This then is the first duty of an educator: to stir up life but leave it free to develop. — Maria Montessori

Children must grow not only in the body but in the spirit, and the mother longs to follow the mysterious spiritual journey of the beloved one who to-morrow will be the intelligent, divine creation, man. — Maria Montessori

One test of the correctness of educational procedure is the happiness of the child. — Maria Montessori

Order is one of the needs of life which, when it is satisfied, produces a real happiness — Maria Montessori

When dealing with children there is greater need for observing than of probing — Maria Montessori

Let us treat them [children], therefore, with all the kindness which we would wish to help to develop in them. — Maria Montessori

To confer the gift of drawing, we must create an eye that sees, a hand that obeys, a soul that feels; and in this task, the whole life must cooperate. In this sense, life itself is the only preparation for drawing. Once we have lived, the inner spark of vision does the rest. — Maria Montessori

If the idea of the universe is presented to the child in the right way, it will do more for him than just arouse his interest, for it will create in him admiration and wonder, a feeling loftier than any interest and more satisfying. — Maria Montessori

The adolescent must never be treated as a child, for that is a stage of life that he has surpassed. It is better to treat an adolescent as if he had greater value than he actually shows than as if he had less and let him feel that his merits and self-respect are disregarded. — Maria Montessori

Adults have not understood children or adolescents and they are, as a consequence, in continual conflict with them. — Maria Montessori

The fundamental basis of education must always remain that one must act for oneself. That is clear. One must act for him or herself. — Maria Montessori

A great deal of time and intellectual force are lost in the world, because the false seems great and the truth so small and insignificant. — Maria Montessori

The more perfect the approximation to truth, the more perfect is art. — Maria Montessori

A child needs freedom within limits. — Maria Montessori

Every great cause is born from repeated failures and from imperfect achievements. — Maria Montessori

By the age of three, the child has already laid down the foundations of his personality as a human being, and only then does he need the help of special scholastic influences. So great are the conquests he has made that one may well say: the child who goes to school at three is already a little man. — Maria Montessori

The best instruction is that which uses the least words sufficient for the task. — Maria Montessori