Maria Montessori

"Early childhood education is the key to the betterment of society."

"Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war."

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

"If education is always to be conceived along the same antiquated lines of a mere transmission of knowledge, there is little to be hoped from it in the bettering of man's future. For what is the use of transmitting knowledge if the individual's total development lags behind?"

"The greatest sign of success for a teacher... is to be able to say, 'The children are now working as if I did not exist.'"

"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."

"There are two 'faiths' which can uphold humans: faith in God and faith in oneself. And these two faiths should exist side by side: the first belongs to one's inner life, the second to one's life in society."

"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."

"We discovered that education is not something which the teacher does, but that it is a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being."