A little curly-headed, good-for-nothing,
And mischief-making monkey from his birth.
Pietas fundamentum est omnium virtutum.
The dutifulness of children is the foundation
of all virtues.
Ciceeo—Oratio Pro Cnceo Plancio. XII.
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when
I became a man, I put away childish things.
/ Corinthians. XIII. 11.
Better to be driven out from among men than
to be disliked of children.
R. H. Dana—The Idle Man. Domestic Life.
They are idols of hearts and of households;
They are angels of God in disguise;
His sunlight still sleeps in their tresses,
His glory still gleams in their eyes;
Those truants from home and from Heaven
They have made me more manly and mild;
And I know now how Jesus could liken
The kingdom of God to a child.
Chas. M. Dickinson—The Children.
When the lessons and tasks are all ended,
And the school for the day is dismissed,
The little ones gather around me,
To bid me good-night and be kissed;
Oh, the little white arms that encircle
My neck in their tender embrace
Oh, the smiles that are halos of heaven,
1 Shedding sunshine of love on my face.
Chas. M. Dickinson—The Children.
Childhood has no forebodings; but then, it is
soothed by no memories of outlived sorrow.
George Eliot—Mill on the Floss.
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{{Hoyt quote
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| text = <poem>Wynken, Blyhken and Nod one night
Sailed off in a wooden shoe—
Sailed on a river of crystal light
Into a sea of dew.
Eugene Field—Wynken, Blynken and Nod.
o
Teach your child to hold his tongue,
He'll learn fast enough to speak.
Benj. Franklin—Poor Richard Maxims .
(1734)
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| text = <poem>By sports like these are all their cares beguil'd,
The sports of children satisfy the child.
Alas! regardless of their doom,
The little victims play;
No sense have they of ills to come,
Nor care beyond to-day.
Gray—On a Distant Prospect of Eton College.
St. 6.
But still when the mists of doubt prevail,
And we lie becalmed by the shores of age,
We hear from the misty troubled shore
The voice of the children gone before.
Drawing the soul to its anchorage.
Bret Harte—A Greyport Legend. St. 6.
I think that saving a little child
And bringing him to his own,
Is a derned sight better business
Than loafing around the throne.
Few sons attain the praise
Of their great sires and most their sires' disgrace.
Nondum enim quisquam suum parentem ipse
cognosvit.
It is a wise child that knows his own father
Another tumble! that's his precious nose!
Hood—Parental Ode to My Son.
Oh, when I was a tiny boy
My days and nights were full of joy.
My mates were blithe and kind!
No wonder that I sometimes sigh
And dash the tear drop from my eye
To cast a look behind!
Hood—Retrospectwe Review.
is Children, ay. forsooth,
They bring their own love with them when they
come,
But if they come not there is peace and rest;
The pretty lambs! and yet she cries for more:
Why, the world's full of them, and so is heaven—
They are not rare.
Jean Ingelow—Supper at the MM.
Nil dictu fcedum visuque haec limina tangat
Intra qua? puer est.
Let nothing foul to either eye or ear reach
those doors within which dwells a boy.
Juvenal—Satires. XIV. 44.
Les enfants n'ont ni pass6 ni avenir; et, ce qui
ne nous arrive guere, ils jouissent du present.
Children have neither past nor future; and
that which seldom happens to us, they rejoice
in the present.
La Bruyère—Les Caractères. XL
Mais un fripon d'enfant (cet fige est sans pitie).
But a rascal of a child (that age is without
pity).
La Fontaine;—Fables. LX. 2.
A babe is fed with milk and praise.
Lamb—The First Tooth. In Poetry for Children by Charles and Mary Lamb.
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{{Hoyt quote
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| text = <poem>Oh, would I were a boy again,
When life seemed formed of sunny years,
And all the heart then knew of pain
Was wept away in transient tears!
Mark Lemon—Oh,WouldIWereaBoy Again.
