“Joy, feeling one's own value, being appreciated and loved by others, feeling useful and capable of production are all factors of enormous value for the human soul.”

“You can be happy if you know this secret: Some things are within your power to control and some things are not.”

“The goal of early childhood education should be to activate the child's own natural desire to learn.”

“The education of even a small child, therefore, does not aim at preparing him for school, but for life.”

“Let the children be free; encourage them; let them run outside when it is raining; let them remove their shoes when they find a puddle of water; and when the grass of the meadows is wet with dew, let them run on it and trample it with their bare feet; let them rest peacefully when a tree invites them to sleep beneath its shade; let them shout and laugh when the sun wakes them in the morning.”

“To assist a child we must provide him with an environment which will enable him to develop freely.”

“There is a great sense of community within the Montessori classroom, where children of differing ages work together in an atmosphere of cooperation rather than competitiveness. There is respect for the environment and for the individuals within it, which comes through experience of freedom within the community.”