Benjamin Spock Quotes

Trust yourself, you know more than you think you do.

The main source of good discipline is growing up in a loving family, being loved and learning to love in return.

Without freedom of choice, there is no creativity. Without creativity, there is no life.

Humans can be the most affectionate and altruistic of creatures, yet they're potentially more vicious than any other. They are the only ones who can be persuaded to hate millions of their own kind whom they have never seen and to kill as many as they can lay their hands on in the name of their tribe or their God.

A human being is happiest and most successful when dedicated to a cause outside his own individual, selfish satisfaction.

Don't be afraid to trust your own common sense.

Respect children because they're human beings and they deserve respect, and they'll grow up to be better people.

Having a good time together is the essence of lovingness and the best means of increasing it.

Physical punishment teaches children that the larger, stronger person has the power to get his way, whether or not he is in the right, and they may resent this in the parent-for life.

It's up to each of us to help create a better world for our children.

There are only two things a child will share willingly; communicable diseases and its mother's age.

The child supplies the power but the parents have to do the steering.

Happiness is mostly a by-product of doing what makes us feel fulfilled.

The children who are appreciated for what they are, even if they are homely, or clumsy, or slow, will grow up with confidence in themselves and happy. They will have a spirit that will make the best of all the capacities that they do have and of all the opportunities that come their way.

Don't take too seriously all that the neighbors say. Don't be overawed by what the experts say. Don't be afraid to trust your own common sense.

In our country today, very few children are raised to believe that their principal destiny is to serve their family, their country, or God.

Can we make a better world for our children? I believe we can, if enough people are concerned and get involved in changing what is wrong with society.

If I could make only one wish for a child, I'd wish him the quality of lovingness.

I think that parents ought to get some idea of how the so- called "experts" have changed their advice over the decades, so that they won't take them deadly seriously, and so that if the parent has the strong feeling, "I don't like this advice," the parent won't feel compelled to follow it. . . . So don't worry about trying to do a perfect job. There is no perfect job. There is no one way of raising your children.

The more people have studied different methods of bringing up children the more they have come to the conclusion that what good mothers and fathers instinctively feel like doing for their babies is the best after all.

Grandparents have the freedom to see their grandchildren uncritically.

The strongest rebellion may be expressed in quiet, undramatic behavior.

Children who grow up getting nutrition from plant foods rather than meats have a tremendous health advantage. They are less likely to develop weight problems, diabetes, high blood pressure and some forms of cancer

What good mothers and fathers instinctively feel like doing for their babies is usually best after all.

The fact is that child rearing is a long, hard job, the rewards are not always immediately obvious, the work is undervalued, and parents are just as human and almost as vulnerable as their children.