"Education is a natural process carried out by the child and is not acquired by listening to words but by experiences in the environment."
- Dr Maria Montessori

The greatness of the human personality begins at the hour of birth."
- The Absorbent Mind p.4, Chap 1.

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

"Whoever touches the life of the child touches the most sensitive point of a whole which has roots in the most distant past and climbs towards the infinite future."
- Maria Montessori

"If we could say "We are respectful and courteous in our dealing with children, we treat them as we should like to be treated ourselves" we should have mastered a great educational principle and be setting an example of good education."
- Maria Montessori

"The technique used to educate children must be one of love."
- Montessori, Mario Education for Human Development p 55, Chap 5

"We must not interfere with a concentrating child, because something is happening inside that child."
- The Child, Society and the World p.14, Chap II

"The essential task is for the task to arouse such an interest that it engages the child's whole personality."
- The Absorbent Mind p.188, Chap 19

"Without concentration it is the objects about him which possess the child. He feels the call of each, and goes from one to another. But once his attention has been focused, he becomes his own master and can exert control over his world."
- The Absorbent Mind p 198, Chap 21

"The first essential for the child's development is concentration. It lays the whole basis for his character and social behaviour. He must find out how to concentrate, and for this he needs things to concentrate upon. This shows the importance of his surroundings, for no one acting on the child from outside can cause him to concentrate."
- The Absorbent Mind p 202, Chap 22

"Impressions do not merely enter his mind; they form it. They incarnate themselves in him. The child creates his own 'mental muscles' using for this what he finds in the world around him. We have named this type of mentality The Absorbent Mind."
- The Absorbent Mind p.24, Chap 3