Whole Family - Parent Center - Wisdom of the Ages

Wisdom of the Ages

Teachers come in all shapes and sizes. They're not always old men with long, white beards. A Teacher might look like a child or a young woman or even your Uncle Sheldon. Wisdom is available to us if we just tune in: It can come in the form of a song, a line in a novel or the realization your co-worker had over the weekend.

We have collected child-rearing wisdom here for your benefit. Use what you can. Throw out what doesn't fit.

If you've applied the wisdom from one of these quotes in your life, we'd like to hear from you.

The Seven Spiritual Laws for Parents

Being Present with our Kids

"We learn to do something by doing it. There is no other way."
– John Holt, educator

"Learning is movement from moment to moment."
– J. Krishnamurti

"The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless."
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau

"Imagination is more important than knowledge."
– Albert Einstein

"Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss it you will land among the stars."
– Les Brown

"All you need to do to receive guidance is to ask for it and then listen."
– Sanaya Roman

"It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.""
– Seneca

"There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening, that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost."
– Martha Graham

"Take your life in your own hands and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame."
– Erica Jong

"Since you are like no other being ever created since the beginning of time, you are incomparable."
– Brenda Ueland

"Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on their environment and especially on their children than the unlived life of the parent."
– C. G. Jung

"Like an ability or a muscle, hearing your inner wisdom is strengthened doing it."
– Robbie Gass

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters, compared to what lies within us."
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Any name or label you identify yourself with is false - the real you is unbounded and nameless, beyond all labels."
– Deepak Chopra from The Seven Spiritual Laws for Parents: Guiding your Children to Success and Fulfillment.

From a reader:
My child has muscular dystrophy and hearing loss. When she was very small, she went to Easter Seals for her therapies. My favorite bit of wisdom was on a sign in their hall. It was:
"All children are gifted. It just takes some longer to open their presents."
Just a little bit of re-focusing.
– Karen, in eastern PA

The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts. Think only on those things that are in line with your principles and can bear the full light of day. The content of your character is your choice. Day by day, what you choose, what you think, and what you do is who you become. Your integrity is your destiny -- it is the light that guides your way.
– Heraclitus

We are not human beings having a spiritual expeirence. We are spritual beings having a human experience. .
– Pierre Teilhard de Chardinn

The gate to the heart is the ears.
– Alan Flashman.

" A mother is not a person to lean on but a person to make leaning unnecessary."
– Dorothy Canfield Fisher

"The only difference between a baby and an enlightened master is that a baby is in bliss without understanding and a spiritual master is in bliss with understanding. "
– Deepak Chopra

"Everything in life that we really accept undergoes a change."
– Katherine Mansfield

"Those things that hurt, instruct."
– Benjamin Franklin

" In every seed, there is the promise of thousands of forests. "
– Deepak Chopra

"Everything in life that we really accept undergoes a change"
– Katherine Mansfield

Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose.
–Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Every blade of grass has its Angel that bends over it and whispers: grow, grow.
– the Talmud

When the family is in order, all social relationships of mankind are in order.
– the I Ching

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
– Mahatma Gandhi

When you learn to listen, everyone is the guru.
– Baba Ram Das (a.k.a. Richard Alert, PhD)

There are two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots; the other, wings.
– Hodding Carter

Every Child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.
– Pablo Picasso

In the middle of difficulty, lies opportunity.
– Albert Einstein

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.
– Antoine de St. Exupery in The Little Prince.