There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.

There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.

It is dangerous to confuse children with angels.

It is dangerous to confuse children with angels.

Let me go to hell, that's all I ask, and go on cursing them there, and them look down and read more

Let me go to hell, that's all I ask, and go on cursing them there, and them look down and hear me, that might take some of the shine off their bliss.

Flowers are words which even a baby can understand.

Flowers are words which even a baby can understand.

Never raise your hand to your children; it leaves your midsection unprotected.

Never raise your hand to your children; it leaves your midsection unprotected.

Childhood sometimes does pay a second visit to man; youth never.

Childhood sometimes does pay a second visit to man; youth never.

Children have more need of models than of critics.

Children have more need of models than of critics.

It's never too late to have a happy childhood.

It's never too late to have a happy childhood.

It might sound a paradoxical thing to say --for surely never has a generation of children occupied more sheer hours read more

It might sound a paradoxical thing to say --for surely never has a generation of children occupied more sheer hours of parental time --but the truth is that we neglected you. We allowed you a charade of trivial freedoms in order to avoid making those impositions on you that are in the end both the training ground and proving ground for true independence. We pronounced you strong when you were still weak in order to avoid the struggles with you that would have fed your true strength. We proclaimed you sound when you were foolish in order to avoid taking part in the long, slow, slogging effort that is the only route to genuine maturity of mind and feeling. Thus, it was no small anomaly of your growing up that while you were the most indulged generation, you were also in many ways the most abandoned to your own meager devices by those into whose safe-keeping you had been given.