“If the idea of the universe is presented to the child in the right way, it will do more for him than just arouse his interest, for it will create in him admiration and wonder, a feeling loftier than any interest and more satisfying.”

“The essence of independence is to be able to do something for one’s self. Adults work to finish a task, but the child works in order to grow, and is working to create the adult, the person that is to be. Such experience is not just play... it is work he must do in order to grow up.”

“Life makes itself manifest, -life creates, life gives: -and is in its turn held within certain limits and bound by certain laws which are insuperable.” The Montessori Method, chapter 4

“The child ... in his eagerness for knowledge, has revealed himself as a true son of that humanity which has been throughout centuries the creator of scientific and civil progress.”
The Montessori Method, chapter 22

“But if for the physical life it is necessary to have the child exposed to the vivifying forces of nature, it is also necessary for his psychical life to place the soul of the child in contact with creation.” source unknown

“The needs of mankind are universal. Our means of meeting them create the richness and diversity of the planet. The Montessori child should come to relish the texture of that diversity.” source unknown

“The child has other powers than ours, and the creation he achieves is no small one; it is everything.”

“Children become like the things they love.”

“Man is a sculptor of himself, urged by a mysterious inner force to the attainment of an ideal determined form.”

“Here is an essential principle of education: to teach details is to bring confusion; to establish the relationship between things is to bring knowledge.” from Childhood to Adolescence, p. 58.