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Citizen of the World
"The mind of the child takes elements from the environment and incarnates them into his being. This does not happen through heredity, but is the consequence of a creative potential within the child. All children in the world follow this law ... it is inherent in the nature of the child."  -Maria Montessori, <anchor>Citizen of the World</anchor>, p. 93
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# Books by Maria Montessori

## Breadcrumb

1. [Home](/)
2. Maria Montessori

3. [Montessori Books](/maria-montessori/montessori-books)
4. Citizen of the World


## Citizen of the World

#### Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori never swerved from one of her main messages: the need for a radical transformation in education to ultimately improve society as a whole. This book offers the reader a selection of essential lectures and articles written during the last 25 years of Montessori’s life; they show the maturity of her ideas on human development, with an acute awareness of society’s shortcomings that thwart the human potential. The articles discuss the implications of her discoveries for moral and social life; her evolved understanding of the four stages of development from birth through early adulthood. And through four lectures delivered at the 8th International Congress in San Remo, Italy, 1949, Montessori bring us her own brilliant summary of a life-time of work. The individual chapters of this book were previously published as stand-alone titles by AMI; by including them in one publication we are able to share Montessori’s intellectual journey.

[Montessori-Pierson Publishing Company](/supporting-organisations/montessori-pierson-publishing-company)

[Click Here to Purchase](https://montessori-pierson.com/vol-14-basic-ideas-of-montessori-s-educational-theory.html)

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Books by Maria Montessori

[Citizen of the World](/maria-montessori/montessori-books/citizen-world)

[Education and Peace](/maria-montessori/montessori-books/education-and-peace)

[Education for a New World](/maria-montessori/montessori-books/education-new-world)

[From Childhood to Adolescence](/maria-montessori/montessori-books/childhood-adolescence)

[Maria Montessori Sails to America](/maria-montessori/montessori-books/maria-montessori-sails-america)

[Maria Montessori Speaks to Parents](/maria-montessori/montessori-books/maria-montessori-speaks-parents)

[Maria Montessori Writes to Her Father](/maria-montessori/montessori-books/maria-montessori-writes-her-father)

[Maria Montessori Writes to Her Grandchildren](/maria-montessori/montessori-books/maria-montessori-writes-her-grandchildren)

[Psychoarithmetic](/maria-montessori/montessori-books/psychoarithmetic)

[Psychogeometry](/maria-montessori/montessori-books/psychogeometry)

[The 1913 Rome Lectures](/maria-montessori/montessori-books/1913-rome-lectures)

[The 1915 California Lectures](/maria-montessori/montessori-books/1915-california-lectures)

[The 1946 London Lectures](/maria-montessori/montessori-books/1946-london-lectures)

[The Absorbent Mind](/maria-montessori/montessori-books/absorbent-mind)

[The Advanced Montessori Method Volume I](/maria-montessori/montessori-books/advanced-montessori-method-volume-i)

[The Advanced Montessori Method Volume II](/maria-montessori/montessori-books/advanced-montessori-method-volume-ii)

[The Child in the Family](/maria-montessori/montessori-books/child-family)

[The Child, Society and the World](/maria-montessori/montessori-books/child-society-and-world)

[The Discovery of the Child](/maria-montessori/montessori-books/discovery-child)

[The Formation of Man](/maria-montessori/montessori-books/formation-man)

[The Mass Explained to Children](/maria-montessori/montessori-books/mass-explained-children)

[The Montessori Approach to Music](/maria-montessori/montessori-books/montessori-approach-music)

[The San Remo Lectures](/maria-montessori/montessori-books/san-remo-lectures)

[The Secret of Childhood](/maria-montessori/montessori-books/secret-childhood)

[To Educate the Human Potential](/maria-montessori/montessori-books/educate-human-potential)

[What You Should Know About Your Child](/maria-montessori/montessori-books/what-you-should-know-about-your-child)

## Selected Quotes from Citizen of the World

**“** ﻿Teachers should cultivate a staunch belief in their mission. Only then will it be possible to create a new world through education. However, if this highest of aims is to be attained, also educational methods must radically change to become an active aid to the psychic development of the child, in an environment prepared following dictates culled from exhaustive study and diligent research.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 98

**“** ﻿The punishment, so frequent in schools, which consists in subjecting the culprit to public reprimand and is almost tantamount to the torture of the pillory, fills the soul with a crazy, unreasoning fear of public opinion, even of an opinion, manifestly unjust and false.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 118

**“** ﻿The obedience which is expected of the child both in the home and in the school – and obedience admitting neither of reason nor of justice – prepares man to be docile to blind forces.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 118

**“** ﻿The schoolchild, being continually discouraged and scolded, ends by acquiring that mixture of distrust of his own powers and of fear which is called shyness, and which later, in the grown man, takes the form of discouragement and submissiveness, of incapacity to put up the slightest moral resistance.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 118

**“** ﻿The child who has never learned to act alone, to direct his own actions, to govern his own will, grows into an adult who is easily led and must always lean upon others.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 118

**“** It is verily upon the perfect and tranquil spiritual life of the child that depends the health or sickness of the soul, the strength or weakness of the character, the clearness or obscurity of the intellect. And if, during the delicate and precious period of childhood, a sacrilegious form of servitude has been inflicted upon the children, it will no longer be possible for men successfully to accomplish great deeds.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 116

**“** ﻿When the independent life of the child is not recognised with its own characteristics and its own ends, when the adult man interprets these characteristics and ends, which are different from his, as being errors in the child which he must make speed to correct, there arises between the strong and the weak a struggle which is fatal to mankind.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 116

**“** ﻿The teacher should possess this same faith \[in the child\]. In fact, he should become imbued by it so that he may contemplate with the same hope any advance, however slow; so that he may investigate the causes and modify the circumstances that impede or delay the normal development of the children entrusted to his care.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 98

**“** ﻿The school must be invigorated by a new spirit, animated by a wise teacher, wiser than any other human being because he knows and respects the laws of education.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 98

**“** ﻿Once the teacher understands that mysterious powers exist within the child, and that these reveal themselves spontaneously through the child’s activities, his attitude will change, no longer being that of a superior toward an inferior; for he will realise that here is a treasure that must be allowed to yield benefits. Humanity is in dire need of this new type of educators.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 97

**“** ﻿I have observed that the child, on condition that he is granted the freedom to work, learns, becomes cultured, absorbs knowledge and gains experiences that become embedded in his spirit. Like seeds planted in fertile ground, they soon germinate and bear fruit.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 96

**“** ﻿We observe that a child occupied with matters that awaken his interest seems to blossom, to expand, evincing undreamed of character traits; his abilities give him great satisfaction, and he smiles with a sweet and joyous smile.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 96

**“** ﻿It is through appropriate work and activities that the character of the child is transformed. Work influences his development in the same way that food revives the vigour of a starving man.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 96

**“** ﻿We have observed that the child works willingly, we might even say he throws himself upon his work like a starving man offered a meal after four or five days of fasting. The English have coined a felicitous expression. They speak of mental starvation, that is, malnutrition of the psyche. It describes precisely a symptom that can be observed in children who find themselves in an environment devoid of means for intellectual work.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 96

**“** ﻿A three-year-old educated according to Montessori pedagogy, becomes master of his hand and undertakes with joy a variety of human activities. These activities allow him to develop the power of concentration.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 96

**“** ﻿In our Montessori schools, little children spontaneously reveal aptitudes for doing things that we never taught them and of which we would never have thought them capable. This is proof of a hidden wisdom secreted in their psyche.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 95

**“** ﻿Whoever seeks a new path to guide humanity to a higher level must look to the child as to a new teacher who brings a new light. As such we have come to know him and as such we venerate him.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 95

**“** ﻿Since we have the means to guide the child, it is clear that the formation of man is in our hands. We have the possibility to form the citizen of the world and the study of the young child is fundamental to the peace and progress of humanity.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 93

**“** ﻿The mind of the child takes elements from the environment and incarnates them into his being. This does not happen through heredity, but is the consequence of a creative potential within the child. All children in the world follow this law, in the same way, with the same intensity. The creative potential of the child is not the prerogative of one race or another; it is inherent in the nature of the child.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 93

**“** ﻿Children should be made to realise that all great achievements in culture and in the arts, all sciences and industries that have brought benefit to humanity, are due to the work of men who often struggled in obscurity and under conditions of great hardship; men driven by a profound passion, by an inner fire, to create with their research, with their work, new benefits not only for the people who lived in their times, but also for those of the future. We must convey to the children the nobility of this altruism.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 85

**“** ﻿Our civilisation has reached a deadlock. Never before have men depended on one another as they do today; no one could live alone or be sufficient unto him. This knowledge should be conveyed to the children, the young humans, raising their consciousness and above all arousing their enthusiasm, imbuing them with admiration for the great discoveries made by men; awe for their sacrifices in the cause of civilisation and progress.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 84

**“** ﻿If we are to realise the magnitude of the aims achieved by humanity, and envisage those of the future, we should meditate on the various stages of human evolution, study the science from which it takes its name and scrutinise its history.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 82

**“** ﻿In order to totally understand human qualities, we must turn to the child; we must bow down to this teacher of nascent life, with the aim not only to develop love among men, but also the highest spiritual values.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 79

**“** The nature of this educational work begins to take shape. It consists in cultivating the immense potential of the individual in order that his hidden energies may develop wholesomely.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 76

**“** ﻿We find ourselves at a moment in time in which spiritual life is neglected and materialism is extolled as a virtue; in which the physical prowess of human beings has surpassed that of nature and in which we glimpse the horror of universal destruction. Because of this, we proclaim that the development of creative energies, of the higher characteristics of human beings, is one of the most urgent needs of our social life.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 57

**“** ﻿If the rights of man are proclaimed and if the child is recognised as his maker, society should do something much more important than make a few sporadic attempts which tend to multiply institutions indiscriminately.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 56

**“** ﻿How is it that the child, born mute and unaware, comes to use a grammatically correct language to express the desires and thoughts that arise in the great mystery of his becoming?
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 55

**“** ﻿The question of education is fundamental because it is an exigency common to all human beings on earth.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 55

**“** ﻿The child has a fundamental role in the construction of the human being. If the dignity and the rights of workers are recognised, so should be the dignity and the rights of the worker who produces man. Based on the affirmation of the child’s dignity, we have to ensure the child’s right and freedom to grow and develop wholesomely, so that he can contribute to human progress with all his faculties, thus fulfilling the task assigned to him by nature.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 54

**“** Men have not been given by heredity the limitation of doing one special thing. Nor is he adapted by heredity to one special geographical region. Man can do anything, he can go anywhere. To him freedom was given, because he is not bound to an obedience which limits him to one kind of work or to one place. Mankind is adapted to any place and able to do any kind of work.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 22

**“** ﻿Humanity cannot be constructed only by one-half of human life. The entire world today is based upon the adult, and we have a world that is terrible, that is hard, and which people say is unchangeable. But I ask you, is anything unchangeable?
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 43

**“** ﻿It is true that each one of us has not always been a grown-up person. We have, each of us, been a child. From the child has come our personality, our humanity.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 43

**“** ﻿If we continue to exclusively address adult concerns, the void which is one of the main causes of today’s social imbalances will be perpetuated.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 54

**“** The question is to bring about a radical change in the way we view human relations, endeavouring to influence men’s consciousness by giving them new ideals, fighting indifference and incomprehension; to awaken in man’s spirit a sense of gratitude towards other men. This can also be done with children. In fact, these endeavours should begin with the children, giving them the opportunity to reflect on the social value of work, on the beauty of labour carried out by others, whereby the common effort enriches the life of all.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 83

**“** ﻿We must revise our concepts, our attitudes, our educational systems if we wish to help man to become more cultured, more disciplined, more open to abstract ideas; if our aim is indeed to help him grow to become a citizen of the world.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 79

**“** ﻿During this period of growth \[childhood\] the child learns spontaneously, without tiring; he observes the things around him (one might even say he studies them) and absorbs them, thereby invigorating himself.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 78

**“** ﻿The first Right of Man, the Fundamental Right, should recognise the right of the child to be helped to overcome those obstacles which may hinder, repress or deflect his constructive energies thereby denying him the certainty of becoming an efficient, well-balanced adult.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 54

**“** ﻿If we truly consider education to be the development of latent possibilities, rather than using the word education, we should adopt another: cultivation. The educator must cultivate the potentialities existing in the child, so they may develop and expand. It is essential to take advantage of this highly sensitive period in the life of the human being if, indeed, humanity is to improve.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 76

**“** ﻿The child’s mind is completely different from ours: his mind possesses the magnificent and almost miraculous faculty of taking from the environment external ideas and impressions, incarnating these into his being. An obvious example is the language that the small human being, in spite of being mute at the inception of life, absorbs from the environment. And the adult finds himself, almost as though it were by heredity, with a language complete and fully formed.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 76

**“** ﻿It is not yet realised that there are two powerful forces in human life: that which drives the formation of man (childhood) and that which drives the construction of society (adulthood). These forces are so closely meshed that, if one is neglected, the other cannot be attained. There is no awareness that the rights of the adult are necessarily dependent on those of the child.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 54

**“** ﻿We have the idea that education can help the development of the child, and that we adult people will give this help. That is the ordinary idea of education. This idea is not a right idea, because it concludes that the adult can help this little child very much with his own wisdom and care. The idea of education is to give to the child and to young people all the best that we have.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 44

**“** ﻿I have seen that children can do much for the community. In the child is much knowledge, much wisdom. If we do not profit from it, it is only because of neglect on our part to become humble and to see the wonder of this soul and learn what the child can teach.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 45

**“** ﻿If we truly want to achieve equality and harmony among human beings, we must not neglect the time of life when the social, idealistic and linguistic differences which separate human groups do not yet exist.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 55

**“** ﻿For so long as we continue to look exclusively at the weakness of the newborn, for so long as we continue considering him psychologically disabled, we will miss both the most important secret and the most important energy in human life. And the shower of new souls in continuous renovation will be lost in an ocean of indifference and oppression, instead of leading to the salvation of the arid spirits that languish in the desert of our unawareness.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 56

**“** ﻿The child has always been the forgotten citizen. While the evolution of civilisation has progressively produced some improvements in the living conditions of adults, those of the child have deteriorated. For the child, life is more and more unhealthy; the time he spends with his mother decreases consistently; his freedom of action diminishes and his participation in the life of adults dwindles to nothingness.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 56

**“** The child ﻿has been the constructor of every one of us. Before we became an important adult, a respected person, a person who takes his part in society, we have been another personality, a personality very mysterious, not considered in this world, not respected, a person that has no importance, no choice. ﻿Yet he is capable of something we cannot do – he is capable of constructing an immense world in a way we cannot even imagine of doing.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 44

**“** ﻿The children, who live a life more pure than ours, are divine workers; without pretensions, without pride, they accomplish humanity’s magnum opus: the construction of man. ﻿And those who assist in this great work are enriched by the children’s spiritual values and are elevated. The superiority and condescension evinced by adults towards the child crumble and, instead, a sense of humility emerges, the same sense that is evoked in him who succeeds in tearing the veil that hides the secrets of creation.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 75

**“** In my life I have had the wonderful chance to know some children who have given me their revelations, and then have discovered that these revelations were not special and unique to these particular children but are common to all children.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 45

**“** ﻿This \[childhood\] is the time of great powers and deep mysteries: the human being develops like a seed hidden in the earth that germinates and grows to become a spike of wheat.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 55

**“** ﻿Nature has given to this new person its laws, and all that takes place is not in our hands. Not that we cannot help; we can and do, but we had the idea that it was we adults who built him, that we must do everything for this little child instead of seeing how much he can give to us.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 44

**“** ﻿Our idea about the child is that he is nothing, a little thing, an empty thing without importance. No empty thing, nothing without importance, can be the constructor of a Man. Imagine the beginnings of this plant here. It was cultivated from a seed. We do not consider a seed as without importance, but we know that the seed has within it the plant and that, if cultivated, forth from it will come a new plant. But it has not been realized that in every child is the seed that will mature into an adult.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 44

**“** ﻿How is it that the two-year-old uses the language he finds in his environment, despite the difficulties this may involve, without the help of a teacher?
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 55

**“** ﻿We have to look at the newborn to understand the secret of our life. We have to study how this being that at birth is incapable of comprehension and lacks self-awareness, who has neither memory nor will, becomes intelligent.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 55

**“** ﻿This is the hope we have – a hope in a new humanity that will come from this new education, an education that is a collaboration of man and the universe that is a help for evolution.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 50

**“** ﻿We cannot with our efforts, create a man. That is the task of the child himself, and it is the most important side of the whole educational question: what the child himself accomplishes of his own power and not what adult man can do for him.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 44

**“** ﻿It is in this stage that ‘vocation’ and ‘militancy’ occur. These children want to make a direct contribution to society and have it recognized. It is something new.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 40

**“** ﻿A totally different psychology now distinguishes the individual. He passes from feeling for himself in relation with those with who he is in contact, to feeling for others whom he has never seen. It is an abstract love. It is love without retribution because it is directed towards those never seen and whom he never will see because they are too numerous.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 40

**“** ﻿Each plane must be lived through fully in order to pass with mastery to the next.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 39

**“** ﻿It is their \[second plane children’s\] conscience that stands out most and of great interest is what is good, just or unjust. They have a keen feeling towards injustice. When the adult demands from the very young child something that he cannot give, it is always the seven-year-old that comes to his defence. The rebellion against injustice is general; it extends even to animals.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 39

**“** ﻿It is not enough to provide material for the child to work in school. He demands to go out into the world. Besides material, the school should provide also guides so that the child can go and find the material for himself. We have provided schools and material; they are not enough, he requires exploring the physical world and society.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 28

**“** ﻿We might say that the younger children take in things sensorially. The child of seven enters the abstract field, he wishes to know reasons. It is curious to notice that one of the things which preoccupy these children is what is ethical in life: what is good, what is bad. If you tell the little child that he is bad or good, he just accepts it. Whereas the seven-year-old wants to know why he is bad, and what it is to be bad etc.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 37

**“** ﻿In a school we were carrying out experiments in biology; there was an aquarium that was accessible to children from three to nine years. One morning the fish were all dead. The little ones, struck by this fact, ran to every newcomer to announce that ‘the fishes are dead’, then ran back to their former occupation. The older children stood quietly around the aquarium saying: ‘Why are the fish dead?’ ‘Why? Why do things happen, how do they come about?’
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 37

**“** Children like to learn all the courtesies of social life. If one teaches them, they are interested to know how to greet, how to excuse themselves when they pass in front of other people etc.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 35

**“** ﻿We can sum this up in two sentences; the first actually said by a child to his teacher: ‘Help me to do it by myself’. The other is one we gave: ‘Every useless help is an obstacle to development’.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 34

**“** ﻿Our schools are like a furnished house, a ‘children’s house’. And what do the children do? It is what one does in one’s own house. They carry out work which has a practical aim, they sweep, dust, dress themselves, etc. In this house each one carries out his own work independently from the others; but if something occurs to one of them like knocking over a cup full of beads, or when there is any need for help in similar accidents, the other children are quick to assist.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 34

**“** ﻿Liberty is not to be free to do anything one likes; it is to be able to act without help.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 24

**“** The child realises that through his own efforts he can be independent and achieve things he has set his mind to. And gradually we educators are confronted with a simple but important fact: that to help the child is not what he needs, and indeed that to give help is an impediment for the child. Therefore he must be allowed to act freely on his own initiative in this free environment.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 34

**“** ﻿It is to correspond to these needs \[for independence\] that we prepared an environment proportionate to the size and intelligence of the children, where they could work and achieve independence.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 34

**“** ﻿With regard to the child, education should correspond to these \[developmental\] stages, so that instead of dividing the schools into nursery, primary, secondary and university, we should divide education in planes and each of these should correspond to the phase the developing individuality is going through.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 33

**“** I have found that in his development, the child passes through certain phases, each of which has its own particular needs. The characteristics of each are so different that the passages from one phase to the other have been described by certain psychologists as ‘rebirths’.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 32

**“** ﻿The child does not grow in a uniform way day by day, at the same rate. In growth there are crises, somewhat like the metamorphosis of the insects.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 32

**“** ﻿I can only say that as the children become older their life becomes more complicated. To answer these needs why does society only give sport and games? Why is there pride just in winning a game? Why not aim to make the individual psychically strong? Why not institute moral sport through social experience? Why not have championships of men and women who are morally strong?
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 31

**“** ﻿So I repeat that we cannot give principles by teaching them but by prolonged social experience.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 31

**“** ﻿How can one widen the circle of his society? To do this it is true that he must learn something. ‘You want to go out? Then you must learn certain rules. You want to go out of the house? Then you must learn to lead a simple life.’ He likes to feel that he can walk through life carrying on his shoulders all that is necessary to his own life. He wishes, too, to go out in the traffic in safety. So, the child wishes to submit to all the necessary rules for they lead to a better life.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 30

**“** ﻿At seven years begins a physical and psychological change. The child of seven has a different psychic attitude. Physically nature puts a sign that is obvious. The pearly teeth of the little child fall out, they are replaced by large, strong, deeply rooted teeth; the curly hair becomes straighter and darker; the fat chubby body becomes gawky and thinner.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 36

**“** ﻿... the child of seven years must have other kinds of social experiences. We can say that up to seven years the experiences have been in a small house that belonged to him. Now he must go out from it and make greater efforts.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 29

**“** ﻿For the ‘valorisation’ of the child’s personality there must be a very definite basis in social experiences.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 29

**“** It is the ‘valorisation’ of the personality, to become aware of ones own value. Without this, as many psychologists say, the child only feels his own value if he is loved. This is another ‘valorisation’ – he is independent, he is sure of his own actions and knows how to act.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 28-29

**“** ﻿So we realise that in order to develop the individual needs to display effort, to exercise himself and not be dependent on others. Now this independence is acquired only by an effort. Liberty or freedom is the independence acquired by one’s own effort.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 28

**“**... the child always chooses something hard to do. This is something we would never have thought of.
**”**

**“** We can see clearly what is necessary to give in order to help the child. It is to give the possibility of independence, of living together and carrying out social experiences.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 28

**“** ﻿We had a little goat \[...\] I was feeding him and holding the grass always higher, in order to see how high he could stretch before I gave him the grass. Then I saw a little child approach seriously from behind and help support the goat, in order that he might more easily get the grass. It revealed how we adults can be completely unconscious of doing something that is not right. While living with children one continually has these lessons. One does things, without bad intentions, as I was, but the child has a greater fineness of perception in the course of his development.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 28

**“** Perhaps the failure of the secondary school is due to the fact that it uses methods of assimilation that are no longer suited to the development of the child. The child should no longer be restricted to the environment of the school, to the vaster environment in which he learned and understood the how and the why, nor be so close to the family from which he depends financially; he wants ‘to live’ society. He should go farther away.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 40

**“** ﻿When the children find themselves in the environment we have prepared, the social contact with other children begins. \[...\] One might imagine that the children would fight, but no, the children have solved the problem. We can sum this up by saying that the child leaves the others to be active as long as he also can be active. Each respects the work of the other. This shows that the interest of these individuals is to be active.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 27

**“** Harmonious relation between adult and child does not depend only on their loving each other. Rather, mutual understanding and love depend on whether the child has acquired his independence.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 27

**“** ﻿When the child has acquired this independence his relation to the adult is changed. He is sweeter and calmer. He no longer lives under a repression (the mental suggestion of the adult) therefore he loses any antipathy.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 27

**“** ﻿Whenever possible, the child has a tendency to render himself independent of the help of others, especially of the adult. Then, in acquiring this independence, he seeks for the personal effort. This means that he learns to function by himself. If he cannot acquire this independence he does not exist as an individual – for the characteristic of an individual is one who can function by himself.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 27

**“** ﻿If the different individuals have to live harmoniously in one society, with a common aim there must be a set of rules which we call morality. Therefore, we can consider morality as a form of adaptation to a common life for the achievement of a common aim. Morality, which is usually considered as an abstraction, we wish to consider as a technique which allows us to live together harmoniously.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 26

**“** ﻿We must study the correlation between life and its environment. In nature everything correlates. This is the method of nature. Nature is not concerned with the conservation of individual life: it is a harmony, a plan of construction. Everything fits into the plan: winds, rocks, earth, water, plants, man, etc.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 22

**“** ﻿Favourable conditions came to be realised. A very rare thing. Indeed, because, though it is often said that parents or teachers should leave the children free, to do it really is another matter.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 16

**“** ﻿If a child meets certain difficulties in his work the other children never spontaneously help him.... But if there is an accident when help is really needed, the child will rise and go to help. He will leave all he is doing, no matter how important, in order to help. This is a social relation very different from our own. We adults are always ready to help those who need no help, but if there is someone in real need of help, a help that will require sacrifice from us, we immediately look for a way of escape from giving it.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 27

**“** ﻿Gradually, we came to recognise the child’s love for order and witnessed its surprising memory of the exact position of each object.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 17

**“** ﻿Especially then, when the child’s need of activity was not understood, any mother would have said: ‘Now you are clean, that is enough, stop’. But here in the school the children were able to carry out these activities to their full satisfaction.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 16

**“** ﻿Nature seems to show that there is a mutual exchange between the different kinds of life and the general environment, meaning that each kind can find what it needs for life and happiness in that environment; but also that life and happiness can only be fulfilled by its particular form of service rendered to the environment. So adaptation means fulfilment of conditions, necessary for life and happiness.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 20

**“** ﻿The children behaviour led us to become aware of a fundamental truth, namely that the child works for his own inner development and not to reach an exterior aim and that when he has done this work he has not really developed a special ability but he has developed something in himself.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 16

**“** ﻿Another thing which at the time seemed strange was the need for order which developed in the children. They put everything back in its proper place.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 17

**“** I feel that it is a difficult path that we are following, and we must seek out someone who can teach us something more practical. This ‘someone’ who can teach us is the child. The child can reveal to us the origin of society and can show us the way out of this intricate question. Our task is to give help to the child and watch for what he will reveal to us.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 27

**“** ﻿It is easy to understand that each animal does unknowingly some work in the environment which is useful to it. This is in contrast to the old idea which was that life in the environment meant to get as much as possible from it; today ideas are very different. Now, it is realized that each animal behaves in a particular way, not only for his own good, but because he works also for the environment. He is an agent who works for the harmonious correlation of all things.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 19

**“** ﻿Nature has this beautiful arrangement in which everybody, while striving for his own life and happiness, does something for the improvement and conservation of the environment.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 21

**“** ﻿We dealt with the matter of teaching them to comb their hair and to dress themselves. This was indeed an enormous success. Having learned to button their clothes, they unbuttoned them and re-buttoned, repeating the process again and again.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 16

**“** ﻿Only those who are adapted to their environment can be said to be really normal. Adaptation is the starting point, the ground we stand on.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 19

**“** ﻿Then certain little facts happened which impressed me. For example, the children showed a very great love for cleanliness. They had been taught by us how to wash their hands and they went everywhere looking for opportunities to do so.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 16

**“** Discovery concerns something which, though already in existence, for one reason or another has remained hidden from human consciousness. In this case it was the discovery of the deeper nature of the child, for when the right conditions were established, the result was the spontaneous appearance of characteristics which revealed not a portion but the whole personality. I must affirm once again that they were not the consequence of a determined or a pre-established plan of education.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 12

**“** It is a fact that anyone who lives with children, anyone who knows how to approach them with love, will always learn new things.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 80

**“** I have observed for myself the exuberance, the generosity with which the nature of the child responds to scientific education. This observation left me thoughtful and filled with awe; and I became a faithful follower of the child’s spirit.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 78

**“** The word ‘educate’ has as many meanings as there are ideologies in the world and can be interpreted in many ways. One fact, however, is impressive. All those engaged in education agree that education must begin at birth.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 75

**“** To understand the child as a creative power, to realise that he is psychologically different from us, to perceive that his need is different from ours is a step forward for all human aspirations and prepares a loftier level for social life.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 67

**“** If we wish to make the effort of unifying human society, we must acknowledge the individual and consider the human being as such from birth.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 51

**“** Every human being has developed from a child: the energies that move humanity come from the expansion of the energies latent in children.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 50

**“** The role of the child in humanity, the role that has caused him to be called ‘father of man’ and ‘force which directs the formation of man’ seems to be still generally ignored.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 50

**“** Like a sponge these children absorb. It is marvellous, this mental power of the child. Only we cannot teach directly. It is necessary that the child teach himself, and then the success is great.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 45

**“** We must take man himself, take him with patience and confidence, across all the planes of education. We must put everything before him, the school, culture, religion, the world itself. We must help him to develop within himself that which will make him capable of understanding. It is not merely words, it is a labour of education. This will be a preparation for peace – for peace cannot exist without justice and without men endowed with a strong personality and a strong conscience.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 38

**“** Each plane must be lived through fully in order to pass with mastery to the next.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 35

**“**…in order to keep up with evolving humanity, Education should continue throughout life.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 37

**“** Indeed we have come to the conclusion that the basis of all culture should be given in this period from seven years to adolescence. I mentioned the fact that on this educational plane, giving material was not enough, but material is nonetheless essential.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 33

**“** At each age one must seek for the opportunity for the greatest effort, and the greatest social experience one can reach actively.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 24

**“**\[The child\] chooses the narrow path that we might consider hard. Yes, this little man has taken the narrow, straight path, the strong way. Thus we see the hardworking child doing difficult work, which seems to us out of proportion to his age.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 23

**“**...whenever possible, the child has a tendency to render himself independent of the help of others, especially of the adult. Then, in acquiring this independence, he seeks for the personal effort. This means that he learns to function by himself. If he cannot acquire this independence he does not exist as an individual – for the characteristic of an individual is one who can function by himself.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 21

**“** Evolution, in the history of life, is a slow process. Education, however, the type of education I am speaking about, will certainly be an element to reach the loftiness destined to humanity.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 14

**“** If to strive to get the means of life and happiness is called “work”, we see that each does not only work for himself, but to maintain balance and order.
**”**

Maria Montessori

Citizen of the World, p. 13

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