Quotes

120 Best Maria Montessori Quotes to Enlighten You

Published

3 years ago

February 7, 2022

Rene Turrek

Are you a supporter of the Montessori approach to education and looking for Maria Montessori quotes? We’ve compiled an amazing collection of best Maria Montessori quotes on education for you.

Maria Montessori was a physician and educator from Italy. She is well known for founding the ‘Montessori Education System.’ Maria Montessori is a pioneer in terms of understanding the science behind education. Montessori is a life philosophy that we should embrace and carry with us for the rest of our lives.

Her educational system gained popularity because it let children to learn at their own pace and treated them as individuals rather than members of a class. She was awarded the ‘French Legion of Honor’ for her contributions to education and was nominated for the ‘Noble Peace Prize’ three times.

The work of Dr. Montessori is full of insight. Some of our favorite Maria Montessori quotes about teaching children are selected from her books, papers, and thoughts. These children’s quotes cover topics such as independence, math, language, teaching, and education. Additionally, these educational Maria Montessori quotes for teachers are beneficial to both teachers and parents.

The following Maria Montessori quotes will demonstrate why her thoughts on early education continue to influence how children learn today all across the world.

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Best Maria Montessori Quotes of All Time

Many people are familiar with Montessori schools, but not everyone knows what they are or where the concept originated. They are named after Maria Montessori – an Italian educator. With these Maria Montessori quotes we’ve gathered here, there will always be plenty to learn.

It is not true that I invented what is called the Montessori Method… I have studied the child; I have taken what the child has given me and expressed it, and that is what is called the Montessori Method. –Maria Montessori
Personal health is related to self-control and to the worship of life in all its natural beauty – self-control bringing with it happiness, renewed youth, and long life. –Maria Montessori
The greatness of the human personality begins at the hour of birth. From this almost mystic affirmation there comes what may seem a strange conclusion: that education must start from birth. –Maria Montessori
The different parts of the brain must not only be stimulated in order to make them function, but must work together in harmony: this is what is called “integration”. –Maria Montessori
The only language men ever speak perfectly is the one they learn in babyhood, when no one can teach them anything. –Maria Montessori
The first idea the child must acquire is that of the difference between good and evil. –Maria Montessori
The respect and protection of woman and of maternity should be raised to the position of an inalienable social duty and should become one of the principles of human morality. –Maria Montessori
If the whole of humanity is to be united into one brotherhood, all obstacles should be removed so that guys, all over the surface of the globe, need to be as kids playing in a garden. –Maria Montessori
Everyone in the world ought to do the things for which he is specially adapted. It is the part of wisdom to recognize what each one of us is best fitted for, and it is the part of education to perfect and utilize such predispositions. Because education can direct and aid nature but can never transform her. –Maria Montessori
Independence is not a static condition; it is a continuous conquest, and in order to reach not only freedom, but also strength, and the perfecting on one’s powers, it is necessary to follow this path of unremitting toil. –Maria Montessori

Inspirational Maria Montessori Quotes

In the following section, we’ve compiled a list of inspirational quotes by Maria Montessori for getting motivation when it comes to success in life. With these motivational Maria Montessori quotes, nature becomes more relatable because they have tons of positive vibes.

Success in life depends in every case on self-confidence and the knowledge of one’s own capacity. –Maria Montessori
It follows that at the beginning of his life the individual can accomplish wonders without effort and quite unconsciously. –Maria Montessori
Only through freedom and environmental experience is it practically possible for human development to occur. –Maria Montessori
If intelligence is the triumph of life, the spoken word is the marvellous means by which this intelligence is manifested. –Maria Montessori
Every great cause is born from repeated failures and from imperfect achievements. –Maria Montessori
This is the hope we have—a hope in a new humanity that will come from this new education, an education that is collaboration of man and the universe. –Maria Montessori
We found individual activity is the one factor that stimulates and produces development. –Maria Montessori
Growth is not merely a harmonious increase in size, but a transformation. –Maria Montessori
There are two ‘faiths’ which can uphold humans: faith in God and faith in oneself. And these two faiths should exist side by side: the first belongs to one’s inner life, the second to one’s life in society. –Maria Montessori
Imagination does not become great until human beings, given the courage and strength use it to create. –Maria Montessori

Short Maria Montessori Quotes

The Montessori education system is a way of life in any learning context, whether at home, school, outdoors, indoors, or in the community. The following short Maria Montessori quotes from the woman behind the classroom will delight you. Enjoy it!

Early childhood education is the key to the betterment of society. –Maria Montessori
Do not erase the designs the child makes in the soft wax of his inner life. –Maria Montessori
The child who concentrates is immensely happy. –Maria Montessori
A child’s needs are simple, and a happy childhood needs only simple surroundings. –Maria Montessori
The best instruction is that which uses the least words sufficient for the task. –Maria Montessori
The senses, being explorers of the world, open the way to knowledge. –Maria Montessori
No social problem is as universal as the oppression of the child. –Maria Montessori
The basic error is to suppose that a person’s will must necessarily be broken before it can obey. –Maria Montessori
Order is one of the needs of life which, when it is satisfied, produces a real happiness. –Maria Montessori
Wait while observing.’ That is the motto of the educator. –Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori Quotes on Education

Being the pioneer of one of the most effective education systems in the world, Dr. Maria Montessori quotes on education never goes out of fashion. These amazing Maria Montessori quotes on education can inspire and guide you whether you’re a parent, grandparent, caregiver, or teacher. Dive in!

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
This is education, understood as a help to life; an education from birth, which feeds a peaceful revolution and unites all in a common aim, attracting them as to a single centre. Mothers, fathers, politicians: all must combine in their respect and help for this delicate work of formation, which the little child carries on in the depth of a profound psychological mystery, under the tutelage of an inner guide. This is the bright new hope for mankind. –Maria Montessori
Education is a natural process carried out by the human individual and is acquired not by listening to words, but by experiences in the environment. –Maria Montessori
Education should no longer be mostly imparting knowledge, but must take a new path, seeking the release of human potentials. –Maria Montessori
Education is a work of self-organization by which man adapts himself to the conditions of life. –Maria Montessori
Education between the ages of six to twelve is not a direct continuation of that which has gone before, though it is built upon that basis. Psychologically there is a decided change in personality, and we recognize that nature has made this a period for the acquisition of culture, just as the former was for the absorption of the environment. –Maria Montessori
An education capable of saving humanity is no small undertaking; it involves the spiritual development of man, the enhancement of his value as an individual, and the preparation of young people to understand the times in which they live. –Maria Montessori
Moral Education is the source of that spiritual equilibrium on which everything else depends and which may be compared to that physical equilibrium or sense of balance, without which it is impossible to stand upright or to move into any other position. –Maria Montessori
Culture and education have no bounds or limits; now man is in a phase in which he must decide for himself how far he can proceed in the culture that belongs to the whole of humanity. –Maria Montessori
Above all it is the education of adolescent that is important because adolescence is the time when the child enters the state of [adult]hood and becomes a member of society. –Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori Quotes on Child and Learning

Maria Montessori sought to develop and strengthen the child’s spirit, which was full of virtue and yearning to be awakened, allowing mankind to reach its full potential. We’ve compiled a list of some Maria Montessori quotes on child and learning. We hope you will find them motivating!

Although we call it our mother tongue, it is not the mother who teaches the child a language. If the mother was dead, the child would still learn a language. If the mother took the child to live in a foreign country, the child would acquire the language of that country perfectly, while the mother would not. –Maria Montessori
When you have solved the problem of controlling the attention of the child, you have solved the entire problem of its education. –Maria Montessori
The goal of early childhood education should be to activate the child’s own natural desire to learn. –Maria Montessori
As soon as children find something that interests them they lose their instability and learn to concentrate. –Maria Montessori
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
The child has a mind able to absorb knowledge. He has the power to teach himself. –Maria Montessori
When you have solved the problem of controlling the attention of the child, you have solved the entire problem of its education. –Maria Montessori
By offering the child the story of the universe, we give [them] something a thousand times more infinite and mysterious to reconstruct with [their] imagination, a drama no fable can reveal. –Maria Montessori
The secret of good teaching is to regard the child’s intelligence as a fertile field in which seeds may be sown, to grow under the heat of flaming imagination. –Maria Montessori
One test of the correctness of educational procedure is the happiness of the child. –Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori Quotes on the Role of Teacher

The Montessori method of education emphasizes the necessity of treating children with respect. Similarly, it also highlights the role of teachers in creating a united classroom of love, cultural understanding, respect, and peace. Check out this list of Maria Montessori quotes on the role of teacher. These Maria Montessori quotes for teachers might inspire you.

The teacher should clear the table of everything else before presenting any piece of apparatus. This leads to order and fixes the attention on the activity at hand. –Maria Montessori
The teacher must derive not only the capacity but the desire, to observe natural phenomena. The teacher must understand and feel her position of observer: the activity must lie in the phenomenon. –Maria Montessori
The teacher’s task is not to talk, but to prepare and arrange a series of motives for cultural activity in a special environment made for the child. –Maria Montessori
The greatest sign of success for a teacher…is to be able to say, “The children are now working as if I did not exist. –Maria Montessori
We teachers can only help the work going on, as servants wait upon a master. –Maria Montessori
The teacher, when she begins work in our schools, must have a kind of faith that the child will reveal himself through work. –Maria Montessori
The task of the educator lies in seeing that the child does not confound good with immobility and evil with activity. –Maria Montessori
The first thing required of a teacher is that he be rightly disposed for his task. –Maria Montessori
Teach by teaching, not by correcting. –Maria Montessori
The training of the teacher is something far more than learning ideas. It includes the training of character. It is a preparation of the spirit. –Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori Quotes on Peace

Maria Montessori was a visionary who changed the way children studied in both the classroom and at home. She was a great supporter of peace and considered education as the main tool to get peace and prosperity in the world. Here are some Maria Montessori quotes on peace that encapsulate her philosophy.

Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war. –Maria Montessori
Education is the best weapon for peace. –Maria Montessori
If we wish to achieve peace and mutual understanding, we must start at the moment of birth…the moment when all men are alike. –Maria Montessori
If we are among the men of good will who yearn for peace, we must lay the foundation for peace ourselves, by working for the social world of the child. –Maria Montessori
If help and salvation are to come, they can only come from the children, for the children are the makers of men. –Maria Montessori
The satisfaction which they find in their work has given them a grace and ease like that which comes from music. –Maria Montessori
If we wish to understand man, we must first understand how man has been built. If there is one time in life when all men have the same ideas, when they speak the same language, it is the time of birth. No matter to what race they belong, in which part of the world they are born, newborns are all alike. If we wish to achieve peace and mutual understanding, we must start at the moment of birth, the moment when all men are alike. –Maria Montessori
True peace … suggests the triumph of justice and love among men; it reveals the existence of a better world where harmony reigns. –Maria Montessori
We shall walk together on this path of life, for all things are part of the universe and are connected with each to form one whole unity. –Maria Montessori
Peace is what every human being is craving for, and it can be brought about by humanity through the child. –Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori Quotes on Love

When parents and caregivers apply Montessori in their homes, one of the most disregarded aspects is cosmic education. Respect for the world and love for all of its inhabitants is a gift to your child and the world that will last a lifetime! We’ve gathered here some best Maria Montessori quotes on love that you will love.

Now, what really makes a teacher is love for the human child; for it is love that transforms the social duty of the educator into the higher consciousness of a mission. –Maria Montessori
It is not enough for the teacher to love the child. She must first love and understand the universe. She must prepare herself, and truly work at it.
Of all things love is the most potent. –Maria Montessori
The study of love and its utilization will lead us to the source from which it springs, The Child. –Maria Montessori
The child who has felt a strong love for his surroundings and for all living creatures, who has discovered joy and enthusiasm in work, gives us reason to hope that humanity can develop in a new direction. –Maria Montessori
Love and the hope of it are not things one can learn; they are a part of life’s heritage. –Maria Montessori
What we once enjoyed and deeply loved we can never lose, for all that we love deeply becomes part of us. –Maria Montessori
The love of one’s environment is the secret of social evolution.
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
The male of character is the persistent man faithful to his word, his convictions, and his love. –Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori Quotes on Practical Life

Maria Montessori was a woman who never allowed her ambitions stand in the way of her goals. Although, she was diagnosed with autism, she went on to become one of the most influential educators of all time. The following Maria Montessori quotes on practical life make learning about life so simple.

Today there is great interest in the beginning of human life and its relation to the environment. The mysterious and effective potentialities of this age are very interesting, which is why this period has been receiving so much attention. –Maria Montessori
Joy, feeling one’s own value, being appreciated and loved by others, feeling useful and capable of production are all factors of enormous value for the human soul. –Maria Montessori
The most important period of life is not the age of university studies, but the first one, the period from birth to the age of six. –Maria Montessori
To stimulate life, leaving it free, however, to unfold itself that is the first duty of the educator. –Maria Montessori
The purpose of life is to obey the hidden command which ensures harmony among all and creates an ever better world. We are not created only to enjoy the world, we are created in order to evolve the cosmos. –Maria Montessori
With man, the life of the body depends on the life of the spirit. –Maria Montessori
The environment acts more strongly upon the individual life the less fixed and strong this individual life may be. –Maria Montessori
Let us leave the life free to develop within the limits of the good, and let us observe this inner life developing. This is the whole of our mission. –Maria Montessori
Each plane must be lived through fully in order to pass with mastery to the next. –Maria Montessori
We must study the correlation between life and the environment. In nature all is correlated. This is the purpose of nature. Nature is not concerned just with the conservation of individual life or with the betterment of itself. It is a harmony, a plan of construction. Everything fits into the plan: rocks, earth, water, plants, man, etc. –Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori Quotes about Play

Playing is the vital way of learning in Montessori education system. Playing should be regarded as a gift that we give to our children. Quizzing and requiring youngsters to study all of the time might destabilize their personalities and suffocate their enthusiasm for learning. Stroll down this list of few Maria Montessori quotes about play.

There is an age when children play; we call it the age of play. But what is play if not to do those things which entail the movement of the hands? Children need to touch, to move all the things which they find in the environment. –Maria Montessori
Play is the work of the child. –Maria Montessori
Such experiences is not just play It is work he must do in order to grow up. –Maria Montessori
If the whole of mankind is to be united into one brotherhood, all obstacles must be removed so that men, all over the surface of the globe, should be as children playing in a garden. –Maria Montessori
Free the child’s potential and you will transform him into the world. –Maria Montessori
The tiny child’s absorbent mind finds all its nutriment in its surroundings. Here it has to locate itself, and build itself up from what it takes in. Especially at the beginning of life must we, therefore, make the environment as interesting and attractive as we can. The child, as we have seen, passes through successive phases of development and in each of these his surroundings have an important – though different – part to play. In none have they more importance than immediately after birth. –Maria Montessori
Modern observations and child-study have led us to realise that as soon as the child can go out of doors, we must take him with us. –Maria Montessori
He does it with his hands, by experience, first in play and then through work. The hands are the instruments of man’s intelligence. –Maria Montessori
The newborn child is impotent, without the power of movement, without intelligence. He must create all this in the mystery of his life; something must happen. We cannot see into this mystery. We can only see the external results – as when the child talks, runs, plays, does things which he could not do before. –Maria Montessori
Let the children be free; encourage them; let them run outside when it is raining; let them remove their shoes when they find a puddle of water. –Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori Quotes for Parents

Kids do a lot of things that we don’t understand. However, this does not negate the importance of these behaviors in their development. As parents, it’s critical to pay attention to a child’s play and sensitive moments. Check out these Maria Montessori quotes for parents that might inspire you.

We can love our children so dearly that it makes us blind to what is best for them. We can desire so eagerly that they shall grow into fine men and women that we correct and frustrate them at every turn without once realising that they have within themselves the power of their own development. –Maria Montessori
Development is a series of rebirths.” – for parents to remember during tantrums and regression! –Maria Montessori
The social relations which are the basis of the reproduction of the species are founded upon the continuous union of parents in marriage.
What advice can we give to new mothers? Their children need to work at an interesting occupation, they should not be helped unnecessarily, nor interrupted, once they have begun to do something intelligent. –Maria Montessori
It is in the encounter of the maternal guiding instincts with the sensitive periods of the newly born that conscious love develops between parent and child. –Maria Montessori
The art of Montessori, which simply means finding the best way to help the child himself become what he was meant to become from the first moment of conception, is an art that joins home and school. That means parent and teacher supporting one another in their responsibility to the life of the child. –Maria Montessori
Our part is to give help when we are asked. If we are careful not to interfere with a child’s activities and interests as long as they are not harmful, nature will see to his development. –Maria Montessori
The child’s parents are not his makers but his guardians. –Maria Montessori
To let the child do as he likes, when he has not yet developed any powers of control, is to betray the idea of freedom. –Maria Montessori
Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed. –Maria Montessori

More Maria Montessori Quotes and Sayings

We sometimes get caught up in molding our children into the people we want them to be rather than allowing them to choose what they want to be. The Montessori method of education focuses on allowing children to be and grow. Enjoy this collection of Dr. Maria Montessori quotes that are inspirational, smart, and instructive.

Movement, or physical activity, is thus an essential factor in intellectual growth, which depends upon the impressions received from outside. Through movement we come in contact with external reality, and it is through these contacts that we eventually acquire even abstract ideas. –Maria Montessori
We especially need imagination in science. It is not all mathematics, nor all logic, but it is somewhat beauty and poetry. –Maria Montessori
The child developing harmoniously and the adult improving himself at his side make a very exciting and attractive picture. –Maria Montessori
Discipline is born when the child concentrates his attention on some object that attracts him and which provides him not only with a useful exercise but with a control of error. Thanks to these exercises … the child becomes calm, radiantly happy, busy, forgetful of himself and, in consequence, indifferent to prizes or material rewards. –Maria Montessori
An interesting piece of work, freely chosen, which has the virtue of inducing concentration rather than fatigue, adds to the child’s energies and mental capacities, and leads him to self-mastery. –Maria Montessori
Our aim is not merely to make the child understand, and still less to force him to memorize, but so to touch his imagination as to enthuse him to his innermost core. –Maria Montessori
That humanity which is revealed in all its intellectual splendor during the sweet and tender age of childhood should be respected with a kind of religious veneration. It is like the sun which appears at dawn or a flower just beginning to bloom. Education cannot be effective unless it helps a child to open himself up to life. –Maria Montessori
The children were truly converted. They passed from a state of grief to happiness. They were freed from numerous, deep-seated defects. But there was also something more. Certain traits which are commonly esteemed also disappeared. In dazzling fashion these children showed that men have erred and must be completely renewed. –Maria Montessori
Except when he has regressive tendencies, the child’s nature is to aim directly and energetically at functional independence. –Maria Montessori
Speech is one of the marvels that characterize man, and also one of the most difficult spontaneous creations that have been accomplished by nature. –Maria Montessori

Final Thoughts on Maria Montessori Quotes

We hope so that reading this article of Maria Montessori quotes was a true value of your time. Many generations have benefited from Maria’s efforts and accomplishments so far. Due to their opportunity to investigate subjects in the way that makes the most sense to them, students in Montessori schools are noted for developing a deep love of learning. These Maria Montessori quotes for teachers will inspire you right away.

Because she was ready to put her own formal education first, Maria Montessori was able to do this and introduce the world to a new way of learning. She made difficult choices throughout her life, sacrificing personal ties in order to further her career. However, as a result of it, she forever transformed what we know about children’s education.

What’s the most important thing you’ve learned from these Maria Montessori quotes? Do you have any further motivational Maria Montessori quotes on education to add? Please share your thoughts with us.

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