These 81 Quotes About Children Might Make You Tear Up

Certain quotes about children can really hit home: It’s like someone else has managed to take your thoughts and put them into a more eloquent sentence.

You don’t understand the love a parent has for their child until you become a parent yourself. Once your first little one has entered the world and basically taken over your life, you finally start to understand all of those quotes about children you’ve always seen. You start to get why parents are so obsessed with being with their kids even when they’re simultaneously saying their kids are driving them nuts. Having kids come with so many complicated emotions, and sometimes it’s really hard to put those feelings into words yourself.

Whether it’s quotes about children growing up and becoming our future, or sentimental quotes about how much they are loved, the below options can really resonate with parents, teachers, and anyone else who understands and appreciate the magic of childhood. You can use these quotes for social media posts, to write in cards, or simply to keep in mind whenever you’re having a particularly tough day. Below are our favorite quotes about children to share with anyone who needs to hear them.

Quotes about your children

• “Before I had my child, I thought I knew all the boundaries of myself, that I understood the limits of my heart. It’s extraordinary to have all those limits thrown out, to realize your love is inexhaustible.” — Uma Thurman
• “As soon as this child was born I immediately wanted to call my parents and just apologize because I never knew how much they loved me.” — Ashton Kutcher
• Without my children, my house would be clean, my wallet would be full, and my heart would be empty.
• “And she loved a little boy very much, even more than she loved herself.” — Shel Silverstein
• “It’s a funny thing about mothers and fathers. Even when their own child is the most disgusting little blister you could ever imagine, they still think that he or she is wonderful.” —Roald Dahl
• “Children are not things to be molded, but are people to be unfolded.” — Jess Lair
• “Children see magic because they look for it.” — Christopher Moore
• “Children are the hands by which we take hold of heaven.” – Henry Ward Beecher
• “The best inheritance a parent can give his children is a few minutes of his time each day.” – Orlando Aloysius Battista
• “The potential possibilities of any child are the most intriguing and stimulating in all creation.” – Ray L. Wilbur
• “You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance.” – Franklin P. Jones
• “Children are a great comfort to us in our old age, and they help us reach it faster too.” – Unknown
• “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” – Albert Einstein
• “A baby is something you carry inside you for nine months, in your arms for three years, and in your heart until the day you die.” — Mary Mason
• “Until one becomes a mother, no one can ever tell you what it feels like to love someone so deeply and profoundly that you will rejoice when they rejoice, ache when they ache, feel what they feel, even without speaking a word.” — Jennifer Quinn

Quotes about children growing up

• “When they are little, you want them to grow up. When they are grown up, you want them to be little.” — Unknown
• “Hold your child close and breathe them in. Todays become tomorrows at an alarming rate.” — Unknown
• “Without me realizing it, those small precious moments became precious memories.” — Unknown
• “Watching kids grow up is a tricky business for a parent. It's a long and short process all at once.” — Unknown
• “When your child is growing, they don't warn you about those last little moments, like the last ‘carry me,’ ‘get me water,’ or ‘hug me,’ and how much you miss them.” — Unknown
• “Children are only little for a blink; then, they are all grown up. Make sure to make each moment matter.” — Unknown
• “From the first moment I laid eyes on you, I loved you. But that love has expanded in infinite measure as I've watched you grow.” — Unknown
• "Those little feet won't be little forever." - Ashlee Edens
• “The days are long, but the years are short.” — Unknown
• “You may outgrow my lap, but you will never outgrow my heart.” — Unknown
• “If your days as a mother seem long and mundane, remember that it is but a short breath before their wings are ready and they take flight.” — Unknown
• "To be able to watch your children's children grow up is truly a blessing from above." Byron Pulsifer
• "While we try to teach our children about life, our children teach us what life is all about." Angelia Schwindt
• “I constantly go between wishing you could stay little forever and being excited to see all that you will accomplish in this life.” — Unknown
• “Children outgrow childhood so much faster than we’re ready for.” — Unknown

Quotes about teaching children

• “Teaching is not about answering questions but about raising questions – opening doors for them in places that they could not imagine.” — Yawar Baig
• “You cannot make people learn. You can only provide the right conditions for learning to happen.” — Vince Gowmon
• “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” — William Butler Yeats
• “Let the child be the scriptwriter, the director and the actor in his own play.” — Magda Gerber
• “The more risks you allow your children to make, the better they learn to look after themselves.” — Roald Dahl
• “The more that you read, the more things you will know, the more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” — Dr. Seuss
• “Kids deserve the right to think that they can change the world.” — Lois Lowry
• “I think our job as parents is to give our kids roots to grow and wings to fly.”– Deborah Norville
• “Don’t worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.”– Robert Fulghum
• “It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.”– Maya Angelou
• “When our little people are overwhelmed by big emotions it is our job to share our calm, not join their chaos.” — L.R. Knost
• “Ask any child development expert, and they will tell you that children do not develop in a straight line. There are no average children. There are no standard children.” — Cassi Clausen

Quotes about children learning

• “Children are likely to live up to what you believe of them.” – Lady Bird Johnson
• “Children are great imitators. So give them something great to imitate.” – Anonymous
• “Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.” – Fred Rogers
• "Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere." - Chinese Proverb
• "Knowledge will bring you the opportunity to make a difference." - Claire Fagan
• "Never stop learning and never stop thinking and asking, 'Why not?'" - Steven Levi
• "The beginning is the most important part of the work."—Plato
• "Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can." —Arthur Ashe
• "You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose."—Dr. Seuss
• "The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you."—B.B. King
• "It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are."—e. e. Cummings
• "The most important thing we learn at school is that the most important things can't be learned at school." —Haruki Murakami

Quotes about children being the future

• “I continue to believe that if children are given the necessary tools to succeed, they will succeed beyond their wildest dreams!” — David Vitter
• “Children are human beings to whom respect is due, superior to us by reason of their innocence and of the greater possibilities of their future.” — Maria Montessori
• “Let us remember: one book, one pen, one child and one teacher can change the world.” — Malala Yousafzai
• “Old men can make war, but it is children who will make history.” — Ray Merritt
• “When I approach a child, he inspires in me two sentiments—tenderness for what he is and respect for what he may become.” — Louis Pasteur
• “While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.” — Angela Schwindt
• “Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.” — John F. Kennedy
• “The magic, the wonder, the mystery and the innocence of a child’s heart are the seeds of creativity that will heal the world.” — Michael Jackson
• “I believe that children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way. Show them all the beauty they possess inside.” — Whitney Houston
• “Children are not born for the benefit of their parents, neither are they the property of their family. Children belong to the future.” — Anthon St. Maarten
• “Children are not things to be molded, but are people to be unfolded.” — Jess Lair
• “A society’s destiny rests on how it treats its children.” — Robin Grille

Quotes about loving your children

• “What it’s like to be a parent: It’s one of the hardest things you’ll ever do but in exchange it teaches you the meaning of unconditional love.” — Nicholas Sparks
• “You will never look back on life and think ‘I spent too much time with my kids.’” — Kimberly Mceod
• “A mother’s arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them.” — Victor Hugo
• “In raising my children, I have lost my mind but found my soul.” — Lisa T. Shepherd
• “We find delight in the beauty and happiness of children that makes the heart too big for the body.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
• “I don’t remember who said this, but there really are places in the heart you don’t even know exist until you love a child.”– Anne Lamott
• “Success, and even life itself, wouldn’t be worth anything if I didn’t have my children by my side. They mean everything to me.”— Jude Law
• “Children need at least one person in their life that thinks the sun rises and sets on them, who delights in their existence, and loves them unconditionally.” — Pamela Leo
• “Making the decision to have a child – it is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking outside your body.” — Elizabeth Stone
• “Mother love is the fuel that enables a normal human being to do the impossible.” — Marion C. Garretty
• “The beauty that surrounds me is absolutely breathtaking; it’s the faces of my children.” — Anabela Loureiro
• “The first happiness of a child is to know that he is loved.” – Don Bosco
• “When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child.” – Sophia Loren
• “Always kiss your children goodnight, even if they’re already asleep.” — H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
• “In my life, you are the sun that never fades and the moon that never wanes. Shine on, my child.” — Unknown

Use these quotes about children as photo captions, write them in a notebook as sort of an inspirational thought, or in a special occasion card. Your favorites will always put a smile on your face.