If you need a quick read to bring a smile to your face, or are simply gathering information, I offer these inspiring quotes to bring you back to the child within—to that part of us who never forgot the importance of laughing for no particular reason, of imagining far beyond what the rational mind can comprehend, and of sitting in wonder at the miracle we wake to every day.
If you want more inspiration, check out my Inspiring Quotes for Child Learning and Development, and Playful Quotes for the Child in your Heart. You may also want to watch this short, fun and inspiring video called ~ Embracing Life’s Infinite Playground.
Also… check out Vince’s book: Let the Fire Burn ~ Nurturing the Creative Spirit of Children, A Children’s Book for Adults
Happy scrolling!
For more inspiring articles, research, tips and tools, to Vince’s free e-newsletter.
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Go out, go out I beg of you
And taste the beauty of the wild.
Behold the miracle of the earth
With all the wonder of a child.
~ Unknown
“You were wild once. Don’t let them tame you.” ~ Isadora Duncan
“The world is full of magic things patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.” ~ William Butler Yeats
“If you want children to continue dreaming to the moon and beyond, then dream with them, both by sharing your fervent dreams, and by diving heart first into their own.” ~ Vince Gowmon
“Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.” ~ E.B. White
“Laughter is the currency of hope.” ~ Viktor Frankl
“I really love being human. But some days I really wish I could be fairy.” ~ Greta, age 4
“The world is full of magic things patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.” ~ William Butler Yeats
“Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.” ~ Socrates
“Knowledge by itself is dry. But knowledge is watered by contemplation, even by simple reflection, and becomes a living seed that eventually flowers and bears surprisingly rich fruit.” ~ Wald Amberstone
“Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.” ~ Roald Dahl
“My best teachers were not the ones who knew all the answers, but those who were deeply excited by the questions they could not answer.” ~ Brian Greene
“To truly laugh, you must be able to take your pain, and play with it!” ~ Charlie Chaplin
“You are not meant to be like others. You are not meant to fit in. Break free from who you think you ‘should’ be, and become childlike again!” ~ Vince Gowmon
“Some of the secret joys of living are not found by rushing from point A to point B, but by inventing some imaginary letters along the way.” ~ Douglas Pagels, These Are the Gifts I’d Like to Give to You
“Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is.” ~Francis Bacon
“Unless we can be like children, we can’t be happy.” ~ Marianne Williamson
“The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age.” ~Aldous Huxley
“It is time for a return to childhood, to simplicity, to running and climbing and laughing in the sunshine, to experiencing happiness instead of being trained for a lifetime of pursuing happiness. It is time to let children be children again.” ~ L. R. Knost
“Almost all really new ideas have a certain aspect of foolishness when they are first produced.” ~ Alfred North Whitehead
“I am realistic – I expect miracles.” ~ Wayne Dyer
“Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty.” ~ John Ruskin
“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination!” ~ Albert Einstein
“When you are really mature, you will again become childlike. Then your life will again become fun. You will enjoy it, every bit of it you will not be serious. A deep laughter will spread all over your life. It will be more like a dance and less like business.” ~ Osho
“Those who struggle to fit in are well-equipped to lead us to a new and positive world.” ~ Vince Gowmon
“The most potent muse of all is our own inner child.” ~ Stephen Nachmanovitch
“There are two things that don’t have to mean anything; one is music, and the other is laughter.” ~ Immanuel Kant
“I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief.” ~ Gerry SpenceClick To Tweet“It is important to remember that we all have magic inside us.” ~ J. K. Rowling
“Only those who look with the eyes of children can lose themselves in the object of their wonder.” ~ Eberhard Arnold
“Imagination is your mind’s playground.” ~ Vince Gowmon
“Everything is ceremony in the wild garden of childhood.” ~ Pablo Neruda
“Just living is not enough… one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.” ~ Hans Christian Andersen
“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
“She decided to free herself, dance into the wind, create a new language. And birds fluttered around her, writing ‘yes’ in the sky.” ~ Monique Duval
“Give children toys that are powered by their imagination, not by batteries.” ~ H. Jackson Brown
“You must find the place inside yourself where nothing is impossible.” ~ Deepak Chopra
“A child can ask questions that a wise man cannot answer.” ~Author Unknown
“We could never have loved the earth so well if we had had no childhood in it…” ~ George Eliot
“Laughter is timeless. Imagination has no age. And dreams are forever.” ~Walt Disney
“Always believe that something wonderful is about to happen.” ~ S. S. Dhillon
“All men who have achieved great things have been great dreamers.” ~ Orison Swett Marden
“There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other wings.” ~ Goeth
“The creator in you is the child set free.” ~ Vince Gowmon
“Everything that now exists was once imagined. So, if you want something to exist, you must first be able to imagine it.” ~Wayne Dyer
“Slow down and enjoy life. It’s not only the scenery you miss by going too fast – you also miss the sense of where you are going and why.” ~ Eddie Cantor
“Surely there is something in the unruffled calm of nature that overawes our little anxieties and doubts; the sight of the deep blue sky and the clustering stars above seems to impart a quiet to the mind.” ~ Tryon Edwards
“Grown men can learn from very little children, for the hearts of little children are pure. Therefore, the Great Spirit may show them many things that older people miss.” ~ Black Elk
“My best teachers were not the ones who knew all the answers, but those who were deeply excited by the questions they could not answer.” ~ Brian Greene
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” ~ Albert Einstein
“For every ‘Why?’ a child asks, s/he invites us into a different definition of reality, and ourselves.” ~ Vince Gowmon
“A single dream is more powerful than a thousand realities.” ~ J. R. R. Tolkien
“May what I do flow from me like a river, no forcing and no holding back, the way it is with children.” ~Rainer Maria Rilke
“Now and then it is good to pause in our pursuit of Joy and just be Joyful.” ~ Anonymous
“True joy results when we become aware of our connectedness to everything.” ~ Paul Pearsall
“The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.” ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau
“A laugh is a smile that bursts.” ~ Mary H. Waldrip
“Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face.” ~ Victor Hugo
“We must be careful not to wonder about something in a way that we are unchanged by the wonder.” ~ Stephen Jenkinson
“Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.” ~ H. L. MenckenClick To Tweet“What one loves in childhood stays in the heart forever.” ~ Mary Jo Putney
“I am just a child who has never grown up. I still keep asking these ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions. Occasionally, I find an answer.” ~ Stephen Hawking
“Children take a stand for everything that is possible because they are still in touch with that place inside where everything IS possible.” ~ Vince Gowmon
“Seek the wisdom of the ages, but look at the world through the eyes of a child” ~ Ron Wild
“Dreams come true; without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them.” ~ John Updike
“The world when seen through a little child’s eyes, greatly resembles paradise.” ~ Unknown
“There are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child. There are seven million.” ~ Walt Streightiff
“Doing nothing is happiness for children and misery for old men.” ~ Victor Hugo
“Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope.” ~ Dr. Seuss
“I don’t dream at night, I dream all day; I dream for a living.” ~Steven Spielberg
“Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine.” ~ Lord Byron
“Time spent laughing is time spent with the gods.” ~ Japanese proverb
“Truly wonderful, the mind of a child is.” ~ Yoda
“We all need empty hours in our lives or we will have no time to create or dream.” ~ Robert Coles
“The real magic wand is the child’s own mind.” ~ Jose Ortega y Gasset
“Life is like a mirror, we get the best results when we smile at it.” ~ Unknown
“Blessed are those who can laugh at themselves, for they shall never cease to be amused.” ~ Anonymous
“The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than any talent for abstract thinking.” ~ Albert Einstein
“Dreams come in a size too big so that we may grow into them.” ~ Josie Bisset
“Children remind what success is really all about – being present and joyful.” ~ Vince Gowmon
“We’re all five-year-olds. We don’t know how to do this thing called life. Are you faking it?” ~ Byron Katie
“In response to those who say to stop dreaming and face reality, I say keep dreaming and make reality.” ~ Kristian Kan
“When children pretend, they’re using their imaginations to move beyond the bounds of reality. A stick can be a magic wand. A sock can be a puppet. A small child can be a superhero.” ~ Fred Rogers
“Pausing to listen to an airplane in the sky, stooping to watch a ladybug on a plant, sitting on a rock to watch the waves crash over the quayside—children have their own agendas and timescales. As they find out more about their world and their place in it; they work hard not to let adults hurry them. We need to hear their voices.” ~ Cathy Nutbrown
“Every child born into the world is a new thought of God, an ever fresh and radiant possibility” ~ Kate Douglas Wiggin
“Remind yourself regularly that children know much more than you can imagine.” ~ Vince Gowmon
“Once you laugh at something, it ceases to have power over you.” ~ Sonia ChoquetteClick To Tweet“Children remind us to treasure the smallest of gifts, even in the most difficult of times.” ~ Allen Klein
“Laughter is like the human body wagging its tail.” ~ Anne Wilson Schaef
“If children grew up according to early indication, we should have nothing but geniuses.” ~ Goeth
“There is little success where there is little laughter.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
“Knowledge by itself is dry. But knowledge is watered by contemplation, even by simple reflection, and becomes a living seed that eventually flowers and bears surprisingly rich fruit.” ~ Wald Amberstone
“I don’t plan before I color.” ~ Wendy MacNaughton
“To draw, you must close your eyes and sing.” ~ Pablo Picasso
“There are two things that don’t have to mean anything; one is music, and the other is laughter.” ~ Immanuel Kant
“Creativity is the art of creating nothing into a Joyful something!” ~ Vince Gowmon
“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.” – Albert Einstein
“I was like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell…whilst the great ocean of truth lay before me.” ~ Isaac Newton
“Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes and having fun.” ~ Mary Lou Cook
“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
“You don’t stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing.” ~ Michael Pritchard
”The pursuit of beauty and truth is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.” ~ Albert Einstein
“The world awaits your wonder.” ~ Vince Gowmon
“What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul.” ~ Yiddish Proverb
“Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.” ~ C.S. LewisClick To Tweet