Quotes from Benjamin Spock

What is the use of physicians like myself trying to help parents to bring up children healthy and happy, to have them killed in such numbers for a cause that is ignoble?

I really learned it all from mothers.

What good mothers and fathers instinctively feel like doing for their babies is usually best after all.

There are only two things a child will share willingly communicable diseases and its mother's age.

The fact is that child rearing is a long, hard job, the rewards are not always immediately obvious, the work is undervalued, and parents are just as human and almost as vulnerable as their children.

The child supplies the power but the parents have to do the steering.

Physical punishment teaches children that the larger, stronger person has the power to get his way, whether or not he is in the right, and they may resent this in the parent-for life.

In our country today, very few children are raised to believe that their principal destiny is to serve their family, their country, or God.

The loving person makes other people feel good, and he is usually a happy person himself. He is able to form strong, long-lasting friendships.

Respect children because they're human beings and they deserve respect, and they'll grow up to be better people.

All the time a person is a child he is both a child and learning to be a parent. After he becomes a parent he becomes predominantly a parent reliving childhood.

Preschool children are virtuosos of imagination.

Can we make a better world for our children? I believe we can, if enough people are concerned and get involved in changing what is wrong with society.

I've come to the realization that a lot of our problems are because of a dearth of spiritual values.

Most middle-class whites have no idea what it feels like to be subjected to police who are routinely suspicious, rude, belligerent, and brutal.

To win in Vietnam, we will have to exterminate a nation.

When women are encouraged to be competitive, too many of them become disagreeable.

Perhaps a child who is fussed over gets a feeling of destiny; he thinks he is in the world for something important, and it gives him drive and confidence.

A surprising number of scientific advances have been made and masterpieces of art created by individuals just on the threshold of adulthood.

On the average, older parents are more flexible, tolerant, understanding, and happy in child care.

Having a good time together is the essence of lovingness and the best means of increasing it.

The main source of good discipline is growing up in a loving family, being loved and learning to love in return.

Happiness is mostly a by-product of doing what makes us feel fulfilled.

There are only two things a child will share willingly — communicable diseases and his mother's age.