Jean Piaget

"One does not have to teach a child to learn. A child is only afraid not to learn."

"Education is not something which the teacher does, but a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being."

"The greatest sign of success for a teacher is to be able to say, 'The children are now working as if I do not exist.'"

"Knowledge is not a copy of reality. To know an object, one must act on it."

"The human being is neither a wholly philosophical animal nor an exclusively practical one."

"Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them."

"The principal goal is to create men who are capable of doing new things, not of simply repeating what other generations have done."

"For adults, language is the dress of thought; but the child's language is the clothing of instinct and emotion."

"The child must know that he is a wonder of nature, not a product to be molded by external force into a previously determined form."

"The fundamental concept in social psychology is not the individual, his personal traits, his motivations, his cognitions, but rather the situation in which he finds himself."

"A scale is composed of a series of transpositions."

"The construction of reality is linked to the development of the object concept and the conception of space."

"There is no exaggeration in saying that intelligence is the adaptation to new situations."

"Sensori-motor learning is the beginning of all cognitive life."

"The direction of intellectual development is toward increasing equilibration, toward planes of thought of greater and greater stability."

"A child develops through interaction with his environment, and in doing so he learns the fundamental structures of human society."

"The conflicts between different beliefs cannot be solved by logical reasoning, because they do not arise from logical reasoning."

"The human being is an organism which adapts to his environment through the development of new structures."

"Reality is not given to us, but it is constructed by us."

"To my mind, the idea is not so important."

"The more we explain the past, the more we illuminate the future."

"Intelligence is not an innate, fixed trait but a developing system of adaptive thinking."

"The child's progress depends on the stimulation he receives in his environment."

"The origin of the idea of the permanent object is not given us by sensation alone."

"Cognitive development is the progressive organization of reflexes into more complex mental operations."

"The child is an intelligent being, but his intelligence is different from that of the adult."

"Language is learned through action and interaction, not through memorization."

"The understanding of truth is built through the active participation of the learner."

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."

"A child's life is like a piece of paper on which every person leaves a mark."