Benjamin Spock Quotes

24 Sourced Quotes

In automobile terms, the child supplies the power but the parents have to do the steering.

Benjamin Spock
Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.

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

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

Benjamin Spock
It is fascinating to realize that what distinguishes man so sharply from other creatures are those attitudes he develops soon after the age of 5: his inhibition and sublimation of sexuality, his interest in symbols, abstractions, systems and rules, his capacity for being inspired by heroes, God and spiritual ideals.

Benjamin Spock
Grandparents have the freedom to see their grandchildren uncritically.

Benjamin Spock
Does sex education encourage sex? Many parents are afraid that talking about sex with their teenagers will be taken as permission for the teen to have sex. Nothing could be further from the truth. If anything, the more children learn abour sexuality from talking with their parents and teachers and reading accurate books, the less they feel compelled to find out for themselves.

Benjamin Spock
How to fold a diaper depends on the size of the baby and the diaper.

Benjamin Spock
A boy, by the age of 3 years, senses that his destiny is to be a man, so he watches his father particularly-his interests, manner, speech, pleasures, his attitude toward work...

Benjamin Spock
Boys and girls need chances to be around their father, to be enjoyed by him and if possible to do things with him. Better to play fifteen minutes enjoyably and then say, 'Now I'm going to read my paper' than to spend all day at the zoo crossly.

Benjamin Spock
I was proud of the youths who opposed the war in Vietnam because they were my babies.

Benjamin Spock
Man can build a magnificent reality in adulthood out of what was only an illusion in early childhood – his loving, joyous, trusting, ingenuous, unrealistic over-idealization of his two parents.

Benjamin Spock
People have said, "You've turned your back on pediatrics." I said, "No. It took me until I was in my 60s to realize that politics was a part of pediatrics."

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

Benjamin Spock
Don't take too seriously all that the neighbors say. Don't be overawed by what the experts say. Don't be afraid to trust your own common sense.

Benjamin Spock
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.

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

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

Benjamin Spock
I think that more of our children would grow up happier and more stable if they were acquiring a conviction, all through childhood, that the most important thing that human beings can do is serve humanity in some function and to live by their ideals.

Benjamin Spock
I would say that the surest measure of a man's or a woman's maturity is the harmony, style, joy, and dignity he creates in his marriage, and the pleasure and inspiration he provides for his spouse.

Benjamin Spock
The children who are appreciated for what they are, even if they are homely, or clumsy, or slow, will grow up with confidences in themselves - happy. They will have a spirit that will make the best of all the capacities that they have, and of all the opportunities that come their way. They will make light of any handicaps.

Benjamin Spock
A child loves his play, not because it's easy, but because it's hard.

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

Benjamin Spock
The more people have studied different methods of bringing up children the more they have come to the conclusion that what good mothers and fathers instinctively feel like doing for their babies is usually best after all. All parents do their best job when they have a natural, easy confidence in themselves. Better to make a few mistakes from being natural than to try to do everything letter-perfect out of a feeling of worry.

Benjamin Spock