Children

[V]irtual worlds are not simply a childish fad.
~ William Sims Bainbridge, in Science Magazine 317: 472-476 (27 July 2007). The Scientific Research Potential of Virtual Worlds

Lullaby! O lullaby!
Baby, hush that little cry!
Light is dying,
Bats are flying,
Bees to-day with work have done;
So, till comes the morrow's sun,
Let sleep kiss those bright eyes dry!
Lullaby! O lullaby.
~ William Cox (W.C.) Bennett, from Songs by a Song-Writer (1859). A Cradle Song

Oh those little, those little blue shoes!
Those shoes that no little feet use.
Oh, the price were high
That those shoes would buy,
Those little blue unused shoes!
~ William Cox (W.C.) Bennett, from Songs by a Song-Writer (1859). Baby's Shoes

Father! father! where are you going?
O do not walk so fast.
Speak, father, speak to your little boy,
Or else I shall be lost.
~ William Blake, from Songs of Innocence (1789). The Little Boy Lost

Piping down the valleys wild
Piping songs of pleasant glee
On a cloud I saw a child.
~ William Blake, from Songs of Innocence (1789). Introduction

Sweet babe, in thy face
Soft desires I can trace,
Secret joys and secret smiles,
Little pretty infant wiles.
~ William Blake, Cradle Song

When the voices of children are heard on the green,
And laughing is heard on the hill,
My heart is at rest within my breast,
And everything else is still.
~ William Blake, from Songs of Innocence (1789). Nurse's Song

Farewell, dear children, whom I love,
Your better Father is above:
When I am gone, he can supply;
To him I leave you when I die.
~ William Bradford, Providence and the Pilgrim (1657).

What the people need and demand is that their children shall have a chance -- as good a chance as any other children in the world -- to make the most of themselves, to rise in any and every occupation, including those occupations which require the most thorough training.
~ William Lowe Bryan, Presidential Inaugural Address at Indiana University (1902). Faith in Education

The sun, the sea, the forest wild --
All nature loves a little child.
~ William Canton, from A Lost Epic: And Other Poems (1887). Poems of Childhood. A Poet

[I]t is a greater work to educate a child, in the true and large sense of that phrase, than to rule a State.
~ William Ellery Channing (D.D.), from The Works of William E. Channing, D.D., Volume I (1841). Remarks on Education (originally in the Christian Examiner; November 1833)

The child is born for love and with a thirst for it.
~ William Ellery Channing (D.D.), in Dr. Channing's Note-book (1887). Children -- Education

Whatever else you do, never deceive. Let your parents always learn your faults from your own lips; and be assured they will never love you the less for your openness and sincerity.
~ William Ellery Channing, Sermon Delivered to the Religious Society in Federal Street, Boston MA (1829). The Duties of Children

Having a child is surely the most beautifully irrational act that two people in love can commit.
~ Bill Cosby, Fatherhood (1986). Chapter 1

In dealing with kids, no matter how little we understand their explanations, we must always remember that we're the adults. What this means I have no idea. It certainly means nothing to the kids, who instinctively seem to know that adults are merely strange people who have dopey ideas like "Stop throwing peas at your sister."
~ Bill Cosby, Fatherhood (1986).

You know the only people who are always sure about the proper way to raise children? Those who've never had any.
~ Bill Cosby, Fatherhood (1986). Chapter 5

Children learn more from what you are than what you teach!
~ William Edward Burghardt (W.E.B.) Du Bois, (1897)

You can't talk about heartbreak to a kid.
~ Will Eisner (of the comics medium becoming "adult"), The Associated Press (11 June 1998). Comics Grand Master is Unrecognized

Setting a good example for your children takes all the fun out of middle age.
~ William Feather, The Business of Life (1949).

Children should neither be seen or heard from -- ever again.
~ W.C. Fields

I like children. Properly cooked.
~ W.C. Fields

I never met a kid I liked.
~ W.C. Fields, Attributed

Madam, there's no such thing as a tough child -- if you parboil them first for seven hours, they always come out tender.
~ W.C. Fields

I don't think it's constructive to grow up having billions of dollars. ... The idea that I will take a sizeable portion of my fortune and have them inherit that, I don't think that would be to society's benefit or to their benefit. I've spoken out about this before ... my philosophy of giving back my wealth to society.
~ Bill Gates, Reuters (12 November 2002). Gates: His Kids Won't Inherit Billions

When children learn to express themselves thoughtfully and without fear, when they learn to listen and to take an interest in what others have to say, they have developed a skill that probably correlates with success in life more than anything else taught in school.
~ William Glasser, M.D., Schools Without Failure (1968).

A child who is allowed to be disrespectful to his parents will not have true respect for anyone.
~ Billy Graham

What do little girls talk about?
What is their mystic theme?
Those still too young for puppy love,
Yet old enough to dream.
~ William Herschell, What Do Little Girls Talk About? Stanza 1.

Childbirth is a miracle. No, it's not. ... It's a chemical reaction, that's all.
~ Bill Hicks

Children are smarter than any of us. Know how I know that? I don't know one child with a full time job and children.
~ Bill Hicks

Kids. They're not easy. But there has to be some penalty for sex.
~ Bill Maher

In preparing for the possibility that this might mean a handicapped child, I have looked around at the moms and dads who have accepted similar decisions with good faith and found an absence of martyrs. Now I no longer pray that we be delivered of the perfect child. Instead I ask only that I am man enough to be father to the girl whom God in his wisdom, mysteriously and against all evidence, believes needs me in this most special way.
~ William McGurn, in Notre Dame Magazine (Autumn 1997). The Gift of a Child

With the birth of each child, you lose two novels.
~ Candia McWilliam, in Guardian (5 May 1993).

Wee Willie Winkie rins through the toun,
Upstairs and dounstairs, in his nicht-gown,
Tirlin' at the window, cryin' at the lock,
"Are the weans in their bed? for it's nou ten o'clock."
~ William Miller, Willie Winkie (1841)

We don't care really about children as a society and television reflects that indifference to children as human beings.
~ Bill Moyers

In every real man, a child is hidden that wants to play.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

If someone does not have a good father, he should acquire one.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human (1878).

Our children are watching us live, and what we are shouts louder than anything we can say.
~ Wilferd A. Peterson

Nature makes boys and girls lovely to look upon so they can be tolerated until they acquire some sense.
~ William Lyon ("Billy") Phelps

Mother's Day, it's beautiful thought, but it's somebody's hurtin' conscience that thought of the idea. It was someone who had neglected their mother for years, and then they figured out: I got to do something about Momma. And knowing Momma was that easy, they figured, we'll give her a day, and it will be all right with Momma. Give her a day, and then in return Momma gives you the other 364. See?
~ Will Rogers, (1935)

We changed with the times, so we can't blame the children for just joining the times without even having to change.
~ Will Rogers

I don't like to see kids throw away their truth just because it isn't worth a dime in the open market.
~ William Saroyan, in Nugget Magazine (October 1962). The Flashing Dragonfly

I was a little afraid of him; not the boy himself, but of what he seemed to be: the victim of the world.
~ William Saroyan, from Little Children (1937).

How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
To have a thankless child!
~ William Shakespeare, King Lear. Act I, scene iv

Thy mother's name is ominous to children.
~ William Shakespeare, King Richard III

To you, your father should be as a god;
One that compos'd your beauties, yea, and one
To whom you are but as a form in wax
By him imprinted, and within his power
To leave the figure or disfigure it.
~ William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act I, scene i

Babies have big heads and big eyes, and tiny little bodies with tiny little arms and legs. So did the aliens at Roswell! I rest my case.
~ William Shatner

My children represent a definite regression.
~ William Bradford Shockley

Ridiculous children; we could bawl
Our eyes out about nothing. Still,
How much violence had we seen?
They teach you-quick-you have to be well-bred
In all events. We can't all win.
Don't whine to get your will.
~ William De Witt (W.D.) Snodgrass, from Selected Poems 1957-1987 (1987). The Mouse

Kids: they dance before they learn there is anything that isn't music.
~ William Stafford, from The Rescued Year (1966).

In the breast of a bulb is the promise of spring;
In a little blue egg there's a bird that will sing;
In the soul of a seed is the hope of the sod;
In the heart of a child is the Kingdom of God.
~ William Leroy "Bill" Stidger, I Saw God Wash the World (1934). In The Heart Of A Child

If you would have your children turn out well, don't turn your home into a lunch counter and lodging house.
~ William A. "Billy" Sunday, from "Billy" Sunday, The Man and His Message (1914). Chapter VIII. "Speech -- Seasoned With Salt"

Come, children, let us shut up the box and the puppets, for our play is played out.
~ William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair: A Novel without a Hero (1848). Chapter LXVII

Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children.
~ William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair: A Novel without a Hero (1848). Chapter XXXVII

A three year old child is a being who gets almost as much fun out of a fifty-six dollar set of swings as it does out of finding a small green worm.
~ William E. "Bill" Vaughan

Not only do the children enjoy these games which involve buying and selling with play money, but they learn an essential ingredient of motivation in our society: greed.
~ William E. "Bill" Vaughan, Column in The Kansas City Star. Starbeams

Mom and Dad can make the rules
And certain things forbid,
But I can make them wish that they
had never had a kid.
~ Bill Watterson, from The Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes (1992). The Indispensable Calvin & Hobbes Poem

No more of parental rules!
We're heading for the snow!
Good riddance to those grown up ghouls!
We're leaving! Yukon Ho!
~ Bill Watterson, from Yukon Ho! (1989). The Yukon Song

Some parents ... say it is toy guns that make boys warlike. ... But give a boy a rubber duck and he will seize its neck like the butt of a pistol and shout "Bang!"
~ George F. Will

We are given children to test us and make us more spiritual.
~ George F. Will

When you look at the reality of cutting people off, of saying you can't have more benefits if you have children while you are on welfare, you're talking about putting children on the street who are hungry and naked, and that's a sin.
~ Juan Williams, CNN TV "Capital Gang Sunday" (25 March 1995).

A child is one of God's most precious gifts. Somehow, somewhere, we as a society, we failed this child. We, myself included, failed to keep her safe in life.
~ Marcie Williams, KMBC TheKansasCityChannel.com Funeral For Unknown Girl Will Be Saturday (3 December 2001)

Children are happy because they don't have a file in their minds called "All the Things That Could Go Wrong."
~ Marianne Williamson

Children are happy because they don't have all the "facts" yet.
~ Marianne Williamson

Unless we can be like children, we can't be happy.
~ Marianne Williamson

Too many children in foster care are falling through cracks. ... Be a hero -- take the time learn about adoption today.
~ Bruce Willis, The Associated Press (23 July 2002). Bush, Bruce Willis Promote Adoption

A simple child,
That lightly draws its breath,
And feels its life in every limb,
What should it know of death?
~ William Wordsworth, We are Seven (1798)

The Child is father of the Man.
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.
~ William Wordsworth, My heart leaps up when I behold (26 March 1802)

Our own play, at least in its simpler forms, -- e.g., in the play of children, -- is merely an imitation of the actions of every-day life stripped of its original purpose, and resulting in pleasurable emotion.
~ Wilhelm Max Wundt, from Lectures on Human and Animal Psychology (1894 translation). Lecture XXIV, Section II

I sigh that kiss you,
For I must own
That I shall miss you
When you have grown.
~ William Butler Yeats, from The Rose (1893). A Cradle Song

Once more the storm is howling, and half hid
Under this cradle-hood and coverlid
My child sleeps on.
~ William Butler Yeats, from Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921). A Prayer for My Daughter (June 1919).