Benjamin Spock quotes

Benjamin Spock was an American pediatrician and author, renowned for his influential books on child care. His work changed the way parents and doctors approached parenting in the twentieth century. He encouraged a more flexible and loving approach to raising children. Here are 27 of his quotes:

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. View quote
Benjamin Spock
The child supplies the power but the parents have to do the steering. View quote
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. View quote
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. View quote
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. View quote
Benjamin Spock
Most middle-class whites have no idea what it feels like to be subjected to police who are routinely suspicious, rude, belligerent, and brutal. View quote
Benjamin Spock
I really learned it all from mothers. View quote
Benjamin Spock
This solution has great superficial appeal--all the excitement of secret, forbidden, romantic sexuality without family responsibility and family grubbiness. View quote
Benjamin Spock
I've come to the realization that a lot of our problems are because of a dearth of spiritual values. View quote
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)
Man can be the most affectionate and altruistic of creatures, yet he's potentially more vicious than any other. He is the only one who can be persuaded to hate millions of his own kind whom he has never seen and to kill as many as he can lay his hands on in the name of his tribe or his God. View quote
Benjamin Spock
Happiness is mostly a by-product of doing what makes us feel fulfilled. View quote
Benjamin Spock
The more people have studied different methods of bringing up children the more they have come to the conclusion that what good mother and fathers instinctively feel like doing for their babies is the best after all. View quote
Benjamin Spock
It's not the words but the music that counts. View quote
Benjamin Spock
We used to recommend meat, poultry, and fish for children because they are rich in protein and iron. However, we now know that there are harmful effects of a meaty diet, particularly changes in the arteries and weight problems, and that these changes begin in childhood. When children develop a taste for meats, it is hard to break this habit later on. It turns out that children can get plenty of protein and iron from vegetables, beans, and other plant foods that avoid the fat and cholesterol that are in animal products. View quote
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. View quote
Benjamin Spock
As parents and teachers we need to bring up more of our children with generosity of spirit. View quote
Benjamin Spock
Every child senses, with all the horse sense that's in him, that any parent is angry inside when children misbehave and they dread more the anger that is rarely or never expressed openly, wondering how awful it might be. View quote
Benjamin Spock
I'm not a pacifist. I was very much for the war against Hitler and I also supported the intervention in Korea, but in this war we went in there to steal Vietnam. View quote
Benjamin Spock
When women are encouraged to be competitive, too many of them become disagreeable. (Benjamin Spock)
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. View quote
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. View quote
Benjamin Spock
I was proud of the youths who opposed the war in Vietnam because they were my babies. View quote
Benjamin Spock
Perhaps a child who is fussed over gets a feeling of destiny; he thinks he is the world for something important, and it gives him drive and confidence. View quote
Benjamin Spock