Quotes on childhood

“Literature is a textually transmitted disease, normally contracted in childhood.”

“When we are children we seldom think of the future. This innocence leaves us free to enjoy ourselves as few adults can. The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind.”

“If only she could be so oblivious again, to feel such love without knowing it, mistaking it for laughter. ”

“and when all the wars are over, a butterfly will still be beautiful.”

“Forgiveness is created by the restitution of the abuser; of the wrongdoer. It is not something to be squeeeeeezed out of the victim in a further act of conscience-corrupting abuse.”

“Father has a strengthening character like the sun and mother has a soothing temper like the moon.”

“I refuse to let the standards of evil people chip away at my capacity for integrity.”

“Ô, Wanderess, WanderessWhen did you feel your most euphoric kiss? Was I the source of your greatest bliss?”

“Experience has taught us that we have only one enduring weapon in our struggle against mental illness: the emotional discovery and emotional acceptance of the truth in the individual and unique history of our childhood.”

“Each month is gay,Each season nice,When eatingChicken soupWith rice”

A child understands fear, and the hurt and hate it brings.

What was the point of being a child if you didn’t at least want to grow up to be someone remarkable?

The truth about our childhood is stored up in us, and we must find it.

Our childhood experiences shape who we are as adults.

All of life is an attempt to return to the ideal moment of childhood.

I was a lonely, frightened kid, but I had poetry.

Life at the greatest and best is but a forward child, that must be humored and coaxed a little till it falls asleep, and then all the care is over.

My dad and mom divorced when I was around ten, and I didn't live with him after that, though he was close by and we saw each other weekly.

I was always a sensitive, sweet kid, but I got brutalized and I became brutal.

It was a yellow voice, a high, shrill treble in the nursery, white always and high.

There’s a kind of sadness that comes with growing up, with letting go of the stories you believed in as a child.

Our wounds are often the openings into the best and most beautiful parts of us.

Trauma is not what happens to us, but what we hold inside in the absence of an empathetic witness.

Children are resilient, but they are not indestructible. What happens in childhood shapes us forever.

Your trauma is valid, even if other people have experienced worse. Even if someone else who went through the same thing doesn’t feel debilitated by it. Even if it ‘could have been avoided.’

When we talk about childhood trauma, we're not just discussing a past event; we’re addressing how it rewires the brain to perceive the present.

No matter how much you revisit the past, there’s nothing new to see. Healing is in the present.

The body remembers. Trauma leaves imprints that our minds may struggle to recall.

Forgiving doesn’t erase the memory of trauma; it transforms its power to hold you hostage.

It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.

Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves, and much of our ‘lostness’ begins in childhood.

Trauma permanently changes us. This is the big, scary truth about trauma: there is no such thing as 'getting over it.' The five stages of grief model marks universal patterns in loss, but the reality is much bigger. A major life disruption leaves a new normal in its wake.

Children should not have to sacrifice so that the world can work. The world should work so that children do not have to sacrifice.

Healing from childhood trauma is not about erasing memories. It’s about learning how to live with them without letting them control you.

The adverse childhood experiences are like seeds planted in the dark soil of our early years. What grows depends on how much light and nurturing we receive.

We repeat what we don’t repair. Healing from childhood trauma begins when we break the cycles of silence and denial.

Childhood trauma does not come in a one-size-fits-all package. Its echoes are unique, but so is the path to healing.

Scars from childhood trauma often serve as both a reminder of pain and proof of resilience.

Children who grow up in unsafe environments learn to protect themselves at all costs. As adults, they must relearn how to trust.

Every time you are willing to confront your childhood pain, you rewrite the narrative of your life, making space for healing and growth.

Your trauma does not define you, but how you choose to heal from it does.