Quotes from All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

“I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge. That myth is more potent than history. That dreams are more powerful than facts. That hope always triumphs over experience. That laughter is the only cure for grief. And I believe that love is stronger than death.”
― Robert Fulghum, quote from All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

“These are the things I learned (in Kindergarten):

1. Share everything.
2. Play fair.
3. Don't hit people.
4. Put thngs back where you found them.
5. CLEAN UP YOUR OWN MESS.
6. Don't take things that aren't yours.
7. Say you're SORRY when you HURT somebody.
8. Wash your hands before you eat.
9. Flush.
10. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
11. Live a balanced life - learn some and drink some and draw some and paint some and sing and dance and play and work everyday some.
12. Take a nap every afternoon.
13. When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.
14. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Stryrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
15. Goldfish and hamster and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.
16. And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first workd you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.”
― Robert Fulghum, quote from All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

“You may never have proof of your importance but you are more important than you think. There are always those who couldn’t do without you. The rub is that you don’t always know who.”
― Robert Fulghum, quote from All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

“Hide-and-seek, grown-up style. Wanting to hide. Needing to be sought. Confused about being found.”
― Robert Fulghum, quote from All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

“It’s harder to talk about, but what I really, really, really want for Christmas is just this: I want to be 5 years old again for an hour. I want to laugh a lot and cry a lot. I want to be picked or rocked to sleep in someone’s arms, and carried up to be just one more time. I know what I really want for Christmas: I want my childhood back. People who think good thoughts give good gifts.”
― Robert Fulghum, quote from All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

“It doesn’t matter what you say you believe - it only matters what you do.”
― Robert Fulghum, quote from All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

“Every person passing through this life will unknowingly leave something and take something away. Most of this “something” cannot be seen or heard or numbered or scientifically detected or counted. It’s what we leave in the minds of other people and what they leave in ours. Memory. The census doesn’t count it. Nothing counts without it.”
― Robert Fulghum, quote from All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

“Think what a better world it would be if we all-the whole world-had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.
And it is still true, no matter how old you are-when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.”
― Robert Fulghum, quote from All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

“Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words will break our hearts”
― Robert Fulghum, quote from All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

“What I notice is that every adult or child I give a new set of Crayolas to goes a little funny. The kids smile, get a glazed look on their faces, pour the crayons out, and just look at them for a while....The adults always get the most wonderful kind of sheepish smile on their faces--a mixture of delight and nostalgia and silliness. And they immediately start telling you about all their experiences with Crayolas.”
― Robert Fulghum, quote from All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

“A giraffe has a black tongue twenty-seven inches long and no vocal cords. A giraffe has nothing to say. He just goes on giraffing.”
― Robert Fulghum, quote from All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

“It wasn’t in books. It wasn’t in a church. What I needed to know was out there in the world.”
― Robert Fulghum, quote from All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

“Without realizing it, we fill important places in each other’s lives. It’s that way with the guy at the corner grocery, the mechanic at the local garage, the family doctor, teachers, neighbors, coworkers. Good people who are always “there,” who can be relied upon in small, important ways. People who teach us, bless us, encourage us, support us, uplift us in the dailiness of life. We never tell them. I don’t know why, but we don’t.
And, of course, we fill that role ourselves. There are those who depend in us, watch us, learn from us, take from us. And we never know.
You may never have proof of your importance, but you are more important than you think. There are always those who couldn’t do without you. The rub is that you don’t always know who.”
― Robert Fulghum, quote from All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

“It’s the spirit here that counts. The time may be long, the vehicle may be strange or unexpected. But if the dream is held close to the heart, and imagination is applied to what there is close at hand, everything is still possible.”
― Robert Fulghum, quote from All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

“We can do no great things; only small things with great love.(mother Teresa)”
― Robert Fulghum, quote from All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

“Speed and efficiency do not always increase the quality of life.”
― Robert Fulghum, quote from All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

“Anything not worth doing is worth not doing well.”
― Robert Fulghum, quote from All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

“Ignorance and power and pride are a deadly mixture, you know.”
― Robert Fulghum, quote from All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

“The leaves let go, the seeds let go, and I must let go sometimes, too, and cast my lot with another of nature’s imperfect but tenacious survivors.”
― Robert Fulghum, quote from All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

“But love may have to be left off the exam. Most of us will never learn.”
― Robert Fulghum, quote from All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

“Everything I need to know... I learned in kindergarten.”
― Robert Fulghum, quote from All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

“Nobody goes "AAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" when they sing it. Maybe because it puts the life adventure in such clear and simple terms. The small creature is alive and looks for adventure. Here's the drainpipe--a long tunnel going up toward some light. The spider doesn't even think about it--just goes. Disaster befalls it--rain, flood, powerful foces. And the spider is knocked down and out beyond where it started. Does the spider say, "To hell with that"? No. Sun comes out--clears things up--dries off the spider. And the small creature goes over to the drainpipe and looks up and thinks it really wants to know what is up there.”
― Robert Fulghum, quote from All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

“I get tired of hearing it's a crummy world and that people are no damned good. What kind of talk is that? I know a place in Payette, Idaho, where a cook and a waitress and a manager put everything they've got into laying a chicken-fried steak on you.”
― Robert Fulghum, quote from All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

“Remember, most of us got something for nothing the first time just by showing up here at birth. Now we have to qualify.”
― Robert Fulghum, quote from All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

“And sure, I know if you eat this way you'll die. So? If you don't eat this way you're still going to die. Why not die happy?”
― Robert Fulghum, quote from All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

“If the dream is held close to the heart, and imagination is applied to what there is close at hand. Everything is still possible.”
― Robert Fulghum, quote from All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

“I know what I really want for Christmas.
I want my childhood back.
Nobody is going to give me that. I might give at least the memory of it to myself if I try. I know it doesn't make sense, but since when is Christmas about sense, anyway? It is about a child, of long ago and far away, and it is about the child of now. In you and me. Waiting behind the door of or hearts for something wonderful to happen. A child who is impractical, unrealistic, simpleminded and terribly vulnerable to joy.”
― Robert Fulghum, quote from All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

“So you drive as far as you can, even when you can clearly read the sign. You want to think you are exempt, that it doesn’t apply to you. But it does. Life is still a dead end. And we still have a hard time believing it”
― Robert Fulghum, quote from All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

“We even make ourselves up, fusing what we are with what we wish into what we must become. I'm not sure why it must be so, but it is.”
― Robert Fulghum, quote from All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

“Imagination is more important than information. Einstein said that, and he should know. And they come. And they look. And we push. And they fly. We to stay and die on our beds. They to go and die howsoever, yet inspiring those who come after them to find their own edge. And fly.”
― Robert Fulghum, quote from All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

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BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.