Quotes from The Blessing Of A Skinned Knee: Using Timeless Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children

“The sages advise us to study Torah lishma-"for its own sake" rather than to impress others with our scholarship. A paradox of parenting is that if we love our children for their own sake rather than for their achievements, it's more likely that they will reach their true potential.”
― Wendy Mogel, quote from The Blessing Of A Skinned Knee: Using Timeless Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children

“If we want to give our children what they need to thrive, we must honor their basic nature- boyish or girlish, introverted or extroverted, wild or mellow.”
― Wendy Mogel, quote from The Blessing Of A Skinned Knee: Using Timeless Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children

“A Hasidic teaching says, "If your child has a talent to be a baker, don't tell him to be a doctor." Judaism holds that every child is made in the divine image. When we ignore a child's intrinsic strengths in an effort to push him toward our notion of extraordinary achievement, we are undermining God's plan.”
― Wendy Mogel, quote from The Blessing Of A Skinned Knee: Using Timeless Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children

“No one is born feeling grateful; it’s an acquired skill. That’s why traditional Jewish law forbids spending money on the Sabbath. God commands us to stop shopping and count our blessings on that one day because he knows that left on our own, we wouldn’t be so inclined.”
― Wendy Mogel, quote from The Blessing Of A Skinned Knee: Using Timeless Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children

“Unsure how to find grace and security in the complex world we’ve inherited, we try to fill up the spaces in our children’s lives with stuff: birthday entertainments, lessons, rooms full of toys and equipment, tutors and therapists. But material pleasures can’t buy peace of mind, and all the excess leads to more anxiety—parents fear that their children will not be able to sustain this rarefied lifestyle and will fall off the mountain the parents have built for them.”
― Wendy Mogel, quote from The Blessing Of A Skinned Knee: Using Timeless Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children

“Real protection means teaching children to manage risks on their own, not shielding them from every hazard.”
― Wendy Mogel, quote from The Blessing Of A Skinned Knee: Using Timeless Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children

“One of the most generous gifts you can give your child is to study her temperament, and once you've learned it, work to accept it.”
― Wendy Mogel, quote from The Blessing Of A Skinned Knee: Using Timeless Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children

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“sometimes when everything seems at
its worst
when all conspires
and gnaws
and the hours, days, weeks
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it’s still nice to be
Bukowski.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense

“Even a broken clock is right twice a day.”
― Stephen Hunt, quote from The Court of the Air

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― Alain de Botton, quote from Kuinka Proust voi muuttaa elämäsi

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About BookQuoters

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.