Quotes about Innocence

Every woman while she would be ready to die of shame if surprised in the act of generation, nonetheless carries her pregnancy without a trace of shame and indeed with a kind of pride. The reason is that pregnancy is in a certain sense a cancellation of the guilt incurred by coitus; thus coitus bears all the shame and disgrace of the affair, while pregnancy, which is so intimately associated with it, stays pure and innocent and is indeed to some extent sacred.

If I'm honest I have to tell you I still read fairy-tales and I like them best of all.

Blameless people are always the most exasperating.

In old days there were angels who came and took men by the hand and led them away from the city of destruction. We see no white-winged angels now. But yet men are led away from threatening destruction: a hand is put into theirs, which leads them forth gently towards a calm and bright land, so that they look no more backward; and the hand may be a little child's.

Fred at six years old thought her the nicest girl in the world, making her his wife with a brass ring which he had cut from an umbrella.

That is a rare and blessed lot which some greatest men have not attained, to know ourselves guiltless before a condemning crowd -- to be sure that what we are denounced for is solely the good in us.

Little children are still the symbol of the eternal marriage between love and duty.

She was not coldly clever and indirectly satirical, but adorably simple and full of feeling.

Children are a wonderful gift. They have an extraordinary capacity to see into the heart of things and to expose sham and humbug for what they are.

The weakness of little children's limbs is innocent, not their souls.

No one can harm the man who does himself no wrong.

Heaven lies about us in our infancy! Shades of the prison-house begin to close upon the growing boy.