Buddha was once threatened with death by a bandit called Angulimal. "Then be good enough to fulfill my dying wish," said Buddha. "Cut off the branch of that tree." One slash of the sword and it was done! "What now?" asked the bandit. "Put it back again," said Buddha. The bandit laughed, "You must be crazy to think that anyone can do that." "On the contrary, it is you who are crazy to think that you are mighty because you can wound and destroy. That is the task of children. The mighty know how to create and heal."
---Anthony de Mello/The Heart of the Enlightened

"When my daughter was seven years old," says artist Howard Ikemoto, "she asked me one day what I did at work. I told her I worked at the college, that my job was to teach people how to draw. She stared back at me, incredulous, and said, 'You mean they forget?'"
---Gregg Levoy/Callings

"I shall becoming back to you
From seas, rivers, sunny meadows,
glens that hold secrets:
I shall come back with my hands full
Of light and flowers...
I shall bring back things I have picked up,
Traveling this road or the other,
Things found by the sea or in the pinewood.
There will be a pine-cone in my pocket,
Grains of pink sand between my fingers.
I shall tell you of a golden pheasant's
feather...
Will you know me?"
---Hilda Conkling (age ten) 1922