Psychology regards the adequate gratification of inner needs as indispensable to the optimal development of the personality. These needs are not only for food, rest and affection, but also for stimulation, self-development, exploration, independence and responsibility.

Mario Montessori Jr, Education for Human Development

While he is passing through a phase of active construction of his psyche, the child often feels the deepest impulse to bring order into what, according to his logic, is in a state of confusion.

Maria Montessori, The Absorbent Mind

The freeing of a child consists in removing as far as possible these obstacles through a close and thorough study of the secret needs of early childhood in order to assist it.

Maria Montessori, The Discovery of the Child

The more fully the needs of one period are met, the greater will be the success of the next. We serve the future by protecting the present.

Maria Montessori, The Absorbent Mind

If the object meets the inner needs of the child and is something that will satisfy them, it will rouse the child to prolonged activity. He masters it and uses it over and over again.

Maria Montessori, The Discovery of the Child

Education must give the mothers this knowledge, that from birth they may give a conscious protection to the psychic needs of the children.

Maria Montessori, Education for a New World