I cleaned out my bookshelves the other day (to make room for more books!) and came across a little paperback that’s been around for twenty-five years: All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things, by Robert Fulghum.

Here are a few quotes to start your week…

“Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sand pile at Sunday School.”

“Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words will break our hearts….”

“There is a sense in which we need to go home again—and can go home again. Not to recover home, no. But to sanctify memory….There is treasure there.”

“Have you got something around the house [that is]…evidence of love in its most uncomplicated and most trustworthy state?”

“Skepticism and realism are not the same as cynicism and pessimism.”

“Crayolas plus imagination…these make for happiness if you are a child.”
            (Do you remember your first box of Crayola crayons?)

“Weeds are in the eye of the beholder….Dandelions are not weeds—they are flowers!”

“Always trust God. And always build your house on high ground.”

“You may never have proof of your importance, but you are more important than you think.”

“Wonder and awe and joy are always there in the attic of one’s mind somewhere, and it doesn’t take a lot to set it off.”

“It’s not true that what counts is the thought and not the gift….People who think good thoughts give good gifts.”

“Some Assembly Required….To assemble the best that is within you and give it away. And to assemble with those you love to rekindle joy.”

“If you were to line up on one side of the earth every human being who ever lived or ever will live…you wouldn’t find anybody quite like you.”

“Every person passing through this life will unknowingly leave something and take something away.”

“Anything not worth doing is worth not doing well.”
            (Not what you thought it said, is it?)

“Ignorance and power and pride are a deadly mixture.”

“People of imagination stand on one another’s shoulders….Some of us are ground crew….Others of us are bound for the sky.”

“Why do people believe that pushing an elevator button several times will make the car come quicker?”

What effect did the charity have on the man who was robbed and beaten and taken care of by the Good Samaritan? Did he remember the cruelty of the robbers and shape his life with that memory? Or did he remember the nameless generosity of the “Samaritan and shape his life with that debt?”

And finally…

“No matter how old you are—when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.”

Fulghum and I may not agree on theology, but there’s something to be said for childhood lessons!

What lessons did YOU learn in kindergarten?