Children's Day 2014 in India: 15 Quotes, Sayings to Celebrate Nehru's Birth Anniversary and 'Bal Diwas'

Children's Day, also referred to as 'Bal Diwas' is celebrated every year on 14 November coinciding with the birth anniversary of Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru.

Children's Day was first celebrated in 1964 after Nehru's death.

Often referred to by Children as 'Chacha Nehru', the first Prime Minister of free India was fond of both children and roses. He is often cited as saying during his life that children should always be carefully and lovingly nurtured, as they are the future of the nation and the citizens of tomorrow.

Considered to be a 'beloved' of all children, he always felt that children were like the buds in a garden and must be lovingly nurtured and that they are the strength of a country and the very foundation of society.

To celebrate Children's Day and the Birth Anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru, following are 5 quotes from Nehru himself and 10 other quotes, sayings wishes and messages on Children:

Quotes about/on Children from Jawaharlal Nehru:

1. "I like being with children and talking to them and, even more, playing with them. For the moment I forget that I am terribly old and it is very long ago since I was a child."
2. "Can you recognise the flowers by their names and the birds by their singing? How easy it is to make friends with them and with everything in nature, if you go to them affectionately and with friendship. You must have read many fairy tales and stories of long ago. But the world itself is the greatest fairy tale and story of adventure that was ever written."
3. "Grown-ups have a strange way of putting themselves in compartments and groups. They build barriers... of religion, caste, colour, party, nation, province, language, customs and of rich and poor. Fortunately, children do not know much about these barriers, which separate. They play and work with each other and it is only when they grow up that they begin to learn about these barriers from their elders."
4. "Some months ago, the children of Japan wrote to me and asked me to send them an elephant. I sent them a beautiful elephant on behalf of the children of India... This noble animal became a symbol of India to them and a link between them and the children of India."
5. "You know we had a very great man amongst us. He was called Mahatma Gandhi. But we used to call him affectionately Bapuji. He was wise, but he did not show off his wisdom. He was simple and childlike in many ways and he loved children... he taught us to face the world cheerfully and with laughter."

(Note: The above statements were made by Nehru in a beautiful letter to children he wrote on 3 December, 1949.)

Famous Quotes and Sayings on Children:

1. "Adults are just outdated children" – Dr. Suess, American writer
2. "All Children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up" – Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter
3. "Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory of our children." – Charles R. Swindoll , author, educator and preacher.
4. "There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children." -- Nelson Mandela, Former President of South Africa. 
5. "It is with children that we have the best chance of studying the development of logical knowledge, mathematical knowledge, physical knowledge, and so forth." – Jean Piaget, Swiss psychologist and philosopher
6. "Always kiss your children goodnight, even if they're already asleep." – H. Jackson Brown, Jr., American author
7. "I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace." – Thomas Paine, English and American political activist
8. "Make it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself." – George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright and co-founder of the London School of Economics. 
9. "A definition not found in the Dictionary. 'Not leaving': An act of trust and love, often deciphered by children." – Markus Zusak, Australian writer
10. "If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales." – Albert Einstein