In play, the child is always behaving beyond his age, above his usual everyday behaviour in play he is, as it were, a head above himself. Play contains in a concentrated form, as in the focus of a magnifying glass, all developmental tendencies it is as if the child tries to jump above his usual level.

Any human act that gives rise to something new is referred to as a creative act, regardless of whether what is created is a physical object or some mental or emotional construct that lives within the person who created it and is known only to him.

There is reason to believe that voluntary activity, more than highly developed intellect, distinguishes humans from the animals which stand closest to them.

Childhood is a complex dialectical process characterized by periodicity, unevenness in the development of different functions, metamorphosis or qualitative transformation of one form into another, intertwining of external and internal factors, and adaptive processes which overcome impediments that the child encounters.

Thought is not merely expressed in words, it comes into existence through them

Experience teaches us that thought does not express itself in words, but rather realizes itself in them

Language is the tool of the tools

Learning is more than the acquisition of the ability to think it is the acquisition of many specialized abilities for thinking about a variety of things.

What children can do with the assistance of others might be in some sense even more indicative of their mental development than what they can do alone

Through others we become ourselves.

The teacher must adopt the role of facilitator not content provider.

The only 'good' learning is that which is in advance of development.

By giving our students practice in talking with others, we give them frames for thinking on their own.

A word devoid of thought is a dead thing, and a thought unembodied in words remains a shadow.