"The real menace in dealing with a five-year-old is that in no time at all you begin to sound like a five-year-old."

Jean Kerr Literature See all quotes by Jean Kerr →

React to this quote

More by Jean Kerr

“You can't sleep until noon with the proper élan unless you have some legitimate reason for staying up until three .”

“The most important thing about me is that I am a Catholic. It's a superstructure within which you can work, like a sonnet.”

“Women speak because they wish to speak, whereas a man speaks only when driven to speech by something outside himself—like, for instance, he can't find any clean socks.”

“If you have formed the habit of checking on every new diet that comes along, you will find that, mercifully, they all blur together, leaving you with only one definite piece of information: french-fried potatoes are out.”

“I will read anything rather than work.”

“Children are different—mentally, physically, spiritually, quantitatively, qualitatively; and furthermore, they're all a little bit nuts.”

Resonant Thoughts

"In time, it became increasingly apparent to me that my presence in Arizona would be misconstructed by some to be contrary to the goals and tactics of proponents of the King holiday. I believe that the…"

— Yolanda King

Social Activism1955–2007

#time

"Schumann is the most representative musical figure of central European Romanticism as much because of his limitations as because of his genius: in his finest works, indeed, he exploited these limitati…"

— Charles Rosen

Music1927–2012

#time

"The most taboo issue on U.S. campuses these days, in many instances, has to do with the vicious Israeli occupation of precious Palestinians. It’s very difficult to have a respectful, robust conversati…"

— Cornel West

philosophy1953

#time

"On the artist, Charley Patton, who changed him: What happened was I was going out on a Saturday night, so I went into my mam’s bedroom, she’s got a double mirror, really kitsch 50s. So I’m in there, d…"

— Chris Rea

Music1951–2025

#time