If all the world hated you and believed you wicked, while your own conscience approved of you

and absolved you from guilt, you would not be without friends. Charlotte Bront, Jane Eyre When we are children we seldom think of the future. This innocence leaves us free to enjoy ourselves as few adults can. The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind. Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind It's never too late to have a happy childhood. Tom Robbins, Still Life with Woodpecker The most sophisticated people I know - inside they are all children. Jim Henson It takes a very long time to become young. Pablo Picasso It is better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one. Voltaire, Zadig For children are innocent and love justice, while most of us are wicked and naturally prefer mercy. G.K. Chesterton In their innocence, very young children know themselves to be light and love. If we will allow them, they can teach us to see ourselves the same way. Michael Jackson There is an innocence in admiration: it occurs in one who has not yet realized that they might one day be admired. Friedrich Nietzsche Innocence ends when one is stripped of the delusion that one likes oneself. Joan Didion, On Self-Respect I never, even for a moment, doubted what theyd told me. This is why it is that adults and even parents can, unwittingly, be cruel: they cannot imagine doubts complete absence. They have forgotten. David Foster Wallace And that's what innocence is. It's simple and trusting like a child, not judgmental and committed to one narrow point of view. If you are locked into a pattern of thinking and responding, your creativity gets blocked. You miss the freshness and magic of the moment. Learn to be innocent again, and that freshness never fades. Michael Jackson

You were born a child of lights wonderful secret you return to the beauty you have always been. Aberjhani, Visions of a Skylark Dressed in Black There is no client as scary as an innocent man." J. Michael Haller, Criminal Defense Attorney, Los Angeles, 1962. Michael Connelly, The Lincoln Lawyer No one loses their innocence. It is either taken or given away willingly. Tiffany Madison, Black and White It's innocence when it charms us, ignorance when it doesn't. Mignon McLaughlin, Lucky In Love Greeting Card Innocence invites protection, yet we might be smarter to protect ourselves against it... Megan Johns, The Path of Innocence I'm not...' Angharad began, but then she thought. Not what? Not a bad person? Perhaps. But had she never known anger? Never held unkind thoughts? The stranger's observation was valid. No one was innocent of darkness. Charles de Lint, Into the Green the cold winds of insecurity... hadn't shredded the dreamy chrysalis of his childhood. He was still immersed in the dim, wet wonder of the folded wings that might open if someone loved him; he still hoped, probably, in a butterfly's unthinking way, for spring and warmth. How the wings ache, folded so, waiting; that is, they ache until they atrophy. Harold Brodkey There's nothing more contagious than the laughter of young children; it doesn't even have to matter what they're laughing about. Criss Jami The truth is, not one of is innocent. We all have sins to confess. C.W. Gortner, The Confessions of Catherine de Medici There is no aphrodisiac like innocence Jean Baudrillard The innocence of children is what makes them stand out as a shining example to the rest of Mankind. Kurt Chambers The child's naive dream of life is the only one worth having. Marty Rubin

We speak of love when we destroy nature. It sounds like innocence of cruel arrogance. Toba Beta, Master of Stupidity Adults had the notion that juveniles needed to suffer. Only when they had suffered enough to wipe out most of their naturally joyous spirits and innocence were they staid enough to be considered mature. An adult was essentially a broken-down child. Piers Anthony, Centaur Aisle