His (Child's) games do not take up time which might be more profitably spent in other ways: if all his hours were given over to serious pursuits, he would soon become a nervous wreck. An adult who indulges in dreams may be told to exert himself in order to realize them ; but a child cannot yet realize dreams which it is right that he should have. He does not regard his fancies as a permanent substitute for reality ; on the contrary, he ardently hopes to translate them into fact when the time comes.
Source: On Education, especially in early childhood, 1926, by Bertrand Russell
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