Mister Rogers Quotes

“We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It's easy to say "It's not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem." Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes.”
― Fred Rogers

“You've made this day a special day, by just your being you. There's no person in the whole world like you, and I like you just the way you are.”
― Fred Rogers

“It's the people we love the most who can make us feel the gladdest ... and the maddest! Love and anger are such a puzzle!”
― Fred Rogers, The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember

“In a speech given at an academic conference at Yale University in 1972, Fred Rogers said, “The impact of television must be considered in the light of the possibility that children are exposed to experiences which may be far beyond what their egos can deal with effectively. Those of us who produce television must assume the responsibility for providing images of trustworthy available adults who will modulate these experiences and attempt to keep them within manageable limits.” Which is exactly what Rogers himself had tried to do with the production of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.”
― Maxwell King, The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers

“In a now-famous Rogers dictum, delivered in speeches and in his books, he advises adults: “Please, think of the children first. If you ever have anything to do with their entertainment, their food, their toys, their custody, their day care, their health, their education – please listen to the children, learn about them, learn from them.”
― Maxwell King, The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers

“Rogers would most likely be among the first to remind us that he was not "all things to all people" (1 Cor. 9:22). He was just himself, with all his strengths and weaknesses, all his advantages and limitations, and he was that way for reasons unique to his own personal history, many of which we will never know. But perhaps we would do well, when pinpointing his shortcomings, to recall that in his own prayer life Rogers often sought divine guidance and wisdom—and especially forgiveness for those times he fell short of unconditional love.”
― Michael G. Long, Peaceful Neighbor: Discovering the Countercultural Mister Rogers

“...Rogers offered this definitive observation to a meeting of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry: "It's easy to convince people that children need to learn the alphabet and numbers...How do we help people to realize that what matters even more than the superimposition of adult symbols is how a person's inner life finally puts together the alphabet and numbers of his outer life? What really matters is whether he uses the alphabet for the declaration of war or the description of a sunrise--his numbers for the final count at Buchenwald or the specifics of a brand-new bridge.”
― Maxwell King, The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers