To whom is the following quote attributed: "Give me the boy until the
age of six, and I will give you the man."

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Request for Question Clarification by bobbie7-ga on 17 Sep 2002 10:23 PDT

Hi

Could the quote go like this?

"Give me the boy until he is seven, and I will give you the man." 

Thanks

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Clarification of Question by candy5728-ga on 17 Sep 2002 15:09 PDT

Yes.  It's likely that you have the right quotation, and I remember it incorrectly.

Thanks

Candy,

Thank you for the lesson in how famous quotes get butchered!

In short, the proper quote is attributed to Saint Ignatius of Loyola,
Founder of the Society of Jesus, or the Jesuits, and addresses
influence over a child until the age of 7.  In the Comments, Carnegie
did give us the most widely agreed-upon word-for-word quote.  Thank
you for saving me some typing, Carnegie!

That said, the quote has been incorrectly used to reflect a child of
anywhere from 5 to 10 years old, or no age at all.  What you will get
back after the invested years is anywhere from "...I will give you the
man" to "...I'll have him for life" to "...you can have him for the
rest of his life".

The quote has been altered over the years to suit the purposes of even
such personalities as Vladimir Lenin.

The most confusing twist of words is that some of the maxims want the
child UNTIL a stated age (full contact for the sum total of the
years), some want the child anytime BEFORE a stated age (with no
mention of duration of contact), and some simply want the child AT a
stated age (with no request for influence before that age).

Here's the cross-section of quotes I found and used for my research. 
I got to the specific quote most quickly by using the "Edit" menu of
the Toolbar and going to "Find" and typing in "Give" and hitting "Find
Next".

Five Years
- http://www.njop.org/html/SHEMOT1999.htm
- http://www.srds.ndirect.co.uk/cradle.htm
- http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm199798/cmhansrd/vo971222/debtext/71222-22.htm

Six Years (attributed to Catholics in general and Lenin)
- http://www.psychresearch.com/subconscious.html
- http://www.catholic.org.nz/nzceo/oldsite/strategic/imp634.html
- http://www.texashomeeducators.com/crisisineducation.htm

Seven Years (attributed to Jesuits specifically)
- http://quarterlyreport.nationalpost.com/education.html
- http://www.commonwealthclub.org/archives99/valenti.html
- http://www.spiritualityhealth.com/newsh/items/moviereview/item_3128.html
- http://weeklywire.com/ww/08-07-00/nash_film-lede.html
- http://www.dailynorthwestern.com/daily/issues/2000/04/13/nyou/reeldeal.shtml
- http://www.mouthshut.com/readreview/11615-1.html

Ten Years
- http://poly.polyamory.org/~howard/Hypatia/Hubbard_1928.html

No Years mentioned
- http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/dyffryn/scienceweek.html


Search term:  "give me the child"

URL for results of search "give me the child":
://www.google.com/search?q=+%22give+me+the+child%22+-42up&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&as_qdr=all&start=290&sa=N


I trust this answers your question!

Super answer.  I learned something.  It clarified the quote for me. 
It's much appreciated.

Dear Candy,

"Give me the child until he is seven and I will show you the man" is
normally attributed to the Jesuits, i.e. the Society of Jesus.

Carnegie