Little Old Three Year Old

“But once in a while I will get down on my knees to a little old three year old and I'll say, 'Hey, what did you do in your last life, bud?' And he'll look at me ... 'Who wants to know?' And by the time they're four it's usually been beaten out of them so they can forget with glorious abandon. But take any three, four months old baby, and if you refuse to credit their non-communication with you, you can go into easy communication with.

“The funniest thing I ever saw was a two months old baby that couldn't understand a word of anything, didn't pay any attention to anything or anybody, but every time you picked this little baby up and said, 'Well, I think we'll keep you around,' the baby would say, 'Sigh!' — never sighed otherwise.

“And you can do that to almost any kid—pick them up and say, 'Well, here's a good one. Think we'll keep him around. We need him.”

L. Ron Hubbard