Old religious saying

[markdona1]

give me a child by the age of seven and they will be mine for life

[Quizmonster]

"Give me the child until he is seven and I will show you the man" is an old Jesuit saying, the Jesuits being an order of the Roman Catholic priesthood often involved in teaching. (Sometimes it is presented as "the child at seven", which puts rather a different slant on the matter.) The basic idea remains the same...if you totally control a young person from an early age, you can almost certainly dictate how he/she will turn out as an adult.

[thewillow]

A old play on this is "Give me the child at seven and I will show you the clean chimney at eight".

[Jamie Lewis]

Sounds all a bit paedophilic if you ask me.

[artvanderlay]

Get your mind out of the gutter. There's nothing at all paedophilic about it.

[archbishop]

As Quizzy says it was indeed The Jesuits or more correctly The Society of Jesus founded by St.Ignatias Loyola.

[firefly]

markdona1's version is a parody of the Jesuit saying, not an old religious saying at all. Actually it might not true. I read something that when you get to about fifty your personality comes more from being an adult than a developing child.

[firefly]

sorry your adult experiences