Lev Vygotsky — Russian Psychologist born on November 19, 1896, died on June 11, 1934

Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky was a Soviet psychologist, the founder of a theory of human cultural and bio-social development commonly referred to as cultural-historical psychology, and leader of the Vygotsky Circle... (wikipedia)

The most significant moment in the course of intellectual development, which gives birth to the purely human forms of practical and abstract intelligence, occurs when speech and practical activity, two previously completely independent lines of development, converge.
Love can reach the same level of talent, and even genius, as the discovery of differential calculus.
Somehow our society has formed a one-sided view of the human personality, and for some reason everyone understood giftedness and talent only as it applied to the intellect. But it is possible not only to be talented in one's thoughts but also to be talented in one's feelings as well.
In play, a child is always above his average age, above his daily behavior; in play, it is as though he were a head taller than himself.
A child's greatest achievements are possible in play, achievements that tomorrow will become her basic level of real action.