What a child doesn't receive he can seldom later give.

The line expresses a bleak, psychologically realist view of emotional development: capacities such as trust, tenderness, and stable attachment are not simply willed into existence in adulthood but are learned through early experience. If a child is denied love, security, or moral guidance, the adult may struggle to offer those things to others, not from malice but from deprivation and lack of an internal model. The aphorism also implies a social responsibility: families and institutions shape future citizens, and neglect reproduces itself across generations. It is a warning against judging adult failures without attending to formative childhood conditions.