I don’t think he had known much demonstrative love in his childhood and what a child doesn’t receive he can seldom later give.

P. D. James (1920-2014) British mystery writer [Phyllis Dorothy James White]

Time To Be in Earnest: A Fragment of Autobiography, “Diary 1997” (1999)
    (Source)

Writing of her father. Often just the last half of this quote is given ("What a child ...").