How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth, stolen on his wing my three-and-twentieth year!
—John Milton (1608–74) English Poet, Civil Servant, Scholar, Debater
Youth, with swift feet, walks onward in the way; the land of joy lies all before his eyes.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
Youth is the time of getting, middle age of improving, and old age of spending.
—Anne Bradstreet (1612–72) American Poet
Keep true to the dreams of thy youth.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
Youth is a circumstance you can’t do anything about. The trick is to grow up without getting old.
—Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American Architect
Youth loves honor and victory more than money.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
That we may live to see England once more possess a free Monarchy and a privileged and prosperous People, is my Prayer; that these great consequences can only be brought about by the energy and devotion of our Youth is my persuasion. We live in an age when to be young and to be indifferent can be no longer synonymous. We must prepare for the coming hour. The claims of the Future are represented by suffering millions; and the Youth of a Nation are the trustees of Posterity.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Experience is a revelation in the light of which we renounce our errors of youth for those of age.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
Youth no less becomes the light and careless livery that it wears, than settled age his sables and his weeds, importing health and graveness.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
I would like to recapture that freshness of vision which is characteristic of extreme youth when all the world is new to it.
—Henri Matisse (1869–1954) French Painter, Sculptor, Lithographer
When I can look Life in the eyes,
Grown calm and very coldly wise,
Life will have given me the Truth,
And taken in exchange – my youth.
—Sara Teasdale (1884–1933) American Poet
After all, life hasn’t much to offer except youth and I suppose for older people the love of youth in others.
—Unknown
Don’t waste your youth growing up.
—Indian Proverb
What greater or better gift can we offer the republic than to teach and instruct our youth.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
Tell me what are the prevailing sentiments that occupy the minds of your young men, and I will tell you what is to be the character of the next generation.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
Youth is happy because it has the ability to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.
—Franz Kafka (1883–1924) Austrian Novelist, Short Story Writer
So much alarmed that she is quite alarming, All Giggle, Blush, half Pertness, and half Pout.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
All of us who are worth anything spend our manhood in unlearning the follies, or expiating the mistakes of our youth.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Poet, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist
Youth should watch joys and shoot them as they fly.
—John Dryden (1631–1700) English Poet, Literary Critic, Playwright
All lovely things will have an ending, All lovely things will fade and die; And youth, that’s now so bravely spending, Will beg a penny by and by.
—Conrad Aiken (1889–1973) American Poet, Novelist
I’ve never understood why people consider youth a time of freedom and joy. It’s probably because they have forgotten their own.
—Margaret Atwood (b.1939) Canadian Writer, Poet, Critic
Man’s own youth is the world’s youth; at least he feels as if it were, and imagines that the earth’s granite substance is something not yet hardened, and which he can mould into whatever shape he likes.
—Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–64) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
Whoso neglects learning in his youth, loses the past and is dead for the future.
—Euripides (480–406 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
Youth, abundant wealth, high birth, and inexperience, are, each of them a source of ruin. What then must be the fate of those in whom all four are combined.
—The Hitopadesha Indian Collection of Fables
In the lexicon of youth, which fate reserves for a bright manhood, there is no such word as fail.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
Everybody’s youth is a dream, a form of chemical madness.
—Unknown
What a man takes in by contemplation, that he pours out in love.
—Meister Eckhart (c.1260–1327) German Christian Mystic
Youth is about the only thing worth having, and that is about the only thing youth has.
—E. W. Howe (1853–1937) American Novelist, Editor
Ask the young. They know everything.
—Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French Writer, Moralist
There is nothing can pay one for that invaluable ignorance which is the companion of youth, those sanguine groundless hopes, and that lively vanity which makes all the happiness of life.
—Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689–1762) English Aristocrat, Poet, Novelist, Writer
All natural goods perish. Riches take wings; fame is a breath; love is a cheat; youth and health and pleasure vanish.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
The follies of youth become the vices of manhood and the disgrace of old age
—Unknown
Don’t let young people tell you their aspirations; when they drop them they will drop you.
—Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946) American-British Essayist, Bibliophile
No one should make a statement like “youth is the happiest time of life” without being prepared to accept its intellectual consequences.
—William Lyon Phelps (1865–1943) American Author, Critic, Scholar
Heaven lies about us in our infancy and the world begins lying about us pretty soon afterward.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
Affectation is certain deformity.—By forming themselves on fantastic models the young begin with being ridiculous, and often end in being vicious.
—Hugh Blair (1718–1800) Scottish Preacher, Scholar, Critic
There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.
—Graham Greene (1904–91) British Novelist, Playwright, Short Story Writer
It is the malady of our age that the young are so busy teaching us that they have no time left to learn.
—Eric Hoffer (1902–83) American Philosopher, Author
What is youth except a man or woman before it is ready or fit to be seen?
—Evelyn Waugh (1903–66) British Novelist, Essayist, Biographer
Do you set down your name in the scroll of youth, that are written down old with all the characters of age?
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Idle youth, enslaved to everything; by being too sensitive I have wasted my life.
—Arthur Rimbaud (1854–91) French Poet, Adventurer
It is not easy to surround life with any circumstances in which youth will not be delightful; and I am afraid that, whether married or unmarried, we shall find the vesture of terrestrial existence more heavy and cumbrous the longer it is worn.
—Richard Steele (1672–1729) Irish Writer, Politician
Youth is beautiful. Its friendship is precious. The intercourse with it is a purifying release from the worn and stained hardness of older life.
—Nathaniel Parker Willis (1806–67) American Poet, Playwright, Essayist
I remember my youth and the feeling that will never come back any more—the feeling that I could last forever, outlast the sea, the earth, and all men; the deceitful feeling that lures us on to joys, to perils, to love, to vain effort—to death; the triumphant conviction of strength, the heat of life in the handful of dust, the glow in the heart that with every year grows dim, grows cold, grows small, and expires—and expires, too soon, too soon—before life itself.
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) Polish-born British Novelist
People have this obsession. They want you to be like you were in 1969. They want you to because otherwise their youth goes with you. It’s very selfish but it’s understandable.
—Mick Jagger (b.1943) English Rock Singer, Songwriter
You can be young without money but you can’t be old without it.
—Tennessee Williams (1911–83) American Playwright
Do not commit the error, common among the young, of assuming that if you cannot save the whole of mankind you have failed.
—Jan de Hartog (1914–2002) Dutch-American Novelist, Playwright
Young people are fitter to invent than to judge; fitter for execution than for counsel; and more fit for new projects than for settled business.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
Youth is such a wonderful thing. What a crime to waste it on children.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
What one knows is, in youth, of little moment; they know enough who know how to learn.
—Henry Adams (1838–1918) American Historian, Man of Letters