Youth is to all the glad season of life, but often only by what it hopes, not by what it attains or escapes.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
The self-conceit of the young is the great source of those dangers to which they are exposed.
—Hugh Blair (1718–1800) Scottish Preacher, Scholar, Critic
As youth lives in the future, so the adult lives in the past: No one rightly knows how to live in the present.
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872) Austrian Dramatist, Playwright
Well, youth is the period of assumed personalities and disguises. It is the time of the sincerely insincere.
—Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish Painter, Sculptor, Artist
Rejoiced in youth, repented in age.
—German Proverb
It is a pity that, as one gradually gains experience, one loses one’s youth.
—Vincent van Gogh (1853–90) Dutch Painter
Youth is always too serious, and just now it is too serious about frivolity.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
This is a youth-oriented society, and the joke is on them because youth is a disease from which we all recover.
—Dorothy Fuldheim (1893–1989) American Television News Anchor
When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.
—Unknown
Don’t waste your youth growing up.
—Indian Proverb
Everyone believes in his youth that the world really began with him, and that all merely exists for his sake
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
The old age of an eagle is better than the youth of a sparrow.
—Common Proverb
The young feel tired at the end of an action, the old at the beginning.
—T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) American-British Poet, Dramatist, Literary Critic
Youth is like spring, an over-praised season more remarkable for biting winds than genial breezes. Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits.
—Samuel Butler
Enjoy the spring of love and youth, to some good angel leave the rest; For time will teach thee soon the truth, there are no birds in last year’s nest.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible—and achieve it, generation after generation.
—Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American Novelist, Human Rights Activist
The young, whether they know it or not, live on borrowed property.
—Richard Livingstone (1880–1960) British Scholar, Educator, Academic
What could be more charming than a boy before he has begun to cultivate his intellect? He is beautiful to look at; he gives himself no airs; he understands the meaning of art and literature instinctively; he goes about enjoying his life and making other people enjoy theirs.
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English Novelist
Bestow thy youth so that thou mayst have comfort to remember it, when it hath forsaken thee, and not sigh and grieve at the account thereof. Whilst thou art young thou wilt think it will never have an end; but behold, the longest day hath his evening, and thou shalt enjoy it but once; it never turns again; use it therefore as the spring-time, which soon departeth, and wherein thou oughtest to plant and sow all provisions for a long and happy life.
—Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) English Courtier, Navigator, Poet
To get back to my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
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
Youth is the period of building up in habits, and hopes, and faiths.—Not an hour but is trembling with destinies; not a moment, once passed, of which the appointed work can ever be done again, or the neglected blow struck on the cold iron.
—John Ruskin (1819–1900) English Writer, Art Critic
What a man takes in by contemplation, that he pours out in love.
—Meister Eckhart (c.1260–1327) German Christian Mystic
As I approve of a youth that has something of the old man in him, so I am no less pleased with an old man that has something of the youth. He that follows this rule may be old in body, but can never be so in mind.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
If a young man is loose in his principles and habits; if he lives without plan and without object, spending his time in idleness and pleasure, there is more hope of a fool than of him.
—Joel Hawes (1789–1867) American Clergyman
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
I would there were no age between ten and three-and-twenty, or that youth would sleep out the rest; for there is nothing in the between but getting wenches with child, wronging the anciently, stealing, fighting.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Youth should watch joys and shoot them as they fly.
—John Dryden (1631–1700) English Poet, Literary Critic, Playwright
Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die.
—Herbert Hoover (1874–1964) 31st American President
Middle age is youth without its levity, and age without decay.
—Daniel Defoe (1659–1731) English Writer, Journalist, Pamphleteer
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