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
It’s all that the young can do for the old, to shock them and keep them up to date.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
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 has a small head
—Irish Proverb
What might be taken for a precocious genius is the genius of childhood. When the child grows up, it disappears without a trace. It may happen that this boy will become a real painter some day, or even a great painter. But then he will have to begin everything again, from zero.
—Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish Painter, Sculptor, Artist
Youth should be a savings bank.
—Sophie Swetchine (1782–1857) Russian Mystic, Writer
Youth is unduly busy with pampering the outer person.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
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
Oh, the joy of young ideas painted on the mind, in the warm, glowing colors fancy spreads on objects not yet known, when all is new and all is lovely!
—Hannah More
The youth of today and the youth of tomorrow will be accorded an almost unequaled opportunity for great accomplishment and for human service.
—Nicholas Murray Butler (1862–1947) American Philosopher, Diplomat, Educator
Youth is not like a new garment, which we can keep fresh and fair by wearing sparingly. Youth, while we have it, we must wear daily, and it will fast wear away.
—John Foster Dulles (1888–1959) American Republican Public Official, Lawyer
He who wants to warm himself in old age must build a fireplace in his youth
—German Proverb
Youth is the time of getting, middle age of improving, and old age of spending.
—Anne Bradstreet (1612–72) American Poet
The condition of perfection is idleness: the aim of perfection is youth.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
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
A boy’s story is the best that is ever told.
—Charles Dickens (1812–70) English Novelist
Girls we love for what they are; young men for what they promise to be.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Youth! There is nothing like youth. The middle-aged are mortgaged to Life. The old are in Life’s lumber-room. But youth is the Lord of Life. Youth has a kingdom waiting for it. Every one is born a king, and most people die in exile.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Youth has no age.
—Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish Painter, Sculptor, Artist
Manners make the fortune of the ambitious youth
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
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
Youth is always too serious, and just now it is too serious about frivolity.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
In youth and beauty, wisdom is but rare!
—Homer (751–651 BCE) Ancient Greek Poet
The golden age never leaves the world; it exists still, and shall exist, till love, health, and poetry, are no more—but only for the young.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
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
Idle youth, enslaved to everything; by being too sensitive I have wasted my life.
—Arthur Rimbaud (1854–91) French Poet, Adventurer
We pay when old for the excesses of youth.
—J. B. Priestley (1894–1984) English Novelist, Playwright, Critic
There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favorite book.
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922) French Novelist
In youth we learn; in age we understand.
—Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830–1916) Austrian Novelist
To be young is all there is in the world. They talk so beautifully about work and having a family and a home (and I do, too, sometimes)—but it’s all worry and head-aches and respectable poverty and forced gushing. Telling people how nice it is, when, in reality, you would give all of your last thirty years for one of your first thirty. Old people are tremendous frauds.
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) American Poet
In grade school, I was a complete geek. You know, there’s always the kid who’s too short, the kid who wears glasses, the kid who’s not athletic. Well, I was all three.
—Julianne Moore (b.1960) American Actor
Youth, enthusiasm, and tenderness are like the days of spring. Instead of complaining, oh, my heart, of their brief duration, try to enjoy them.
—Friedrich Ruckert (1788–1866) German Poet, Translator
The surest way to corrupt a young man is to teach him to esteem more highly those who think alike than those who think differently.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
Youth, which is forgiven everything, forgives itself nothing: age, which forgives itself everything, is forgiven nothing.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on the frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words. When I was a boy, we were taught to be discrete and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly wise and impatient of restraint.
—Hesiod (f.700 BCE) Greek Poet
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
Many people use their youth to make their old age miserable
—Unknown
The desire of advising has a very extensive prevalence; and, since advice cannot be given but to those that will hear it, a patient listener is necessary to the accommodation of all those who desire to be confirmed in the opinion of their own wisdom: a patient listener, however, is not always to be had; the present age, whatever age is present, is so vitiated and disordered, that young people are readier to talk than to attend, and good counsel is only thrown away upon those who are full of their own perfections.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Which of us that is thirty years old has not had his Pompeii? Deep under ashes lies the life of youth—the careless sport, the pleasure and passion, the darling joy.
—William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–63) English Novelist
Youth is not a question of years: one is young or old from birth.
—Natalie Clifford Barney (1876–1972) American Playwright, Poet, Novelist
Everybody’s youth is a dream, a form of chemical madness.
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American Novelist
Middle age is youth without its levity, and age without decay.
—Daniel Defoe (1659–1731) English Writer, Journalist, Pamphleteer
In youth we run into difficulties. In old age difficulties run into us.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) (1818–85) American Humorist, Author, Lecturer
Each generation should be made to bear the burden of its own wars, instead of carrying them on, at the expense of other generations.
—James Madison (1751–1836) American Founding Father, Statesman, President
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
How could youths better learn to live than by at once trying the experiment of living?
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
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
Denunciation of the young is a necessary part of the hygiene of older people, and greatly assists the circulation of their blood.
—Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946) American-British Essayist, Bibliophile
Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
What a cunning mixture of sentiment, pity, tenderness, irony surrounds adolescence, what knowing watchfulness! Young birds on their first flight are hardly so hovered around.
—Georges Bernanos (1888–1948) French Author