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, 1976Quotes
There comes a time in every rightly constructed boy’s life when he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure.
—Mark Twain, 1876No wise man ever wished to be younger.
—Jonathan Swift, 1706Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt.
—Herbert Hoover, 1936Youth, youth, springtime of beauty.
—Anthem of the National Fascist Party, c. 1924I was born at a very early age. Before I had time to regret it, I was four and a half years old.
—Groucho Marx, 1959A dissolute and intemperate youth hands down the body to old age in a worn-out state.
—Cicero, 44 BCThe young man must store up, the old man must use.
—Seneca the Younger, c. 63Childhood has no forebodings—but then, it is soothed by no memories of outlived sorrow.
—George Eliot, 1860Grown up, and that is a terribly hard thing to do. It is much easier to skip it and go from one childhood to another.
—F. Scott Fitzgerald, c. 1940Childhood knows what it wants—to leave childhood behind.
—Jean Cocteau, 1947Ah, there are no children nowadays.
—Molière, 1673The boy is, of all wild beasts, the most difficult to manage.
—Plato, c. 348 BC