Childhood knows what it wants—to leave childhood behind.
—Jean Cocteau, 1947Quotes
Ah, there are no children nowadays.
—Molière, 1673The young leading the young is like the blind leading the blind.
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 1747No time to marry, no time to settle down, I’m a young woman, and ain’t done runnin’ round.
—Bessie Smith, 1926There 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, 1876A dissolute and intemperate youth hands down the body to old age in a worn-out state.
—Cicero, 44 BCBlessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt.
—Herbert Hoover, 1936The distinction between children and adults, while probably useful for some purposes, is at bottom a specious one, I feel. There are only individual egos, crazy for love.
—Donald Barthelme, 1964Childhood has no forebodings—but then, it is soothed by no memories of outlived sorrow.
—George Eliot, 1860No wise man ever wished to be younger.
—Jonathan Swift, 1706I was born at a very early age. Before I had time to regret it, I was four and a half years old.
—Groucho Marx, 1959Most men employ the first years of their life in making the last miserable.
—Jean de La Bruyère, 1688Bright youth passes as quickly as thought.
—Theognis, c. 550 BC