Childhood has no forebodings—but then, it is soothed by no memories of outlived sorrow.

Childhood knows what it wants—to leave childhood behind.

A sick child is always the mother’s property; her own feelings generally make it so.

Youth is the time to go flashing from one end of the world to the other both in mind and body, to try the manners of different nations, to hear the chimes at midnight.

I’ve never understood why people consider youth a time of freedom and joy. It’s probably because they have forgotten their own.

Ah, there are no children nowadays.

The boy is, of all wild beasts, the most difficult to manage. 

I was born at a very early age. Before I had time to regret it, I was four and a half years old.

Most men employ the first years of their life in making the last miserable.

No time to marry, no time to settle down, I’m a young woman, and ain’t done runnin’ round.

Rejoice, young man, while you are young, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Follow the inclination of your heart and the desire of your eyes, but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.

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.

The young man must store up, the old man must use.