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

Childhood knows what it wants—to leave childhood behind.

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.

Grown up, and that is a terribly hard thing to do. It is much easier to skip it and go from one childhood to another.

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.

I shall soon be six-and-twenty. Is there anything in the future that can possibly console us for not being always twenty-five?

Bright youth passes as quickly as thought.

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

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.

Even members of the nobility, let alone persons of no consequence, would do well not to have children. 

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

Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt.

Youth, youth, springtime of beauty.