Even members of the nobility, let alone persons of no consequence, would do well not to have children.
—Yoshida Kenko, c. 1330Quotes
Most men employ the first years of their life in making the last miserable.
—Jean de La Bruyère, 1688No wise man ever wished to be younger.
—Jonathan Swift, 1706Childhood knows what it wants—to leave childhood behind.
—Jean Cocteau, 1947The 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, 1926A sick child is always the mother’s property; her own feelings generally make it so.
—Jane Austen, 1816The 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, 1964I’ve never understood why people consider youth a time of freedom and joy. It’s probably because they have forgotten their own.
—Margaret Atwood, 1976I was born at a very early age. Before I had time to regret it, I was four and a half years old.
—Groucho Marx, 1959There 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, 1876Rejoice, 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.
—Book of Ecclesiastes, c. 200 BCGrown 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. 1940