The 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, 1964Quotes
Childhood knows what it wants—to leave childhood behind.
—Jean Cocteau, 1947The boy is, of all wild beasts, the most difficult to manage.
—Plato, c. 348 BCNo 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, 1876Grown 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. 1940A dissolute and intemperate youth hands down the body to old age in a worn-out state.
—Cicero, 44 BCThe thing that impresses me most about America is the way parents obey their children.
—Edward VIII, 1957Rejoice, 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 BCThe young leading the young is like the blind leading the blind.
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 1747Most men employ the first years of their life in making the last miserable.
—Jean de La Bruyère, 1688Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt.
—Herbert Hoover, 1936Even members of the nobility, let alone persons of no consequence, would do well not to have children.
—Yoshida Kenko, c. 1330