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.
—Mark Twain, 1876Quotes
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.
—Book of Ecclesiastes, c. 200 BCThe 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, 1976Childhood has no forebodings—but then, it is soothed by no memories of outlived sorrow.
—George Eliot, 1860The young always have the same problem—how to rebel and conform at the same time. They have now solved this by defying their elders and copying one another.
—Quentin Crisp, 1968Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt.
—Herbert Hoover, 1936A sick child is always the mother’s property; her own feelings generally make it so.
—Jane Austen, 1816The young leading the young is like the blind leading the blind.
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 1747I was born at a very early age. Before I had time to regret it, I was four and a half years old.
—Groucho Marx, 1959Grown 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. 1940No time to marry, no time to settle down, I’m a young woman, and ain’t done runnin’ round.
—Bessie Smith, 1926Childhood knows what it wants—to leave childhood behind.
—Jean Cocteau, 1947