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

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

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

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

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

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

Childhood knows what it wants—to leave childhood behind.

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

The young leading the young is like the blind leading the blind.

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.