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Quotes

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

—Plato, c. 348 BC

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

—Margaret Atwood, 1976

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

—Bessie Smith, 1926

Youth, youth, springtime of beauty.

—Anthem of the National Fascist Party, c. 1924

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 BC

Childhood knows what it wants—to leave childhood behind.

—Jean Cocteau, 1947

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

—Jane Austen, 1816

Ah, there are no children nowadays.

—Molière, 1673

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

—Herbert Hoover, 1936

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

—Jean de La Bruyère, 1688

No wise man ever wished to be younger.

—Jonathan Swift, 1706

Bright youth passes as quickly as thought.

—Theognis, c. 550 BC

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

—George Eliot, 1860
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