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.
—F. Scott Fitzgerald, c. 1940Quotes
No wise man ever wished to be younger.
—Jonathan Swift, 1706Ah, there are no children nowadays.
—Molière, 1673Bright youth passes as quickly as thought.
—Theognis, c. 550 BCThe young leading the young is like the blind leading the blind.
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 1747Youth, youth, springtime of beauty.
—Anthem of the National Fascist Party, c. 1924I shall soon be six-and-twenty. Is there anything in the future that can possibly console us for not being always twenty-five?
—Lord Byron, 1813The boy is, of all wild beasts, the most difficult to manage.
—Plato, c. 348 BCChildhood 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, 1968A sick child is always the mother’s property; her own feelings generally make it so.
—Jane Austen, 1816A dissolute and intemperate youth hands down the body to old age in a worn-out state.
—Cicero, 44 BCRejoice, 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