No wise man ever wished to be younger.

Bright youth passes as quickly as thought.

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

Childhood knows what it wants—to leave childhood behind.

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

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

Youth, youth, springtime of beauty.

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

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.

No one’s serious at seventeen.

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

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.

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