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
Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt.
—Herbert Hoover, 1936Grown 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. 1940A dissolute and intemperate youth hands down the body to old age in a worn-out state.
—Cicero, 44 BCThe young man must store up, the old man must use.
—Seneca the Younger, c. 63The 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, 1964Childhood has no forebodings—but then, it is soothed by no memories of outlived sorrow.
—George Eliot, 1860Childhood knows what it wants—to leave childhood behind.
—Jean Cocteau, 1947Bright youth passes as quickly as thought.
—Theognis, c. 550 BCAh, there are no children nowadays.
—Molière, 1673I 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 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