Quotes About Youth

Believe me, there's nothing more brittle than human beauty. Encounter it. Savour it, by all means. Then watch how it turns to dust.

That young man will go far, she said. I don't know in what direction, but he will go far.

But we all waste opportunities,' said Domenica. Every single one of us. Every young person does it. It's because we think we have so much time, and then, when we realise that our time is finite, it's too late.

And the difference was this, she mused: those who are twenty don't know what it is like to be forty, whereas those who are forty know what it is like to be twenty. It was a bit like discussing a foreign country with somebody who has never been there. They are prepared to listen, but it's not quite real for them.

The world is full of twenty-year-olds, she thought, all of them blind. Obed

Down below, amongst children, ice cream and chocolate are the bargaining chips supreme, as powerful as money and military force are amongst adults.

And it was young men in red cars who were the most dangerous of all. Such people were best given a wide berth, both in and out of the car.

Charlie had indeed done something stupid. But this realisation only made her want to defend him. Of course young men did stupid things—it was part of being a young man

had been too young, and too infatuated with the plausible

Her tone was breezy. That, she thought, was the best way to talk to teenagers—about anything. You talked to them in that way, as if you were not expecting them to be listening to you—which, of course, they were not.

Africa will get nowhere until we have mechanics... Mechanics are the first stone in the building. Then there are other people on top. Doctors. Nurses. Teachers. But the whole thing is built on mechanics. That is why it is important to teach young people to be mechanics.

If she had listened to her father, if she had listened to the cousin's husband, she would never have married Note and the years of unhappiness would never have occurred. But they did, because she was headstrong, as everyone is at the age of twenty, and when we simply cannot see, however much we may think we can . The world is full of twenty-year-olds, she thought, all of them blind.

Have you ever watched a group of boys together? Look at them. They punch one another. They push. There's a lot of aggression, even if it looks like friendly aggression. It's really odd, but it explains a lot about how males are. And about the world, I suppose. About wars and ecological irresponsibility and bad behaviour generally.

But you can certainly take fifteen years off everything these days." She paused. "But you can't take height off a mountain.

And the memory made her humble; for we should not forget what it is to be young and to have ideas and attitudes that may later seem so fanciful.

The voices of the children were pure; their hearts were pure. Some of them had already discovered how hard life could be; others had yet to do so and probably did not fully understand what the world could be.

I can't, Tofu," said Bertie. "I can't join the cubs." Tofu was dismissive of Bertie's protestation. "You can't? Why? Is it because you think you'll fail the medical examination? There isn't one. That's the army you're thinking of. The cubs will take anyone – even somebody like you.

They might have pictures of skulls on the backs of their leather jackets, but in their case these were really pictures of their last X-ray rather than threats.

Invisibility to the young of course is a quality that grows slowly: by thirty one is beginning to get fainter, by forty one is starting to disappear, by fifty the metaphorical hill has been crossed and one is simply no longer ther.

They are not much use to anybody, really. It is very sad." He smiled. "And then, suddenly, at seventeen—sometimes at age sixteen—they grow out of all of that and they become nice once more, just as they were before this terrible thing called adolescence happened to them.

Want of courage is the last thing to be pardoned by young men, who usually look upon bravery as the chief of all human virtues, and the excuse for every possible fault.

Young man! If my notes should fall into your hands, remember that the best and most enduring changes are those which stem from an improvement in moral behaviour, without any violent upheaval.

To love all ages yield surrender; But to the young it's raptures bring A blessing bountiful and tender- As storms refresh the fields of spring.

How sad, however, if we're given Our youth as something to betray, And what if youth in turn is driven To cheat on us, each hour, each day, If our most precious aspirations, Our freshest dreams, imaginations In fast succession have decayed, As leaves, in putrid autumn, fade. It is too much to see before one Nothing but dinners in a row, Behind the seemly crowd to go, Regarding life as mere decorum, Having no common views to share, Nor passions that one might declare.