Youth

As a general rule ... the conventional wisdom that young people should invest more aggressively than older individuals is quite correct.
~ William J. Bernstein, The Investor's Manifesto: Preparing for Prosperity, Armageddon, and Everything in Between (2009). Chapter 3. The Nature of the Portfolio

Thou dost know
The faults to which the young are ever prone;
The will is quick to act, the judgment weak.
~ William Cullen Bryant, The Iliad of Homer, Translated into English Blank Verse, Volume II (1870). Book XXIII

I am constantly amazed when I talk to young people to learn how much they know about sex and how little about soap.
~ Billie Burke (Mary William Ethelbert Appleton Burke)

The youth rebellion [1968] is a worldwide phenomenon that has not been seen before in history. I do not believe they will calm down and be ad execs at thirty as the Establishment would like us to believe.
~ William S. Burroughs, quoted in The New York Public Library: Book of Twentieth-Century American Quotations (1992).

[F]eeling in the young precedes philosophy, and after, acts with a more certain aim.
~ William Carleton, from The Fawn of Spring-Vale, The Clarionet, and Other Tales, Volume II (1841). The Clarionet. Chapter III

The reveries of youth, in which so much energy is wasted, are the yearnings of a Spirit made for what it has not found but must forever seek as an Ideal.
~ William Ellery Channing, from The Complete Works of William Ellery Channing (1884). The True End of Life

If you have to choose, choose companions of your own rank in life as nearly as may be; but, at any rate, none to whom you acknowledge inferiority; for, slavery is too soon learned; and, if the mind be bowed down in the youth, it will seldom rise up in the man.
~ William Cobbett, Advice to Young Men: And (Incidentally) to Young Women in the Middle and Higher Ranks of Life (1829). Letter I: To A Youth

[M]y youth may wear and waste, but it shall never rust in my possession.
~ William Congreve, The Way of the World (1700). Act II, scene i

[T]o find a young fellow that is neither a wit in his own eye, nor a fool in the eye of the world, is a very hard task.
~ William Congreve, Love for Love (1695). Act V, scene ii

Never let the younger people know that you think a compact disc is a sturdy spine; and never say to them, "That was before your time," because the last full moon was before their time.
~ Bill Cosby, Time Flies (1987).

You are well-educated and you look cute, but that's not going to cut it.
~ Bill Cosby

From thoughtless youth to ruminating age,
Free in his will to choose or to refuse,
Man may improve the crisis, or abuse.
~ William Cowper, from Poems by William Cowper of the Inner Temple, Esq. (1782). The Progress of Error

Sing the song, and o'er and o'er
Though I know that nevermore
Will it seem the song you sung
When we were together young.
~ George William Curtis, Egyptian Serenade

One of the really notable achievements of the twentieth century has been to make the young old before their time.
~ (William) Robertson Davies, Tempest-Tost (1951).

The young are often accused of exaggerating their troubles; they do so, very often, in the hope of making some impression upon the inertia and the immovability of the selfish old.
~ (William) Robertson Davies, Tempest-Tost (1951).

The search of the young today is more specific than the ancient search for the Holy Grail. The search of the youth today is for ways and means to make the machine -- and the vast bureaucracy of the corporation state and of government that runs that machine -- the servant of man. ... That is the revolution that is coming. ... It could be a revolution in the nature of an explosive political regeneration. It depends on how wise the Establishment is. If, with its stockpile of arms, it resolves to suppress the dissenters, America will face, I fear, an awful ordeal.
~ William Orville Douglas, Points of Rebellion (1969). A Start Towards Reconstructing Our Society

There have always been grievances and youth has always been the agitator.
~ William Orville Douglas, Points of Rebellion (1969). How America Views Dissent

I'm quite content to know that the only comfort we establishment people have is the knowledge that these kids are going to someday be the establishment ... and it will serve them right.
~ Will Eisner, Interview in The Comics Journal #267 (April-May 2005). Will Eisner: Having Something to Say

It's terrible to be young. It's terrible. Terrible.
~ William Faulkner, Light in August (1932).

That was Youth with its reckless exuberance when all things were possible pursued by Age where we are now, looking back at what we destroyed, what we tore away from that self who could do more, and its work that's become my enemy because that's what I can tell you about, that Youth who could do anything
~ William Gaddis, Agapé Agape (2002).

Kids are really incredible, in terms of how much they dive into this and just take it as a given. They'll be the ones who really bring the web lifestyle into the mainstream.
~ Bill Gates

We were young, but we had good advice and good ideas and lots of enthusiasm.
~ Bill Gates, Interview in Playboy Magazine (July 1994).

I was a pale young curate then.
~ William Schwenck (W.S.) Gilbert, The Sorcerer (1877). Act I

It is difficult to discern the true dimensions of objects in that mirage which covers the studies of one's youth.
~ William Ewart Gladstone, in The life of William Ewart Gladstone, Volume 1 (1903). Chapter II. Eton

But the watchful care of the parent is endless. The youth is never free from the danger of grating interference.
~ William Godwin, The Enquirer: Reflections on Education, Manners and Literature in a Series of Essays (1797). Part I. Essay VIII: Of the Happiness of Youth

The lessons of their early youth regulated the conduct of their riper years.
~ William Godwin, Thoughts on Man, His Nature, Productions and Discoveries (1831). Essay XI. Of Self-Love and Benevolence

Like a rustic at a fair, we are full of amazement and rapture, and have no thought of going home, or that it will soon be night. We know our existence only by ourselves, and confound our knowledge with the objects of it. We and Nature are therefore one.
~ William Hazlitt, first published in the Monthly Magazine (March 1827). On the Feeling of Immortality in Youth

No young man believes he shall ever die.
~ William Hazlitt, first published in the Monthly Magazine (March 1827). On the Feeling of Immortality in Youth

There is a feeling of Eternity in youth, which makes us amends for everything. To be young is to be as one of the Immortal Gods.
~ William Hazlitt, first published in the Monthly Magazine (March 1827). On the Feeling of Immortality in Youth

I'll do anything
For my sweet sixteen,
And I'll do anything
For little run away child.
~ Billy Idol, in Whiplash Smile (1986 album). Sweet Sixteen

Could the young but realize how soon they will become mere walking bundles of habits, they would give more heed to their conduct while in the plastic state.
~ William James, in The Popular Science Monthly (February 1887). The Laws of Habit

I'm still dealing with the 21-year-old me. That idealist, that purist, that young, noble, and somewhat foolish guy. ... So I tell them to try to hold on to the way they feel right now. Because that's going to effect them for the rest of their lives.
~ Billy Joel (on college students), Lecture at the University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA (20 March 1996).

Students are the ones, smashing the windows of those companies they later hope to lead.
~ Wim Kan

Kids don't seem to realize that ear piercing is, in its own small way, an invasive procedure, and until it heals, any pierced body part is at risk for infection.
~ William Keene, KSBW-TV (25 October 2002). Take Caution With Upper-Ear Piercings

A youth with his first cigar makes himself sick; a youth with his first girl makes other people sick.
~ Mary Wilson Little, from Reveries of a Paragrapher (1897). Part II. Facts and Fancies

Each youth is like a child born in the night who sees the sun rise and thinks that yesterday never existed.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, from The Partial View (1954).

It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it; but the young know they are wretched, for they are full of the truthless ideals which have been instilled into them, and each time they come in contact with the real they are bruised and wounded.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage (1915). Chapter 29

When you are young you take the kindness people show you as your right.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, Cakes and Ale (1930).

I've wandered east, I've wandered west,
Through mony a weary way;
But never, never can forget
The luve o' life's young day!
~ William Motherwell, from Poems Narrative and Lyrical (1832). Jeanie Morrison. Stanza 1

That was a time, a blessed time,
When hearts were fresh and young,
When freely gushed all feelings forth,
Unsyllabled -- unsung!
~ William Motherwell, from Poems Narrative and Lyrical (1832). Jeanie Morrison. Stanza 9

The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Dawn (a.k.a. Daybreak): Thoughts on the prejudices of morality (1881).

Events like this one warn us there is a virus loose within our culture. Too many of our young people are susceptible to it.
~ Bill Owens, USA TODAY (27 April 1999). Tradegy in Colorado: GOP calls for 'youth and culture' talk

Of all the curable illnesses that afflict mankind, the hardest to cure, and the one most likely to leave its victim a chronic invalid, is adolescence.
~ Bonaro Wilkinson Overstreet, Understanding Fear in Ourselves and Others (1951).

The atrocious crime of being a young man, which the honorable gentleman has, with such spirit and decency, charged upon me, I shall neither attempt to palliate nor deny, but content myself with wishing that I may be one of those whose follies may cease with their youth, and not of that number who are ignorant in spite of experience.
~ William Pitt (1st Earl of Chatham), Speech in the House of Commons, Hansard (6 March 1741)

There are only three modes of teaching youth the way to well-doing -- by precept, by example, and by habit at an early age.
~ William Playfair, An Inquiry into the Permanent Causes of the Decline and Fall of Powerful and Wealthy Nations (1805).

A young man married is a man that's marr'd.
~ William Shakespeare, All's Well that Ends Well. Act II, scene iii

[H]e cannot be a perfect man,
Not being tried and tutor'd in the world.
~ William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act I, scene iii

[H]e capers, he dances, he has eyes of youth.
~ William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act III, scene ii

He wears the rose
Of youth upon him.
~ William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra. Act III, scene xiii

I would there were no age between ten and three-and-twenty, or that youth would sleep out the rest; for there is nothing in the between but getting wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, stealing, fighting.
~ William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale. Act III, scene iii

In delay there lies no plenty;
Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty,
Youth's a stuff will not endure.
~ William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night. Act II, scene iii

[I]n thy youth thou wast as true a lover
As ever sighed upon a midnight pillow.
~ William Shakespeare, As You Like It. Act II, scene iv

My salad days,
When I was green in judgment, cold in blood,
To say as I said then!
~ William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra. Act I, scene v

O, how this spring of love resembleth
The uncertain glory of an April day;
Which now shows all the beauty of the sun,
And by and by a cloud takes all away.
~ William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act I, scene iii

So wise so young, they say do never live long.
~ William Shakespeare, King Richard III. Act III, scene i

So young, and so untender?
~ William Shakespeare, King Lear. Act I, scene i

The oldest hath borne most: we that are young,
Shall never see so much, nor live so long.
~ William Shakespeare, King Lear. Act V, scene iii

[W]e have some salt of our youth in us.
~ William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act II, scene iii

Your lordship, though not clean past your youth, have yet some smack of age in you, some relish of the saltness of time.
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part II. Act I, scene ii

Hail, blooming youth!
May all your virtues with your years improve,
Till, in consummate worth, you shine the pride
Of these our days, and to succeeding times
A bright example.
~ William Somervile, The Chase, Book III (1735).

You can't be too wise
So open your eyes
Stay young at heart.
~ Billy Squier, in Creatures Of Habit (1991 album). Young At Heart

Willows never forget how it feels
to be young.
Do you remember where you came from?
~ William Stafford, in The Way It Is (1998). Climbing Along The River

The best rules to form a young man are to talk little, to hear much, to reflect alone upon what has passed in company, to distrust one's own opinions, and value others that deserve it.
~ Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet, in The Works of Sir William Temple, Bart., Vol. I (1720). Miscellanea, Part III. Heads, Designed for an Essay on Conversation

A man -- I let the truth out --
Who's had almost every tooth out,
Cannot sing as once he sang,
When he was young as you are young,
When he was young and lutes were strung,
And love-lamps in the casement hung.
~ William Makepeace Thackeray, Mrs. Katherine's Lantern. Stanza 6

[A]ll pleasure is pleasant at twenty.
~ William Makepeace Thackeray, The Virginians: A Tale of the Last Century (1857-59). Chapter XXIX. In Which Harry Continues To Enjoy Otium Sine Dignitate

In the brave days when I was twenty-one.
~ William Makepeace Thackeray, The Garret. Refrain

We should pay as much reverence to youth as we should to age; there are points in which you young folks are altogether our superiors: and I can't help constantly crying out to persons of my own years, when busied about their young people -- leave them alone; don't be always meddling with their affairs, which they can manage for themselves; don't be always insisting upon managing their boats, and putting your oars in the water with theirs.
~ William Makepeace Thackeray, from Sketches and Travels in London (1847). Mr. Brown's Letters to his Nephew: A Word About Balls in Season

We are none of us infallible, not even the youngest of us.
~ William Hepworth Thompson, Trinity College Meeting of the Fellowship (30 March 1878)

I'm yet another resource-consuming kid in an overpopulated planet, raised to an alarming extent by Hollywood and Madison Avenue, poised with my cynical and alienated peers to take over the world when you're old and weak.
~ Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes (31 October 1995).

Youth should be radical. Youth should demand change in the world. Youth should not accept the old order if the world is to move on. But the old orders should not be moved easily -- certainly not at the mere whim or behest of youth. There must be clash and if youth hasn't enough force or fervor to produce the clash the world grows stale and stagnant and sour in decay.
~ William Allen White, Editorial in The Emporia Gazette (8 April 1932). Student Riots

So young, and yet I have had all of life.
Why, men have lived to see a hundred years,
Who have not known the rapture, joy, and strife
Of my brief youth, its passion and its tears.
~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox, from Yesterdays (August 1910). An Old Heart

We should never discourage young people from dreaming dreams.
~ Lenny Wilkens

Adolescents need more support! We have long supported early childhood literacy learning and education needs, and have created a substantial body of research and resources to support early childhood education. It is time we respond to the needs of adolescents in the same way.
~ Carmelita K. Williams

You had to act dumb around adults, otherwise there was no point in being around them at all.
~ Joy Williams, The Quick and the Dead (2000).

But young people don't need pop stars like myself forcing opinions down their throats. I think it's for them to decide what they are going to do, how they're going to do it and who they're going to do it with.
~ Robbie Williams

When I was younger
it was plain to me
I must make something of myself.
Older now
I walk back streets
admiring the houses
of the very poor ...
~ William Carlos Williams, from Al Que Quiere! A Book of Poems (1917). Pastoral

Youth is the season of hope, enterprise, and energy -- and it is so to a nation as well as an individual.
~ William R. Williams, Address at the Hamilton Literary and Theological Institution, Madison County NY (1843). The Conservative Principle in Our Literature

Play on, play on; I am with you there.
~ Nathaniel Parker (N.P.) Willis, The Poems, Sacred, Passionate, And Humorous (1844 edition). Saturday Afternoon

A youth to whom was given
So much of earth, so much of heaven.
And such impetuous blood.
~ William Wordsworth, Ruth

Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
But to be young was very heaven!
~ William Wordsworth, The Prelude (1850 edition). Book XI: France -- (Concluded)

Dance there upon the shore;
What need have you to care
For wind or water's roar?
And tumble out your hair
That the salt drops have wet;
Being young you have not known
The fool's triumph, nor yet
Love lost as soon as won,
Nor the best labourer dead
And all the sheaves to bind.
What need have you to dread
The monstrous crying of wind?
~ William Butler Yeats, from Responsibilities (1914). To a Child Dancing in the Wind

She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree;
But I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree.
~ William Butler Yeats, from Crossways (1889). Down by the Salley Gardens