If you’re not a liberal at twenty you have no heart; if you’re not a conservative at forty you have no brain.
Often attributed to Winston Churchill, but origins unknown
When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around.
Mark Twain
But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.
I am not young enough to know everything.
Oscar Wilde
At twenty years of age the will reigns; at thirty, the wit; and at forty, the judgment.
Ben Franklin
“At fifteen, I had my mind bent on learning.
Confucious
At thirty, I stood firm.
At forty, I had no more doubts.
At fifty, I knew the will of Heaven.
At sixty, I was already obedient to it.
At seventy, I could follow my heart’s desire without overstepping the line.
Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope.
Aristotle
The young are slaves to their desires; they are impulsive and easily misled.
Plato
“Wisdom is the daughter of experience.”
Leonardo da Vinci
Youth has energy; age has understanding.
Old age, especially honorable old age, has so great authority, that this is of more value than all the pleasures of youth
Cicero
The first half of life is devoted to forming a healthy ego, the second half is going inward and letting go of it.
Carl Jung. Jung framed life as two arcs: outward ambition, and inward integration.
It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste much of it.
Seneca (Letters to Luciluis) | A comment on how youth often squanders time, not recognizing its value.
Young people are passionate, quick-tempered, and apt to follow their impulses. They are hopeful, because they have not yet been humbled by experience.
Aristotle (Rhetoric)
The unexamined life is not worth living.
Socrates
He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.
– Friedrich Nietzsch