The most important thing that parents can teach their children is how to get along without them.

The most important thing that parents can teach their children is how to get along without them.

The joys of parents are secret, and so are their grieves and fears.

The joys of parents are secret, and so are their grieves and fears.

Don't take up a man's time talking about the smartness of your children; he wants to talk to you about read more

Don't take up a man's time talking about the smartness of your children; he wants to talk to you about the smartness of his children.

By the time a person has achieved years adequate for choosing a direction, the die is cast and the moment read more

By the time a person has achieved years adequate for choosing a direction, the die is cast and the moment has long since passed which determined the future. More youth quotes coming soon. If you have a quote, proverb or saying about youth that you would like to be posted on this page please use the 'Submit a Quote' form below. -Unknown.

Many children, many cares; no children, no felicity.

Many children, many cares; no children, no felicity.

It might sound a paradoxical thing to say --for surely never has a generation of children occupied more sheer hours read more

It might sound a paradoxical thing to say --for surely never has a generation of children occupied more sheer hours of parental time --but the truth is that we neglected you. We allowed you a charade of trivial freedoms in order to avoid making those impositions on you that are in the end both the training ground and proving ground for true independence. We pronounced you strong when you were still weak in order to avoid the struggles with you that would have fed your true strength. We proclaimed you sound when you were foolish in order to avoid taking part in the long, slow, slogging effort that is the only route to genuine maturity of mind and feeling. Thus, it was no small anomaly of your growing up that while you were the most indulged generation, you were also in many ways the most abandoned to your own meager devices by those into whose safe-keeping you had been given.

A society in which adults are estranged from the world of children, and often from their own childhood, tends to read more

A society in which adults are estranged from the world of children, and often from their own childhood, tends to hear children's speech only as a foreign language, or as a lie. Children have been treated. as congenital fibbers, fakers and fantasisers.

My mother loved children--she would have given anything if I had been one.

My mother loved children--she would have given anything if I had been one.

They mustn't know my despair, I can't let them see the wounds which they have caused, I couldn't bear their read more

They mustn't know my despair, I can't let them see the wounds which they have caused, I couldn't bear their sympathy and their kind-hearted jokes, it would only make me want to scream all the more. If I talk, everyone thinks I'm showing off; when I'm silent they think I'm ridiculous; rude if I answer, sly if I get a good idea, lazy if I'm tired, selfish if I eat a mouthful more than I should, stupid, cowardly, crafty, etc. etc.