PROVERBS, SAYINGS, ETC., ABOUT CHILDHOOD, YOUTH,
AND AGE.
1. A' are guid lasses, but where do a' the ill wives come frae?
--_Scotch_.
2. Age does not make us childish, as people say; it only finds
us still true children.--_Goethe_.
3. Aliud legunt pueri, aliud viri, aliud senes. [Children read
one way, men another, old men another.]--_Terence_.
4. A man at five may be a fool at fifteen.
5. A man at sixteen will prove a child at sixty.
6. An old knave is no babe.
7. A smiling boy seldom proves a good servant.
8. Auld folk are twice bairns.--_Scotch_.
9. Aus gescheidenen Kindern werden Gecken. [From clever
children come fools.]--_German_.
10. Aus Kindern werden Leute, aus Jungfern werden Bräute.
[From children come grown-up people, from maidens come brides.]
--_German_.
11. Better bairns greet [_i.e._ weep] than bearded men.
--_Scotch_.
12. Childhood and youth see all the world in persons.
--_Emerson_.
13. Childhood often holds a truth in its feeble fingers, which
the grasp of manhood cannot retain, and which it is the pride of
utmost age to recover.--_Ruskin_.
14. Childhood shows the man, as morning shows the day.--_Milton_.
15. Der Jüngling kämpft, damit der Greis geniesse. [The youth fights, in
order that the old man may enjoy.]--_Goethe_.
16. Een diamant van een dochter wordt een glas van eene vrouw. [A
diamond of a daughter becomes a glass of a wife.]--_Dutch_.
17. Eident [_i.e._ diligent] youth makes easy age.--_Scotch_.
18.
Ewig jung zu bleiben
Ist, wie Diehter schreiben,
Höchstes Lebensgut;
Willst du es erwerben,
Musst du frühe sterben.
[To remain ever-young
Is, as poets write,
The highest good of life;
If thou wouldst acquire it,
Thou must die young.]--_Rückert_.
19. Fanciulli piccioli, dolor di testa; fanciulli grandi dolor di cuore.
[Little children bring head-ache, big children, heart-ache.]
--_Italian_.
20. Giovine santo, diavolo vecchio. [Young saint, old devil.]
--_Italian_.
21. Hang a thief when he's young, and he'll no steal when
he's auld.--_Scotch_.
22. Happy child! the cradle is still to thee an infinite space; once
grown into a man, and the boundless world will be too small to
thee.--_Schiller_.
23. He cometh to you with a tale which holdeth children from play, and
old men from the chimney-corner.--_Sir Philip Sidney_.
24. He who mocks the infant's faith Shall be mocked in age and
death.--_Blake_.
25. How little is the promise of the child fulfilled in the man!
--_Ovid_.
26. If you lie upon roses when young, you will lie upon thorns when old.
27.
Ihr Kinder, lernet jetzt genug,
Ihr lernt nichts mehr in alten Zeiten.
[Ye children, learn enough now;
When time has passed, you will learn nothing more.]--_Pfeffel_.
28. In childhood a linen rag buys friendship.--_Angolese_.
29. In childhood be modest, in youth temperate, in manhood just, and in
old age prudent.--_Socrates_.
30. In the opening bud you see the youthful thorns.--_Talmud_.
31. In youth one has tears without grief; in age, grief without
tears.--_Jean Paul._
32. Invention is the talent of youth, and judgment of age.
--_Swift._
33. It's no child's play, when an old woman dances.--_Low German._
34. Jong rijs is te buigen, maar geen oude boomen. [A young twig can be
bent, but not old trees.]--_Dutch._
35. Jonge lui, domme lui; oude lui, koude lui. [Young folk, silly folk;
old folk, cold folk.]--_Dutch._
36. Junge Faullenzer, alte Bettler. [Young idlers, old beggars.]
--_German._
37. Just at the age 'twixt boy and youth When thought is speech, and
speech is truth.--_Scott._
38. La jeunesse devrait etre une caisse d'épargne. [Youth ought to be a
savings-bank.]--_Mme. Svetchin._
39. Learn young, learn fair; Learn auld, learn mair.--_Scotch._
40. Let the young people mind what the old people say, And where there
is danger, keep out of the way.
41. Levity is artlessness in a child, a shameful fault in men, and a
terrible folly in old age.--_La Rochefoucauld._
42. Maids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are
wives.--_Shakespeare_ (As You Like It, iv. 1).
43. Man schont die Alten, wie man die Kinder schont. [We spare old
people, as we spare children.]--_Goethe._
44. Man mut de kinner bugen, so lange se junk sunt. [Children must be
bent while they are young.]--_Frisian._
45. Man's second childhood begins when a woman gets hold of
him.--_Barrie._
46. My son's my son till he hath got him a wife, But my daughter's my
daughter all the days of her life.
47. Nicht die Kinder bloss speist man mit Mãrchen ab. [Not children
alone are put off with tales.]--_Leasing._
48. Old head and young hand.
49. Old heads will not suit young shoulders.
50. Old men are twice children.--_Greek_.
51. Once a man and twice a child.
52. Se il giovane sapesse, se il vecchio potesse, c' non c' è cosa che
non si facesse. [If the youth but knew, if the old man but could, there
is nothing which would not be done.]--_Italian_.
53. Study is the bane of boyhood, the element of youth, the indulgence
of manhood, and the restorative of age.--_Landor_.
54. The household is the home of the man as well as of the
child.--_Emerson_.
55. The man whom grown-up people love, children love still
more.--_Jean Paul_.
56. There are in man, in the beginning, and at the end, two blank
book-binder's leaves,--childhood and age.--_Jean Paul_.
57. We are children for the second time at twenty-one, and again when we
are gray and put all our burden on the Lord.--_Barrie_.
58. We bend the tree when it is young.--_Bulgarian_.
59. When bairns are young they gar their parents' heads ache; when they
are auld they make their hearts break.--_Scotch_.
60. When children, we are sensualists, when in love, idealists.
--_Goethe_.
61. Wie die Alten sungen, so zwitschern auch die Jungen. [As the old
birds sing, the young ones twitter.]--_German_.
62. Wir sind auch Kinder gewesen. [We too were once children.]
--_German_.
63. Young men think that old men are fools; but old men know young men
are fools.--_Chapman_.
64. Youth is a blunder; manhood, a struggle; old age, a regret.
--_Disraeli_.
65.
Youth is full of sport, age's breath is short;
Youth is nimble, age is lame;
Youth is hot and bold, age is weak and cold;
Youth is wild, and age is tame.--_Shakespeare_.