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Lost Youth Quotes

Browse 39 quotes about Lost Youth.

Lost Youth Quotes

“Dabbling in the sandbox gives Rabbit a small headache. Over at the pavilion the rubber thump of Roofball and the click of checkers call to his memory, and the forgotten smell of that narrow plastic ribbon you braid bracelets and whistlechains out of and of glue and of the sweat on the handles on athletic equipment is blown down by a breeze laced with children's murmuring. He feels the truth: the thing that has left his life has left irrevocably; no search would recover it. No flight would reach it. It was here, beneath the town, in these smells and these voices, forever behind him. The fullness ends when we give Nature her ransom, when we make children for her. Then she is through with us, and we become, first inside, and then outside, junk. Flower stalks.”

ChildhoodFutilityLost YouthRabbit AngstromLost Innocence1960Sense Memory
Book:Rabbit, Run
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“I was young at Myna, that first time. When had the change come? He had retreated to here, to Collegium, to spin his awkward webs of intrigue and to lecture at the College. Then, years on, the call had come for action. He had gone to that chest in which he stored his youth and found that, like some armour long unworn, it had rusted away. He tried to tell himself that this was not like the grumbling of any other man who finds the prime of his life behind him. I need my youth and strength now, as never before. A shame that one could no husband time until one needed it. All his thoughts rang hollow. He was past his best and that was the thorn that would not be plucked from his side. He was no different from any tradesman or scholar who, during a life of indolence, pauses partway up the stairs to think, This was not so hard, yesterday.”

AgeYouthAgingIndolenceLost YouthStenwold MakerCollegiumThorn In Side
Book:Dragonfly Falling
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“...it was encouraging too, for where the returned Anglo-Indian sat by rights (he knew crowds of them) in the Oriental Club biliously summing up the ruin of the world, here was he, as young as ever; envying young people their summer time and the rest of it, and more than suspecting from the words of a girl, from a housemaid's laughter — intangible things you couldn't lay your hands on—that shift in the whole pyramidal accumulation which in his youth had seemed immoveable. On top of them it had pressed; weighed them down, the women especially, like those flowers Clarissa's Aunt Helena used to press between sheets of grey blotting-paper with Littré's dictionary on top, sitting under the lamp after dinner.”

YouthLost YouthBeing YoungYoung Vs OldFeeling YoungGone Youth
Book:Mrs. Dalloway
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“These memories of former times do not awaken desire so much as sorrow-- a vast, inapprehensible melancholy. Once we had such desires-- but they return not. They are past, they belong to another world that is gone from us. They are completely lost to us. They arise no more; we are dead and they stand remote on the horizon, they are a mysterious reflection, an apparition that haunts us, that we fear and love without hope. They are unattainable and we know it. And even if these scenes of our youth were given back to us, we would hardly know what to do. The tender, secret influence that passed from them into us could not rise again. We might remember and love them and be stirred by the sight of them. But it would be like gazing at the photograph of a dead comrade; those are his features, it is his face, and the days we spent together take on a mournful life in memory; but the man himself it is not.”

MemoriesMemoryLost Youth
Book:All quiet on the western front
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“For us lads of eighteen they ought to have been mediators and guides to the world of maturity, the world of work, of duty, of culture, of progress - to the future. We often made fun of them and played jokes on them, but in our hearts we trusted them. The idea of authority, which they represented, was associated in our minds with a greater insight and a more humane wisdom. But the first death we saw shattered this belief. We had to recognize that our generation was more to be trusted than theirs. They surpassed us only in phrases and in cleverness. The first bombardment showed us our mistake, and under it the world as they had taught it to us broke in pieces. While they continued to write and talk, we saw the wounded and dying. While they taught that duty to one's country is the greatest thing, we already knew that death-throes are stronger. But for all that we were no mutineers, no deserters, no cowards - they were very free with all these expressions. We loved our country as much as they; we went courageously into every action; but also we distinguished the false from true, we had suddenly learned to see. And we saw that there was nothing of their world left. We were all at once terribly alone; and alone we must see it through.”

World War ISoldiersDisillusionmentLost Youth
Book:All quiet on the western front
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“By 1948 I was safe on my feet and able to get about quite normally, but I was thirty-four and life was slipping past me. I could not face burial alive in Coombargana at that age after all that I had been and done during the war, and I began to feel I should go crazy if I didn’t get away from it to England again, where things were happening. I think my parents understood, because they made no objection when I suggested that I should go back to Oxford for a year and finish taking my degree. That was five years ago. What I didn’t realise then was that it wasn’t England I was really fretting for. It was my lost youth.”

Lost Youth
Book:Requiem for a Wren
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“There was an old belief that in the embers Of all things their primordial form exists, And cunning alchemists Could re-create the rose with all its members From its own ashes, but without the bloom, Without the lost perfume Ah me! what wonder-working, occult science Can from the ashes in our hearts once more The rose of youth restore? What craft of alchemy can bid defiance To time and change, and for a single hour Renew this phantom-flower?”

YouthRoseAlchemyLost YouthLongfellow
Author:Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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“These memories of former times do not awaken desire so much as sorrow - a vast, inapprehensible melancholy. Once we had such desires - but they return not. They are past, they belong to another world that is gone from us. In the barracks they called forth a rebellious, wild craving for their return; for then they were still bound to us, we belonged to them and they to us, even though we were already absent from them. They appeared in the soldiers' songs which we sang as we marched between the glow of the dawn and the black silhouettes of the forests to drill on the moor, they were a powerful remembrance that was in us and came from us. But here in the trenches they are completely lost to us. They arise no more; we are dead and they stand remote on the horizon, they are a mysterious reflection, an apparition, that haunts us, that we fear and love without hope. They are strong and our desire is strong - but they are unattainable, and we know it. And even if these scenes of our youth were given back to us we would hardly know what to do. The tender, secret influence that passed from them into us could not rise again. We might be amongst them and move in them; we might remember and love them and be stirred by the sight of them. But it would be like gazing at the photograph of a dead comrade; those are his features, it is his face, and the days we spent together take on a mournful life in the memory; but the man himself it is not. We could never regain the old intimacy with those scenes. It was not any recognition of their beauty and their significance that attracted us, but the communion, the feeling of a comradeship with the things and events of our existence, which cut us off and made the world of our parents a thing incomprehensible to us--for then we surrendered ourselves to events and were lost in them, and the least little thing was enough to carry us down the stream of eternity. Perhaps it was only the privilege of our youth, but as yet we recognised no limits and saw nowhere an end. We had that thrill of expectation in the blood which united us with the course of our days. To-day we would pass through the scenes of our youth like travellers. We are burnt up by hard facts; like tradesmen we understand distinctions, and like butchers, necessities. We are no longer untroubled--we are indifferent. We might exist there; but should we really live there? We are forlorn like children, and experienced like old men, we are crude and sorrowful and superficial - I believe we are lost.”

Lost Youth
Book:All quiet on the western front
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“Our first youth is of no value; for we are never conscious of it until after it is gone. But sometimes-always, I suspect, unless one is exceedingly unfortunate-there comes a sense of second youth, gushing out of the heart's joy at being in love; or, possibly, it may come to crown some other grand festival in life, if any other such there be. This bemoaning of one's self (as you do now) over the first, careless, shallow gayety of youth departed, and this profound happiness atyouth regained,-so much deeper and richer than that we lost,-are essential to the soul's development”

YouthAgingLost Youth
Book:The house of the seven gables
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“Then he remembered his wedding, the old times, the first pregnancy of his wife; he, too, had been very happy the day when he had taken her from her father to his home, and had carried her off on a pillion, trotting through the snow, for it was near Christmas-time, and the country was all white. She held him by one arm, her basket hanging from the other; the wind blew the long lace of her Cauchois headdress so that it sometimes flapped across his mouth, and when he turned his head he saw near him, on his shoulder, her little rosy face, smiling silently under the gold bands of her cap. To warm her hands she put them from time to time in his breast. How long ago it all was! Their son would have been thirty by now. Then he looked back and saw nothing on the road.”

MemoryNostalgiaMelancholyLost Youth
Author:Gustave Flaubert
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“No vulgar jealousy could separate her from Richard. But she feared time itself, and read on Lady Bruton’s face, as if it had been a dial cut in impassive stone, the dwindling of life; how year by year her share was sliced; how little the margin that remained was capable any longer of stretching, of absorbing, as in the youthful years, the colours, salts, tones of existence, so that she filled the room she entered, and felt often as she stood hesitating one moment on the threshold of her drawing-room, an exquisite suspense, such as might stay a diver before plunging while the sea darkens and brightens beneath him, and the waves which threaten to break, but only gently split their surface, roll and conceal and encrust as they just turn over the weeds with pearl.”

LifeMarriageLost YouthRemenising
Book:Mrs. Dalloway
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“Emigration was not to others the obvious remedy, the sublime conception. It was not to them ... the liberator of the pent egotism, which a strong martial woman, well nourished, well descended, of direct impulses, downright feelings, and little introspective power (broad and simple—why could not every one be broad and simple? she asked) feels rise within her, once youth is past, and must eject upon some objectit may be Emigration, it may be Emancipation; but whatever it be, this object round which the essence of her soul is daily secreted, becomes inevitably prismatic, lustrous, half looking glass, half precious stone; now carefully hidden in case people should sneer at it; now proudly displayed.”

Old AgeGrowing OldBeing OldLost YouthYoung Vs OldBeing Older
Book:Mrs. Dalloway
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“Aging is not "lost youth" but a new stage of opportunity and strength.”

AgeOpportunityLostWomenInspiringStageStrengthYouthAgingOld AgeUpliftingBirthdayOld PeopleGetting OldGetting OlderYoung AgeGrowing OldAgeingLost FriendshipFunny AgingYoung And OldYouth And Old AgeAge And YouthAging GracefullySenior CitizenStages Of LifeStaying YoungInspirational AgeAging ProcessLost YouthGrowing Old GracefullyFeminine MystiqueWise AgeAge Of 20Aging Population
Author:Betty Friedan
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“I don't remember who was there, except Dora. I have not the least idea what we had for dinner, besides Dora. My impression is, that I dined off Dora, entirely, and sent away half-a-dozen plates untouched. I sat next to her. I talked to her. She had the most delightful little voice, the gayest little laugh, the pleasantest and most fascinating little ways, that ever led a lost youth into hopeless slavery. She was rather diminutive altogether. So much the more precious, I thought.”

WayLoveLittlesIdeasRememberNextLostVoiceHalfLaughingYouthSlaveryDinnerImpressionSatFascinatingHopelessDozenPlatesDelightfulLost Youth
Book:Charles Dickens's works. Charles Dickens ed. [18 vols. of a 21 vol. set. Wanting A child's history of England; Christmas stories; The mystery of Edwin Drood].
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“There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of the people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age.”

PeopleLifeMindAgeDeathWomenCreativityTalentYouthSourcePhilosophicalAgingOld AgeUpliftingBirthdayDefeatedSeniorFountainOld PeopleYoung AgeGrowing OldAgeingOld LadyGrowing OlderBe YoungYouthfulnessParents And GrandparentsFunny AgingBirthdays And AgingFunny Old Age BirthdayYoung And OldSophiaYouth And Old AgeAge And YouthAging GracefullySenior CitizenFunny AgeOver 50Staying YoungAge Of 40Inspirational AgeFountain Of YouthGifts And TalentsSkin CareAging ProcessAge And WisdomLost YouthRelated To CreativityGrowing Old GracefullyAge WisdomYouth FunnyYouth LifeCreativity And LearningTurning 50Age LifeAge LoveYoung Days
Author:Sophia Loren
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“Youth is a wonderful thing. What a crime to waste it on children.”

ChildrenAgeFunnyYoungTimeFamilyWonderfulCrimeYouthWasteAgingParentingBirthdayGood TimesSarcasmWasting TimeWonderful ThingsGetting OldGetting OlderMy BirthdayWasted TimeBe YoungYouthfulnessBirthdays And AgingFunny Old Age BirthdayHappy BirthdayYoung And OldAge And YouthFunny AgeWonderful ExperienceAge Of 40Wise BirthdayFunny BirthdayLost YouthYoung MotherWitty BirthdayFunny Birthday CardBirthday HumorAging And WisdomYouth LifeWonderful ChildrenAmerican YouthWonder Years
Author:George Bernard Shaw
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“Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.”

IfsInspirationalMindMatterMotivationalAgeFunnyBusinessIssuesAgingOld AgeBirthdayGood LifeOld PeopleGetting OldFunny InspirationalGetting OlderYoung AgeGrowing OldAgeingFunny LifeMy BirthdayHumoristsGrowing OlderWordplayFunny AgingBirthdays And AgingFunny Old Age BirthdayHappy BirthdayYouth And Old AgeAge And YouthAging GracefullyInspirational BirthdayFunny AgeStaying YoungAge Of 40Wise BirthdayFunny BirthdayInspirational AgeOld BirthdayQuotations Birthday Happy BirthdayMilestone BirthdayFunny Happy BirthdayAge And WisdomLost YouthMind And MatterWitty BirthdayHumorous BirthdayFunny Birthday CardFunny Old BirthdayOld Age HumorBest BirthdayFunny Birthday WishesBirthday HumorGrowing Old GracefullyAge WisdomBirthday Wishes FunnyYouth FunnyBirthday GreetingsHilarious Happy BirthdayWise AgeAge LifeAges Is Just A Number
Author:Mark Twain
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“There was no God in his heart, he knew; his ideas were still in riot; there was ever the pain of memory; the regret for his lost youth-yet the waters of disillusion had left a deposit on his soul, responsibility and a love of life, the faint stirring of old ambitions and unrealized dreams...... And he could not tell why the struggle was worth while, why he had determined to use to the utmost himself and his heritage from the personalities he had passed... He stretched out his arms to the crystalline, radiant sky. I know myself," he cried, "but that is all.”

KnowsHeartStillsIdeasSoulUseDreamPainLostLeftWaterMemoriesResponsibilityStruggleSkyYouthRegretArmsPersonalityAmbitionDeterminedLove LifeHeritageCriedRiotStirringRadiantDepositsDisillusionLost YouthUnrealized Dreams
Book:This Side of Paradise
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“Aging is not 'lost youth,' but a new stage of opportunity and strength. It's a different stage of life, and if you are going to pretend it's youth, you are going to miss it. You are going to miss the surprises, the possibilities, and the evolution that we are just beginning to know about because there are no role models, no guideposts, and no signs.”

IfsKnowsDifferentOpportunityLostRolesStageMissingPossibilityYouthEvolutionModelsAgingSurpriseAssRole ModelsBad AssStages Of LifeLost Youth
Author:Betty Friedan
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“What will it matter to him if he notices that he is growing old? Has he any reason to envy the young people whom he sees, or wax nostalgic over his own lost youth? What reasons has he to envy a young person? For the possibilities that a young person has, the future which is in store for him? "No, thank you," he will think. "Instead of possibilities, I have realities in my past, not only the reality of work done and love loved, but of sufferings bravely suffered. These sufferings are even the things of which I am most proud, though these things are things that cannot inspire envy."”

PeopleIfsThinkingPersonsMatterReasonDoneRealityPastYoungSufferingLostGrowingPossibilityYouthInspireProudAnd LoveEnvyStoresGrowing OldMy PastNostalgicWork DoneSearch For MeaningMans Search For MeaningLost Youth
Book:Man's Search For Meaning, Gift Edition
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“Age is strictly a case of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.”

IfsMindMatterAgeFunnyAgingOld AgeBirthdayOld PeopleGetting OldGetting OlderYoung AgeElderlyGrowing OldAgeingMy BirthdayGrowing OlderFunny AgingBirthdays And AgingFunny Old Age BirthdayHappy BirthdayYouth And Old AgeAge And YouthAging GracefullyInspirational BirthdayFunny AgeStaying YoungAge Of 40Wise BirthdayFunny BirthdayInspirational AgeOld BirthdayQuotations Birthday Happy BirthdayMilestone BirthdayFunny Happy BirthdayAge And WisdomLost YouthMind And MatterWitty BirthdayHumorous BirthdayFunny Birthday CardFunny Old BirthdayOld Age HumorBest BirthdayFunny Birthday WishesBirthday HumorGrowing Old GracefullyAge WisdomBirthday Wishes FunnyYouth FunnyBirthday GreetingsHilarious Happy BirthdayWise AgeAge Life
Author:Jack Benny
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“If our hearts are ready for anything, we can open to our inevitable losses, and to the depths of our sorrow. We can grieve our lost loves, our lost youth, our lost health, our lost capacities. This is part of our humanness, part of the expression of our love for life.”

IfsHeartLostLossYouthReadyExpressionSorrowCapacityDepthInevitableGrievingLove LifeLost LoveOur LoveHumannessLost YouthHumanness Is
Book:True Refuge: Finding Peace and Freedom in Your Own Awakened Heart
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