Alas Quote by Luc de Clapiers

“Contemplating the adolescence through which we scorned the wrong, some of us must wish … that we could be born old, and grow younger…

— Channing Pollock

Growing up sometimes forces us to confront the distance between our childhood hope and the truth.

— Sara Shandler

“The dreams of childhood—its airy fables; its graceful, beautiful, humane, impossible adornments of the world beyond: so good to be believed-in once, so good…

— Charles Dickens

“It is an illusion that youth is happy: an illusion of those who have lost it; but the young know they are wretched, for…

— W. Somerset Maugham

“All children, as long as they still live in the mystery, are continuously occupied in their souls with the only thing that is important,…

— Hermann Hesse

“It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it; but the young know they are wretched, for…

— Christopher Nuttall

“it is so dark now with the sadness of people they were tricked, they were taught to expect the ultimate when nothing is promised…

— Charles Bukowski

Where's the hope that can abate The grief of hearts thus desolate That can Youth's keenest pangs assuage, And mitigate the gloom of Age?…

— Thomas Haynes Bayly

“It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it; but the young know they are wretched for…

— W. Somerset Maugham

Modernity: we created youth without heroism, age without wisdom, and life without grandeur

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“I didn't like what that word-'childhood'-conjured up, or rather, I didn't like the way most people use it: that presumption of innocence and starry-eyed…

— Jean-Christophe Valtat

“Children can’t see their budding lives through the long lens of wisdom – the wisdom that benefits from years passed, hurdles overcome, strength summoned,…

— Charles M. Blow