Life and Existence

The arrogance of age must submit to be taught by youth.

The arrogance of age must submit to be taught by youth.

In early youth, as we contemplate our coming life, we are like children in a theater before the curtain is raised, sitting there in high spirits and eagerly waiting for the play to begin.

The deepest definition of Youth is Life as yet untouched by tragedy.

Youth is like spring, an overpraised season— delightful if it happen to be a favored one, but in practice very rarely favored and more remarkable, as a general rule, for biting east winds than genial breezes.

It is not possible for civilization to flow backward while there is youth in the world.

It is not possible for civilization to flow backward while there is youth in the world.

Years are only garments, and you either wear them with style all your life, or else you go dowdy to the grave.

Years are only garments, and you either wear them with style all your life, or else you go dowdy to the grave.

Years following years steal something every day; At last they steal us from ourselves away.

Years following years steal something every day; At last they steal us from ourselves away.

Years following years steal something every day; At last they steal us from ourselves away.

There are years that ask questions and years that answer.

Our years Glide silently away.

The years teach much which the days never know.

I could not prove that years had feet— Yet confident they run.

Years steal Fire from the mind as vigor from the limb.

The writer of good will carries a lamp to illuminate the dark corners. Only that, nothing more—a tiny beam of light to show some hidden aspect of reality.

I don’t like work—no man does—but I like what is in the work—the chance to find yourself.

Words are like leaves, some wither every year, And every year a younger race succeeds.

It seems to me that the most universal revolutionary wish now or ever is a wish for heaven, a wish by a human being to be honored by angels for something other than beauty or usefulness.

Wisdom is to the soul what health is to the body.

A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.

Nobody sees with his eyes alone; we see with our souls.