The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought Studies of the Activities and Influences of the Child Among Primitive Peoples, Their Analogues and Survivals in the Civilization of To-Day

CHAPTER XXXI.

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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_.