youth is wasted on the young

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English

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WOTD – 12 August 2024

Etymology

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Origin uncertain. The phrase is often attributed to the Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) (see, for example, the 1943 and 1979 quotations), but does not appear to be from any of his published works.[1] It is sometimes also said to be by other people such as the American writer Mark Twain (1835–1910) and the Irish playwright and poet Oscar Wilde (1854–1900): see the 1937 and 2006 quotations.

Pronunciation

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Phrase

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youth is wasted on the young

  1. The young fail to appreciate or make good use of what they experience.
    • 1937 December 1, “Priceless Possession is Seen in Having Youth and Guarding Its Gifts”, in Mary Harrison Vaughan, editor, The Rotunda, Farmville, Va.: State Teachers College, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 2, column 1:
      Mark Twain once remarked that it is a pity youth is wasted on the young. Why do we think youth is wasted on the young? […] It [youth] is only valued after our eyes are dull and step no longer spry.
    • 1943 April, Ann Pinchot, “Rival to My Heart: Part 2”, in Otis Wiese, editor, McCall’s, New York, N.Y.: McCall Corporation, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 37, column 1:
      What is it [George Bernard] Shaw says—a pity youth is wasted on the young. Miss Lanahan, what are you doing with your life?
    • 1966 October 20, Peter Harris, “Student’s thoughts drift in the fall”, in Fred Thomas, editor, The Daily Tar Heel, volume 74, number 33, Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 2, column 6:
      The adage that youth is wasted on the young aches your body, for you know that even youth itself, does not have the time to burst forth with all the energy that nature prescribed for it.
    • 1979, Joseph F. Coates, “Social Security in the Year 2000: How to Get There and Where will We be when We Do?”, in David Pearce Snyder, editor, The Family in Post-industrial America: Some Fundamental Perceptions for Public Policy Development (AAAS Selected Symposium; 32), Boulder, Colo.: Frederick A[mos] Praeger, Westview Press, →ISBN, page 130:
      George Bernard Shaw was right on the mark when he suggested that it's a pity youth is wasted on the young.
    • 1983, Lawrence Bush, “1906”, in Bessie, New York, N.Y.: Seaview/Putnam, →ISBN, part 1, page 56:
      Maybe someday the old and the young will live together and work together. But like they say, youth is wasted on the young, and I would also say that wisdom is wasted on the old.
    • 2003 November, Edward Helmore, “Teenage Graceland: Joseph Szabo Captures Adolescents’ Secret World”, in Graydon Carter, editor, Vanity Fair, number 519, New York, N.Y.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 166, column 1:
      It is often said that youth is wasted on the young, but Joseph Szabo's remarkable photographs of that brief span between puberty and baby adulthood seek another determination. As an art teacher (and yearbook photo adviser) to the students of Long Island's Malverne High in the 70s and 80s, Szabo had the opportunity to document the confidential moments of adolescence from which most adults are barred.
    • 2006, Rupa Huq, “Introduction: Youth Culture at the Turn of the Century”, in Beyond Subculture: Pop, Youth and Identity in a Postcolonial World, Abingdon, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 1:
      Any inexpensive dictionary of quotations offers a multitude of entries illustrating youthful irresponsibility such as Oscar Wilde’s ‘youth is wasted on the young’.

Translations

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Perhaps the closest statement appears in Shaw’s Maxims for Revolutionists: see John Tanner [pseudonym; George Bernard Shaw] (1901–1903) “[The Revolutionist’s Handbook and Pocket Companion] Maxims for Revolutionists”, in Man and Superman. A Comedy and a Philosophy, Westminster [London]: Archibald Constable & Co., published 1903, →OCLC, page 242: “Youth, which is forgiven everything, forgives itself nothing: age, which forgives itself everything, is forgiven nothing.”

Further reading

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