
“Youth is a blunder; manhood a struggle; old age a regret.”
Book VIII, Chapter 4.
Books, Coningsby (1844), Vivian Grey (1826)
“Youth is a blunder; manhood a struggle; old age a regret.”
A Vindication of Providence; or, A True Estimate of Human Life (1728).
“In youth, we run into difficulties. In old age, difficulties run into us.”
Josh Billings, as quoted in Mac's Giant Book of Quips and Quotes (1983) by E. C. McKenzie
Misattributed
Swenson, 1959, p. 21
1840s, Either/Or (1843)
“Youth is the time of getting, middle age of improving, and old age of spending.”
3.
Meditations Divine and Moral (1664)
“A happy youth, and their old age
Is beautiful and free.”
The Fountain, st. ?? (1799).
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
To the Memory of Some I knew Who are Dead and Who Loved Ireland (1917)