
“Young men, hear an old man to whom old men hearkened when he was young.”
Eleven Declarations of War (London: Harcourt Brace, 1975) p. 11
“Young men, hear an old man to whom old men hearkened when he was young.”
“Young men," said Cæsar, "hear an old man to whom old men hearkened when he was young.”
Cæsar Augustus
Roman Apophthegms
“I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in.”
“Young men think old men are fools; but old men know young men are fools.”
Act V, scene i.
All Fools (1605)
“[ Old men go to death; death comes to young men. ]”
Jacula Prudentum (1651)
“Young men want to be faithful, and are not. Old men want to be faithless, and cannot.”
Comparing Richard Nixon to Alben Barkley during the 1952 presidential race, as quoted in Richard Nixon: A Political and Personal Portrait (1959) by Earl Mazo, Chapter 7
Speech to Liberal-Socialist Alliance, New York City (8 December 1941), as quoted in From Megaphones to Microphones (2003) by Sandra J. Sarkela et al.
Context: There is now all this patriotic indignation about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and Japanese expansionism in Asia. Yet not a word about American and European expansionism in the same area.... We must make a start. We must renounce war as an instrument of policy.... Even as I speak to you I may be guilty of what some men call treason.... You young men should refuse to take up arms. Young women tear down the patriotic posters. And all of you — young and old — put away your flags.
“Wives are young men's mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men's nurses.”
Of Marriage and Single Life
Essays (1625)