“The young boy whistles, hurrying down the street,
The young girl hums beneath her breath.
One goes out to beauty, and does not know it.
And one goes out to death.”

— Conrad Aiken

The House of Dust (1916 - 1917)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The young boy whistles, hurrying down the street, The young girl hums beneath her breath. One goes out to beauty, and…" by Conrad Aiken?

Conrad Aiken 70

American novelist and poet 1889–1973

Related quotes

“And there was one, beneath black eaves, who thought,
Combing with lifted arms her golden hair,
Of the lover who hurried towards her through the night;
And there was one who dreamed of a sudden death
As she blew out her light.”

Conrad Aiken (1889–1973) American novelist and poet

The House of Dust (1916 - 1917)

“One goes down to death, and it leaves a mark on one forever.”

R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) American writer

On death and the nightly resurrection of the slain on Valhal, Ch. 2
Space Chantey (1968)
Context: Death is for a long time. Those of shallow thought say that it is forever. There is, at least, a long night of it. There is the forgetfulness and the loss of identity. The spirit, even as the body, is unstrung and burst and scattered. One goes down to death, and it leaves a mark on one forever.

“Twenty candles on a cake. Twenty Camels in a pack. Twenty months in the federal pen. Twenty shots of tequila down a young girl's gullet. Twenty centuries since Our Lord's last pratfall, and after all that time we still don't know where passion goes when it goes.”

Tom Robbins book Still Life with Woodpecker

Still Life with Woodpecker (1980)

“One more Unfortunate,
Weary of breath,
Rashly importunate,
Gone to her death!

Take her up tenderly,
Lift her with care;
Fashion'd so slenderly
Young, and so fair!”

Thomas Hood The Bridge of Sighs

The Bridge of Sighs (1844), st. 1-2.
1840s

“There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says "Morning, boys. How's the water?" And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes "What the hell is water?”

David Foster Wallace (1962–2008) American fiction writer and essayist

Source: This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life

“Joining a radical movement when one is young is very much like falling in love when one is young. The girl may turn out to be rotten, but the the experience of love is so valuable it can never be entirely undone by the ultimate disenchantment.”

Irving Kristol (1920–2009) American columnist, journalist, and writer

"Memoirs of a Trotskyist", New York Times, January 23, 1979.
1970s

“O, wither’d is the garland of the war!
The soldier’s pole is fall'n; young boys and girls
Are level now with men; the odds is gone,
And there is nothing left remark
Beneath the visiting moon.”

Cleopatra VII (-69–-30 BC) last active pharaoh of Ptolemaic Egypt

As quoted, Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare, Act III, (1623)

“Faith goes out of the window when beauty comes in at the door.”

George Moore (novelist) (1852–1933) Irish novelist, short-story writer, poet, art critic, memoirist and dramatist

The Lake http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11304/11304-8.txt (1905) [Appleton, 2005, digitized edition], ch. IX (p. 169).

“Where young boys plan for what they will achieve and attain, young girls plan for whom they will achieve and attain.”

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935) American feminist, writer, commercial artist, lecturer and social reformer

Ch. 5 http://books.google.com/books?id=94EEAAAAYAAJ&q=%22achieve+and+attain+young+girls+plan+for+whom+they+will+achieve+and+attain%22&pg=PA87#v=onepage
Women and Economics (1898)

“The idea that I'm a homosexual thrill killer, that I stroll down the streets and stalk young boys and slaughter them… Hell, if you could see my schedule, my work schedule, you knew damn well that I was never out there.”

John Wayne Gacy (1942–1994) American serial killer and torturer

Biography - John Wayne Gacy: Monster in Disguise. A & E Home Video, 2000. Watched March 1, 2010.

“The young boy whistles, hurrying down the street,The young girl hums beneath her breath.One goes out to beauty, and does not know it.And one goes out to death.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Conrad Aiken 70

Related quotes

Related topics

“The young boy whistles, hurrying down the street,
The young girl hums beneath her breath.
One goes out to beauty, and does not know it.
And one goes out to death.”