Quotes about boys

„I mean it seems like there are only two options for songwriters [sic] personalities either theyre [sic] sad, tragic visionaries like morrissey or michael stipe or robert smith or theres [sic] the goofy, nutty white boy, Hey lets party and forget everything people like Van Halen or all that other Heavy metal crap.“

—  Kurt Cobain, book Journals

Source: Journals (2002), p. 44

„As boys do sparrows, with flinging salt upon their tails.“

—  Jonathan Swift, book A Tale of a Tub

Sect. 7
A Tale of a Tub (1704)

„I feel like I carry myself in a more manly way. I don’t carry myself as a boy.“

—  Justin Bieber Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor 1994

Rolling Stone, as quoted in NY Daily News "Justin Bieber tells Rolling Stone about growing up: ‘I feel like I carry myself in a more manly way" http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/justin-bieber-tells-rolling-stone-growing-feel-carry-manly-article-1.1117022, July 2012

„I have my big-boy pants on right now. I'm trying not to cry!“

—  Chris Colfer actor, singer, book author 1990

Interview Quotes, 68th Golden Globes Speech (2011)

„At the best of times his face was unreadable. Now his face was a book written in a language long forgotten, in an alphabet unimagined. Silas wrapped the shadows around him like a blanket, and stared after the way the boy had gone, and did not move to follow.“

—  Neil Gaiman, book The Graveyard Book

Source: The Graveyard Book (2008), Ch. 6

„Sometimes the little boy who calls me father brings me an invitation from his mother: "I shall be so pleased if you will come and see me," and I always reply in some such words as these: "Dear madam, I decline."“

—  J. M. Barrie, book The Little White Bird

And if David asks why I decline, I explain that it is because I have no desire to meet the woman.
"Come this time, father," he urged lately, "for it is her birthday, and she is twenty-six," which is so great an age to David, that I think he fears she cannot last much longer.
Source: The Little White Bird (1902), Ch. 1

„Boy Scout is not merely to give you fun and adventure but that, like the backwoodsmen, explorers, and frontiersmen whom you are following, you will be fitting yourself to help your country and to be of service to other people who may be in need of help. That is what the best men are out to do.“

—  Robert Baden-Powell lieutenant-general in the British Army, writer, founder and Chief Scout of the Scout Movement 1857 - 1941

Source: Robert Baden-Powell: Scouting for Boys, The Original

„If you have ever seen the play Peter Pan you will remember how the pirate chief was always making his dying speech because he was afraid that possibly when the time came for him to die he might not have time to get it off his chest. It is much the same with me, and so, although I am not at this moment dying, I shall be doing so one of these days and I want to send you a parting word of goodbye.

Remember, it is the last you will ever hear from me, so think it over.

I have had a most happy life and I want each one of you to have as happy a life too.

I believe that God put us in this jolly world to be happy and enjoy life. Happiness doesn't come from being rich, nor merely from being successful in your career, nor by self-indulgence. One step towards happiness is to make yourself healthy and strong while you are a boy, so that you can be useful and so can enjoy life when you are a man.

Nature study will show you how full of beautiful and wonderful things God has made the world for you to enjoy. Be contented with what you have got and make the best of it. Look on the bright side of things instead of the gloomy one.

But the real way to get happiness is by giving out happiness to other people. Try and leave this world a little better than you found it and when your turn come to die, you can die happy in feeling that at any rate you have not wasted your time but have done your best. "Be Prepared" in this way, to live happy and to die happy - stick to your Scout promise always - even after you have ceased to be a boy - and God help you do it.“

—  Robert Baden-Powell lieutenant-general in the British Army, writer, founder and Chief Scout of the Scout Movement 1857 - 1941

„I'm not a poster boy for good behavior and recovery in Hollywood, I'm just a guy who knows he has a lot to be grateful for.“

—  Robert Downey Jr. American actor 1965

Quoted in Dotson Rader, "I rose from the ashes" http://www.parade.com/articles/editions/2008/edition_04-20-2008/1Robert_Downey_Jr, Parade Magazine (2008-04-20)

„That means a lot, it goes from generation to generation, and you can't wonder why, and I think it's because it's such a good energy in it, and I think the girls and boys, they want to dress like us, and they want to sing along.“

—  Agnetha Fältskog Swedish recording artist and entertainer 1950

On other musicians who has 'grown up' listening to ABBA, who wants to work with Agnetha; Interview on 'Loose Women', Interviewer: Carol Vorderman, ITV 16 May 2013 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7USzqiSflss

„Every age and degree of understanding should have its proper measure of discipline. With regard to boys and adolescents, therefore, or those who cannot understand the seriousness of the penalty of excommunication, whenever such as these are delinquent let them be subjected to severe fasts or brought to terms by harsh beatings, that they may be cured.“

—  Benedict of Nursia Christian saint and monk 480 - 547

Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 30: How Boys Are to Be Corrected

„The only thing worse than a boy who hates you: a boy that loves you.“

—  Markus Zusak, book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

„I was the new boy. It was like joining a new class at school where everybody knows everybody else but me.“

—  Ringo Starr British musician, former member of the Beatles 1940

„When I was a boy the Dead Sea was only sick.“

—  George Burns American comedian, actor, and writer 1896 - 1996

„Boys, do you hear that musketry and that artillery? It means that our friends are falling by the hundreds at the hands of the enemy, and here we are guarding a damned creek! Let's go and help them. What do you say?“

—  Nathan Bedford Forrest Confederate Army general 1821 - 1877

Said to his men at Shiloh, 1862. As quoted in May I Quote You, General Forrest? by Randall Bedwell.
1860s

„I was only a working-class boy from a Nationalist ghetto, but it is repression that creates the revolutionary spirit of freedom.“

—  Bobby Sands Irish volunteer of the Provisional Irish Republican Army 1954 - 1981

Republican News http://larkspirit.com/hungerstrikes/bios/sands.html, (16 December 1978)
Other writings
Context: I was only a working-class boy from a Nationalist ghetto, but it is repression that creates the revolutionary spirit of freedom. I shall not settle until I achieve liberation of my country, until Ireland becomes a sovereign, independent socialist republic.

„No one has the right to make a boy learn Latin, because learning is a matter for individual choice; but if in a Latin class, a boy fools all the time, the class should throw him out, because he interferes with the freedom of others.“

—  A.S. Neill, book Summerhill

Source: Summerhill (1960), p. 356

„I'd rather be called a boy and play with paper air-planes than be called a man and play with a girl's heart.“

—  Niall Horan Irish singer and songwriter 1993

Dare to Dream by One Direction, https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/6422638.Niall_Horan

„I'm the kind of boy that can fall in love with any girl because I love with the heart, not the eyes.“

—  Niall Horan Irish singer and songwriter 1993

Dare to Dream by One Direction, https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/6422638.Niall_Horan