
“Wives are young men's mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men's nurses.”
Of Marriage and Single Life
Essays (1625)
"On Being Idle".
Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886)
“Wives are young men's mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men's nurses.”
Of Marriage and Single Life
Essays (1625)
The Social History of Art, Volume I. From Prehistoric Times to the Middle Ages, 1999, Chapter IV. The Middle Ages
Peace and the Public Mind (1935)
Context: The fact that men are naturally quarrelsome is presumed to be an argument against such institutions as the League. But it is precisely the fact of the natural pugnacity of man that makes such institutions necessary. If men were naturally and easily capable of being their own judges, always able to see the other's case, never got into panics, never lost their heads, never lost their tempers and called it patriotism — why, then we should not want a League. But neither should we want in that case most of our national apparatus of government either — parliaments, congresses, courts, police, ten commandments. These are all means by which we deal with the unruly element in human nature.
“The old believe everything; the middle-aged suspect everything; the young know everything.”
Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young (1894)
As quoted in “When Writers Turn to Brave New Forms” by Michiko Kakutani in The New York Times (24 March 1986)
“My ego doesn't need soothing. I don't want him soothing anything of mine, including you.”
Source: Magic Slays
Speech in New York City http://books.google.com/books?id=Bc7iAAAAMAAJ&q="Generally+young+men+are+regarded+as+radicals+This+is+a+popular+misconception+The+most+conservative+persons+I+ever+met+are+college+undergraduates"+"the+radicals"+"are+the+men+past+middle+life", (19 Nov 1905), The Papers of Woodrow Wilson 16:228
1900s
“Young men want to be faithful, and are not. Old men want to be faithless, and cannot.”