The denunciation of the young is a necessary part of the hygiene of older people, and greatly assists in the circulation of their blood.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Older people criticize the young to feel vital and maintain their own sense of purpose.
- In plain terms
- Complaining about young people helps older people feel alive and healthy.
- What can you take from it?
- Criticism of youth often serves the emotional needs of elders.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Why do older people dislike the new?
- Is conflict necessary for vitality?
Another view
Not all criticism of youth is self-serving or unfounded.
More from Logan Pearsall Smith
Don't laugh at a youth for his affectations; he is only trying on one face after another to find his own.
Permalink to quote #2 I cannot forgive my friends for dying; I do not find these vanishing acts of theirs at all amusing.
Permalink to quote #3 What music is more enchanting than the voices of young people, when you can't hear what they say?
Permalink to quote #4
Related quotes
Age is deformed, youth unkind, We scorn their bodies, they our mind.
Thomas BastardThomas Bastard quote #1 The whole youth-idolatry oh-god-not-another-birthday thing has to be the most sure-fire way to be unhappy about the way things are progressing in your life.
Nat FriedmanNat Friedman quote #2 Young men have a passion for regarding their elders as senile.
Henry AdamsHenry Adams quote #11