Famously Said Random quote

Quotes about maturity

21 quotes from 18 people

Most readBy personPage 1 of 2

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
The Bible (King James Version)1 Corinthians 13:11 (KJV)In context
- Youth
He had been to touch the great death, and found that, after all, it was but the great death. He was a man.
Stephen Crane1871–1900The Red Badge of Courage (1895), Chapter XXIVIn context
- Life & Death
Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry1900–1944Le Petit Prince (1943)
- Children
Immoderate desire is the mark of a child, not a man.
Democritus460–360 BCFreeman (1948), p. 152
I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity.
Albert Einstein1879–1955Out of My Later Years (1950), Ch. 2 “Self-Portrait” (1936), p. 5
- Age
Is life so wretched? Isn’t it rather your hands which are too small, your vision which is muddied? You are the one who must grow up.
Dag Hammarskjöld1905–1961Vägmärken · Markings (1963), 1950
- Life & Death
Growing up brought responsibilities, he found. Events did not rhyme quite as he had thought. Nature’s logic was too horrid for him to care for. That mercy towards one set of creatures was cruelty towards another sickened his sense of harmony.
Thomas Hardy1840–1928Jude the Obscure (1895), Part First: At Marygreen, Chapter IIIn context
- Nature
If he could only prevent himself growing up! He did not want to be a man.
Thomas Hardy1840–1928Jude the Obscure (1895), Part First: At Marygreen, Chapter IIIn context
- Youth
It is time which imparts strength to all things and brings them to maturity.
Hippocrates460–370 BCThe Law, 3.
- Time
A man’s personality is matured only when he appropriates the truth, whether it is spoken by Balaam’s ass or a sniggering wag or an apostle or an angel.
Søren Kierkegaard1813–1855Journals IV A 87 (1843)
- Truth & Lies
If being a kid is about learning how to live, then being a grown-up is about learning how to die.
Stephen Kingborn 1947Christine (1983), Pt. 1, Ch. 5
- Life & Death
It is the stupidest children who are most childish and the stupidest grown-ups who are most grown-up.
C. S. Lewis1898–1963The Silver Chair (1953), Ch. 16: The Healing of Harms
- Children
When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.
C. S. Lewis1898–1963“On Three Ways of Writing for Children” (1952); in Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories (1967), p. 25
- Age
The sooner you treat him as a man, the sooner he will begin to be one.
John Locke1632–1704Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693), Sec. 95
- Children
We think we understand the rules when we become adults but what we really experienced is a narrowing of the imagination.
David Lynch1946–2025McKenna interview (1992)
- Age