Love and youth

Posted by Shae on November 17, 2002

In Reply to: Love and youth posted by Bob on November 17, 2002

: : : Does anyone know the origin of the phrase "Love, like youth, is wasted on the young."

: : It's alyric from a Sammy Cahn song. See the link below

: Sammy was, in turn, quoting George Bernard Shaw who originally said "youth is wasted on the young." If you do a Google search on "wasted on the young" you'll turn up an astonishing number of headlines with "____, like youth, is wasted on the young." Sex, advice, pot, you name it. Since it seems so easy to parody the original, I think we have to give Shaw much more credit than Sammy.

'Youth is a wonderful thing. What a crime to waste it on children.' - G. B. Shaw

Some more from Shaw on youth and age:

'Every man over the age of forty is a scoundrel.'
(Man and Superman)

'Youth, which is forgiven everything, forgives itself nothing; age, which forgives itself anything, is forgiven nothing.' Ibid.