QuoteProject
Youth eats all the sugared fancy cakes and regards them as its daily bread. But there'll come a time when you'll start asking just for a crust.
Ivan Turgenev
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Youth often indulges in pleasures without realizing their true value, but with age, one learns to appreciate the simpler, more essential things in life.

In this quote, Turgenev contrasts the carefree and indulgent nature of youth with the more discerning perspective that often comes with age. The metaphor of 'sugared fancy cakes' represents the temporary and superficial pleasures that young people often indulge in, while 'a crust' signifies a desire for simplicity and substance as one matures. This reflects the journey of learning to value what is truly important and nourishing in life, rather than being distracted by fleeting delights.

Themes

YouthAgeWisdomValuePleasureLife

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be shared during a graduation speech to illustrate the journey from youthful indulgence to adult appreciation of life's essentials.

More from Ivan Turgenev

To desire and expect nothing for oneself and to have profound sympathy for others is genuine holiness.
Ivan TurgenevRead
So many memories and so little worth remembering, and in front of me - a long, long road without a goal.
Ivan TurgenevRead
If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything is ready, we shall never begin.
Ivan TurgenevRead
Whereas I think: I’m lying here in a haystack... The tiny space I occupy is so infinitesimal in comparison with the rest of space, which I don’t occupy and which has no relation to me. And the period of time in which I’m fated to live is so insignificant beside the eternity in which I haven’t existed and won’t exist... And yet in this atom, this mathematical point, blood is circulating, a brain is working, desiring something... What chaos! What a farce!
Ivan TurgenevRead
Death's an old joke, but each individual encounters it anew.
Ivan TurgenevRead
I walked in the meadows of green grieving for my life.
Ivan TurgenevRead

Similar quotes

I think this..."perfectionist gene" that too many young women have holds them back, and instead they should be really aiming for "good enough." You don't have to be perfect. Most men never think like that. They're just trying to figure out what's the opening and how they can seize it. They're not thinking about, Oh my gosh, I'm not perfect, my hair's not perfect today, I wore the wrong shoes. No.
Hillary ClintonRead
Those caught in the cycle of self-concern suffer helplessly, while the compassionate are more free and, implicitly, more happy.
Robert ThurmanRead
Anticipate the difficult by managing the easy.
LaoziRead
We relish news of our heroes, forgetting that we are extraordinary to somebody too.
Helen HayesRead
We human beings grow through our failures, not our virtues.
Madeleine L'EngleRead
The readiest and surest way to get rid of censure, is to correct ourselves.
DemosthenesRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.