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Alas, regardless of their doom,
The little victims play!
No sense have they of ills to come,
Nor care beyond today.

— Thomas Gray Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College (1742)

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Children

More quotes by Thomas Gray

Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.

The Progress of Poesy: A Pindaric Ode (1754)

And weep the more, because I weep in vain.

The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

Dear, as the light that visits these sad eyes;
Dear, as the ruddy drops that warm my heart.

The Bard (1757)

Rich windows that exclude the light,
And passages that lead to nothing.

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Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man.

Rabindranath Tagore Stray Birds (1916)

Happiness is an imaginary condition, formerly attributed by the living to the dead, now usually attributed by adults to children, and by children to adults.

Thomas Szasz The Second Sin (1973)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Thomas Gray (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.