ANSWERS: 43
  • It means that young people have everything going for them physically; they're in the best health they will ever be in; their minds are sharp and clear BUT they lack patience, understanding and wisdom which results in so much wasted effort. Whereas someone who's lived and learn now knows what to do with all that ability of the body but now doesn't have the body to do it with! Another way of putting that saying is; "If I could go back to (whatever age you like) and if I knew then what I know now, life would be wonderful"
  • I think it means the youth tend to look too much towards the future and wanting to experience things reserved for an older age instead of enjoying things available at a younger age. Youth tend to want to grow up too fast. .. experience too much... kinda stunts the maturity and emotional growth on some levels when we try and experience things we are not ready for. Just my opinion
  • Britney Spears
  • I interpret this saying as meaning you don't appreciate being young when you are young, you don't realise how lucky you are to have all of your life in front of you, waiting to be lived. Also, when you are young you're kind of fearless (or stupid) and as you get older you tend to lose this fearlessness and replace it with responsibility, worry and respectibility, and this can prevent you from doing reckless or risky things like travelling, drastic job changes, moving abroad.
  • I think older people say it, pondering their young time. Kinda asking, they are young, but I want to be young too.
  • It means that an old person thinks they would be able to do being young much better that the young manage it, which is stupid, becasue they were obviously young once, and actually they would probably just waste it with 'serious' things, they're just old and bitter and resentful, and don't seam to realise that acting like an adult would be wasting your youth!
  • Often, yes. I'm thoroughly enjoying my youth as well as making as much use of it as I can. But there are so many of my peers who prefer to sit around and do nothing and even have the audacity to claim to be "depressed" about it all.
  • It most certainly is! They're too young to know how good they have it...in such a hurry to grow up. When they're finally grown, they realize how much better it was to be young, but then it's too late!
  • Unfortunately, it does appear so. I'm fairly youthful, and I've noticed this. It's really hard to generalize something like this, but in our world all the youths are being trained to be grown up. Everything starting at elementary school is in preparation for getting good grades to get into a good college to get a good job to make a lot of money to support our families so that we can raise our children well and have enough money for them to go to college. It just seems that not everyone has a change to be young. I'm 18 and I don't know where the time went, so I can't imagine what I'll feel like when I'm 32 or 44 or 53. Some youth have a chance to be young, but not all. I think that at every point in history there was a strong desire for children to just grow up and become adults A.S.A.P.
  • Youth wasted on the young? Never! Old people are just jealous! Personally, I think youth never really goes away.. Everyone has that inner "youth" spark somewhere. My grandmother is almost 60 years old, and she still acts like she's in her twenties. Just recently, she also picked up a new PT Cruiser with flame decals on the side. How wonky is that? She's gotta have some youth still in her.
  • Yes, we should start out old and get younger. by the time were young enough we already know everything!
  • Its not that complex to understand. Youth is taken for granted sometimes. And as you get older you realize that you miss having your youth with you and if you could you would give up anything to get it back. You need to live everyday to the fullest and try and dream every goal and fulfill it therefore your youth will be wasted and when you grow older you wont be able to get it back.
  • it means by the time youre intelligent enough to capitalise on it - its too late - youre old, which leads me to another old saying - you cant put an old head on young shoulders
  • probably that you don't realize what you have when you're young..till you get older and start to wrinkle, and droop and your body isn't as flexible as it once was..ha ha
  • Hindsight is 20/20 and you always think you could go back and do it better. I don't think anything is wasted. Except for me in my earlier youth.
  • It means you don't know what you've got till it's gone!
  • G'day Jodie44, Thank you your question. It means that young people lack the wisdom to make the best use of their youth. However, it is often only through living that we become wise and sometimes not even then. Regards
  • Sometimes the "young" can't appreciate their opportunutues and experiences.
  • By the time you figure out what to do with it you no longer have it.
  • LIFE IS SHORT......Plus 5 for your question Jodie44.
  • i belive the saying the youth is wasted on the young because youth is something to apresheate because realy ur free and you have no responsibilitys. its like the other saying goes you dont know what u have till you lost it
  • I think it means that young people don't truly value how free and wonderful it is to be young. However, I think if an elderly person who was given a chance to re-enjoy their youth, they would probably spend too much time fretting about time passing and whether or not they were making the most of it and enjoying every possible moment. Maybe the reason why we enjoy our youth so thoroughly is because we don't know how valuable it is and so don't worry about the passing days and simply enjoy it for what it is.
  • It's perhaps explained by another saying: "If I only knew then what I know now."
  • this is my GUESS. the young don't care that they have all the time, energy, ect., to just be young. (this time, energy, ect. is youth). so the kids don't care that they ARE young, and adults would be much happier if they were young/youth. GUESSING
  • youth is obviously wasted on the young teenagers think they are so 'cool' because they can smoke, drink and break their bones and act as if nothing happened GO ME !!!!!!
  • The young take the advantages that come with being young (much less responsibility) for granted.
  • I'm pretty sure all the old folks who say this haven't done any better in their youths, otherwise the ''statement'' wouldn't hold so much vehemence. Everyone has to learn in life, and you have to give time to learning; can't expect young people to know everything from day one, if that's indeed what the motive of this saying may imply, but in the end I'm thinking it's just a good way to hide one's resentment, jealousy, failures and projection of themselves years ago. People only condemn others when infuriated and saddened by their own selves primarily, after all.
  • Pearls before swine. ;-)
  • IT MEANS THAT IN LIEU OF APPRECIATING OUR YOUTH WE'RE (AS YOUTH) COMPELED TO DO ALL WE CAN TO ESCAPE IT.SO MUCH IS LOST WHEN ALL WE DESIRE IS TO GROW UP.
  • That we don't actually properly appreciate it until we're married with three kids and a full time job, and the stresses of school and which shoes to buy and trying to get served on a Friday night are long gone? Maybe :)
  • the period of human life between childhood and maturity that is not used fully or apprciated,but as you mature you realize this.
  • The young don't realize the advantages they have of being young, until they are older and it's too late. "You don't realize what you had until it's gone."
  • The young are keen, have a lot of energy but they are rash and cannot evaluate their experience and they don't have much experience anyway. The old have the experience (sometimes even wisdom) but they don't have the stamina, don't have good health, they lack eagerness and they're too tired. The young don't really need "youth" because they don't know how to use it and often they actually waste it. The mean old GBS maybe even figures that the young don't deserve it - well, he was infamous for his snide remarks.
  • nothing is ever wasted.
  • I think it means that young people so much take life and their health for granted that they don't take the time to savor it. An old and learned mind in a youthful body would seem strange though. Lol. My mom once told me that ignorance is bliss. i believe she was right.
  • Adults spend some much time being adults that they forget to have fun every once in a while.
  • because the young sort of take a lot of things for granted. it's not until youth is gone that they learn to appreciate it more.
  • life is a tough teacher....it gives the test first, THEN the lesson.
  • the youth don't know or realize that they are in fact young. meaning, that they don't have the self-realization that their bodies are( physically) young, and that their bodies will physically grow older. they have not yet experienced the next generation after them doing the same things they are doing, so they cannot conceptualize growing older. they think the world is theirs, and every and anything that matters in the world started with them. the realization that your body is getting older will happen at around 24 years old. the realization that time marches on happens at 25. realization of your mortality happens at around 28-30 years old. the last blissful birthday is usually 23. don't be shocked. it happens to everyone (the person mature enough to understand it)
  • By the time you figure it out, really appreciate things and aren't insecure you're too old to leverage the wisdom because you lack either the time you once had or the vitality you once had to go and have a good enlightened romp.
  • I think it means the young do not know what to do with their time, while the experienced are dieing away. They have all the posibilities of making themselves learn and be something, but instead they waste it away until the they are no longer young
  • The best part of life is wasted on those who make the worst use of it.
  • shouldnt it be: young youth is wasted...all the time?

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