Bolesław Prus, "Oda do młodości" [Ode to Youth] (1905)
“

"Nature has done well and wisely, in not permitting a man to live forever and in bringing into the world ever new generations. An old person is a used-up machine [... He] has too many dogmas to [...] easily [...] believe in a new truth [...]; too many sympathies and antipathies [...] for him to come to love something unfamiliar; [...] too many habits to be able to settle on new ways. Let us add suspiciousness — the fruit of bitter experiences; a pessimism inseparable from all manner of disappointments; and finally, a general decline of powers from exhaustion [...]."

— Bolesław Prus on Youth

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets ""Nature has done well and wisely, in not permitting a man to live forever and in bringing into the world ever new generations. An old person is a used-up machine [... He] has too many dogmas to [...] easily [...] believe in a new truth [...]; too many sympathies and antipathies [...] for him to come to love something unfamiliar; [...] too many habits to be able to settle on new ways. Let us add suspiciousness — the fruit of bitter experiences; a pessimism inseparable from all manner of disappointments; and finally, a general decline of powers from exhaustion [...]."" in the context of "Bolesław Prus, "Oda do młodości" [Ode to Youth] (1905)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Quote Image
Source: Wikiquote: "Youth" (P) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Bolesław Prus

About Bolesław Prus

Bolesław Prus was the pen-name of Aleksander Głowacki (August 20, 1847 – May 19, 1912), a Polish journalist and novelist known as the leading representative of realism in 19th-century Polish literature.