The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.
Attributed to SOCRATES (469–399 B.C.) by Plato, according to William L. Patty and Louise S. Johnson, Personality and Adjustment, p. 277 (1953), but scholars have not confirmed the original source.
Comment: While scholars have not confirmed the origin of this quote, it’s interesting how many people hold its sentiment. Another version of this quote I remember as a child hearing people say that they heard their grandparents recite with a smile decades before is, “The young people of today are going to the dogs.” Some sentiments seem to continue, eh? Maybe young people today are Lucky Dogs. Look at all the options that electronic technology and scientific research make available. Tablet PCs and other mobile PCs are just a glimpse of what’s coming for them to use. Makes me glad to be young enough to watch more products emerge.