youth is the time of study, and here we must remember that the mind is free and dainty, and, unlike the body, must not be made to work against the grain.
 Plato, The Republic. copy citation

add
Author Plato
Source The Republic
Topic youth work
Date
Language English
Reference
Note Translated by Benjamin Jowett
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1497/1497-h/1497-h.htm

Context

“'I did not notice that you were more excited than you ought to have been.' But I felt that I was. Now do not let us forget another point in the selection of our disciples—that they must be young and not old. For Solon is mistaken in saying that an old man can be always learning; youth is the time of study, and here we must remember that the mind is free and dainty, and, unlike the body, must not be made to work against the grain. Learning should be at first a sort of play, in which the natural bent is detected. As in training them for war, the young dogs should at first only taste blood; but when the necessary gymnastics are over which during two or three years divide life between sleep and bodily exercise, then the education of the soul will become a more serious matter.” source