English

Alternative forms

• you can't put a wise head on young shoulders

Noun

you can't put an old head on young shoulders

1. Young people inevitably lack the experience and wisdom which come with age.
   • 1890, Horatio Alger, Driven From Home, ch. 30:

     "The boy seems to me a very good boy, but you can't put an old head on young shoulders."

   • 1901, Pauline E. Hopkins, Hagar's Daughter, ch. 25 (Google preview) (in The Magazine Novels of Pauline Hopkins, Oxford, 1990, ISBN 9780195063257):

     "Young men will be young men; you can't put an old head on young shoulders," he added, repeating trite sayings as if they were original with himself.

   • 1970 April 1, Punch Imlach, "In crystal ball, Bruins get nod for first place," Windsor Star (Canada), p. 33 (retrieved 11 Dec 2012):

     The one knock against Bobby is that he is not great defensively. I think that's a valid criticism, but not altogether fair. You can't put an old head on young shoulders.

   • 2010 Dec. 14, Dean Ritchie, "Gutted Eels are left reeling," Herald Sun (Australia) (retrieved 11 Dec 2012):

     "All of a sudden they are now short of experience in the centres and wing. As the old saying goes, you can't put an old head on young shoulders."

   • 2011, Frank O'Connor, "Introduction to A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" in The Best of Frank O'Connor, ISBN 9780307806727, p. 183 (Google preview):

     In those days I looked down on Stephens and repeated Russell's verdict with derision; which shows not only that you can't put an old head on young shoulders but that you shouldn't try.