It is unbecoming for young men to utter maxims. — Aristotle

It is unbecoming for young men to utter maxims.

Author: Aristotle

Insight: There's something refreshing about a young person who knows what they don't know yet. When someone in their twenties speaks with absolute certainty about how life works—laying down rules, declaring universal truths, acting like they've figured it all out—it lands differently than when someone older does the same thing. We sense the pretense in it, a borrowed confidence that hasn't been tested by actual living. Aristotle's point isn't that young people should stay silent. It's that there's a particular kind of arrogance in packaging your limited experience into definitive statements about how things "always" are. Life hasn't had enough chances to prove you wrong yet. You haven't been through enough seasons, enough failures, enough unexpected plot twists to understand the exceptions and contradictions that actually matter. What's interesting is how this applies today, maybe even more than in his time. We live in an age where young people can broadcast their maxims instantly to thousands—turning half-formed opinions into stated principles at unprecedented scale. The wisdom isn't in staying quiet. It's in recognizing the difference between exploring an idea and declaring it as truth. There's genuine power in saying "I'm still figuring this out" rather than "Here's how it is."

Source: Nicomachean Ethics, Book VII, 1150b