I urge you not to cherish that gold-thread gown,
For you shall seize your youthful days,
Gather your blossoms while you may,
Do not lay until only empty branches await.

── from Quan Tang Shi (Complete Collection of Tang Poems)

Midnight hours with a lamp,
Morning hours, when the rooster calls,
The best times for a boy to strive forward.
If he does not study hard while his hair is still dark,
it will be too late to regret when his hair turns grey.

── from Dushu Sheng: Zhongguo Gudai Dushu Quanxue Shixuan
(The Voice of Reading: Selection of Ancient Chinese Poems Advising Study)

A moment of spring night
is worth a thousand gold.
The flowers are sweetly fragranced,
and the moon overcast.
The music from the flute on the balcony plays softly,
the night on the garden swing gets quieter.

── from Dongpo Shiji
(Collected Poems of Su Shi)

For youth, old age comes readily, yet knowledge is difficult to acquire.
Not having even awakened from a dream of spring grass beside the pond,
The leaves of the phoenix tree out front are already shuffling the sounds of autumn.

── from Zhuzi Quanshu
(Complete Works of Master Zhu)