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Aging & Wisdom Quote by Abbe Pierre

"When they are assailed by despair, young people should let universal concerns into their lives"

About this Quote

Despair, Abbe Pierre implies, is partly a problem of scale. Youth pain can feel total because it’s lived at close range: the breakup, the exam, the family fracture, the sense of being trapped inside a single, failing storyline. His prescription is not “cheer up” but “zoom out,” and it lands with the authority of a priest who spent his public life converting moral feeling into practical solidarity.

“Let universal concerns into their lives” is a deft reversal. We often treat big issues as an added burden on already stressed young people, another doomscrolling docket of catastrophe. Pierre frames the universal as an antidote: not distraction, but enlargement. The subtext is almost therapeutic, but also quietly political. Despair thrives in isolation and self-surveillance; universal concerns pull you into relationship, obligation, and action. They give suffering a direction other than inward collapse.

The line also carries the postwar Catholic social ethic Pierre embodied as a founder of the Emmaus movement: dignity is rebuilt through service, community, and a shared fight against poverty and exclusion. His word choice matters. “Let” suggests openness rather than commandment, an invitation into meaning rather than a scolding about privilege. At the same time, it’s a subtle critique of a culture that sells young people a private, optimized life as the whole horizon. Pierre offers a harder, sturdier consolation: your life becomes more bearable when it stops being only about you.

Quote Details

TopicYouth
SourceHelp us find the source
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Pierre, Abbe. (2026, January 17). When they are assailed by despair, young people should let universal concerns into their lives. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/when-they-are-assailed-by-despair-young-people-37106/

Chicago Style
Pierre, Abbe. "When they are assailed by despair, young people should let universal concerns into their lives." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/when-they-are-assailed-by-despair-young-people-37106/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"When they are assailed by despair, young people should let universal concerns into their lives." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/when-they-are-assailed-by-despair-young-people-37106/. Accessed 16 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

Abbe Pierre

Abbe Pierre (August 15, 1912 - January 22, 2007) was a Priest from France.

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