Almost 400 years ago, Shakespeare was portraying adolescents in a very similar light to the light that we portray them in today — but today we try to understand their behavior in terms of the underlying changes that are going on in their brain.

Source: "The Mysterious Workings of the Adolescent Brain." TEDGlobal 2012. Jun. 2012. Conference Presentation. Additional Information: This quote, from neuroscientist Sarah-Jayne Blakemore's 2012 TED Talk about the adolescent brain, means that our modern view of teenagers -- that they are impulsive, make bad decisions, and disrespect their elders -- has actually been around for hundreds of years and probably longer. However, today, we merely have a more scientific understanding of teenage behavior. To illustrate her point, Blakemore gives the example of this Shakespeare quote describing teenagers, from The Winter's Tale:

I would there were no age between ten and three and twenty, or that youth would sleep out the rest; for there is nothing in the between but getting wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, stealing, fighting

Watch the full TED Talk here: Sarah-Jayne Blakemore - The Mysterious Workings of the Adolescent Brain