salad days
idiom

- When you were a young person and had little experience

- One’s happiest, most successful time; the period when one has the most energy, vitality, and potential. Often structured as “the prime of (one’s) life".

Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary / Farlex Free Dictionary

—
ORIGIN

“Salad days” is a Shakespearean idiomatic expression meaning a youthful time, accompanied by the inexperience, enthusiasm, idealism, innocence, or indiscretion that one associates with a young person.

“My salad days, when I was green in judgment: cold in blood.” (Antony and Cleopatra)

A more modern use, especially in the U.S., refers to a heyday, a period when somebody was at the peak of their abilities — not necessarily in that person’s youth.

—-
SHAKESPEARE SAID IT FIRST

- Fight fire with fire = respond to an attack with the same method (King John)

- A fool’s paradise = a state of happiness based on false hope (Romeo and Juliet)

- A dish fit for the Gods = a high-quality meal (Julius Caesar)

- All that glitters isn’t gold = things are not as good as they appear to be (The Merchant of Venice)

- The world is my oyster = I can achieve whatever I want to in life (The Merry Wives of Windsor)

- Forever and a day = indefinitely (As You Like It)

—
SYNONYMS

halcyon days, heyday of youth, best days of my life, prime of life, SALAD DAYS, springtime of life

—
SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation today, say something like:

“I backpacked through Europe with friends during my SALAD DAYS.”

—
DEDICATED to my wonderful wife Helga – for Forever and a day!

—
HERZLICHEN DANK to all readers helping me keep OWAD alive with single or monthly donations at:

https://donorbox.org/please-become-a-friend-of-owad-3

Paul Smith