I felt that there was more to the quote but the more I dug into it, the more I realized that I was coming closer to your point. Still, I tried to bring out what I understood from it and how it portrayed in my vision, in a short post.

One of the points this quote tried to venture into was how time teaches us to become bold, something which we are reluctant to become at the very start, may it be for any reason, it be, but gradually those of us become bold, the ones who were once coward. This led to another focus similar to this, the opportunist, the ones who are eager to know or learn but were under bindings, are unable to break free when they are young but as they grow, the cage starts to disappear and they get to observe how reality is and chooses to be more direct, straight, not frightened anymore, more courageous and uptight.