#old

I did not know that mankind were suffering for want of gold. I have seen a little of it. I know that it is very malleable, but not so malleable as wit. A grain of gold will gild a great surface, but not so much as a grain of wisdom. ↗

— Henry David Thoreau

#life #suffering #wisdom #wit #life

I like a man who can be a real friend, has a good sense of humor, a good pair of shoes and a healthy gold card. ↗

— Victoria Beckham

#friend #gold #good #good pair #good sense

Every stress leaves an indelible scar, and the organism pays for its survival after a stressful situation by becoming a little older. ↗

— Hans Selye

#becoming #every #indelible #leaves #little

[O]ver the years I travelled to another universe. However alert we are, however much we think we know what will happen, antiquity remains an unknown, unanticipated galaxy. It is alien, and old people are a separate form of life. They have green skin, with two heads that sprout antennae. They can be pleasant, they can be annoying--in the supermarket, these old ladies won't get out of my way--but most important they are permanently other. When we turn eighty, we understand that we are extraterrestrial. If we forget for a moment that we are old, we are reminded when we try to stand up, or when we encounter someone young, who appears to observe green skin, extra heads, and protuberances. ↗

— Donald Hall

#aliens #antiquity #extraterrestrials #old-age #other

She was one of those golden mulatas that French-speaking Caribbeans call chabines, that my boys call chicas de oro; she had snarled, apocalyptic hair, copper eyes, and was one whiteskinned relative away from jaba. ↗

— Junot Díaz

#woman #ybon #life

The monsters of our childhood do not fade away, neither are they ever wholly monstrous. But neither, in my experience, do we ever reach a plane of detachment regarding our parents, however wise and old we may become. To pretend otherwise is to cheat. ↗

— John le Carre

#become #cheat #childhood #detachment #ever

The youthful body untouched decays the fastest, for no living hands record its splendor; and here youth and time are wasted. ↗

— Roman Payne

#aging #growing-old #life #payne #time

Be careful, Hally." "Of what? The truth? I seem to be the only one around here who is prepared to face it. ↗

— Athol Fugard

#careful #hally #life #master-harold #master-harold-and-the-boys

Brooding is more something I do when I'm working. I know so much more about sitting around worrying about a work project than I do about worrying about kids. This could just be a fact of life for older moms. We've worked and worked and worked and if we are lucky enough to finally have a child or two, we find ourselves suddenly catapulted into a most alien kind of chaos. Work is so much easier. Anyone will tell you that. To have a desk, where you have everything all lined up, and a schedule you more or less get to agree to. Work. I am a worker. This is so funny because I never really think of my work as work. I certainly never though of myself as having a career. Writing, work, this is just who I am. I am a person who sits at a desk and makes phone calls and taps at a computer keyboard and sips coffee and calls her mom at five. That I am anything better or smaller than that has come as sudden news to me. Brand new. News. ↗

— Jeanne Marie Laskas

#children #life #older-mothers #women #work

A Teddy Bear is for life - not just for Christmas ↗

— Lorraine Hitchings

#teddy-bears #life