Age wins and one must learn to grow old. I must learn to walk this long unlovely wintry way, looking for spectacles, shunning the cruel looking-glass, laughing at my clumsiness before others mistakenly condole, not expecting gallantry yet disappointed to receive none, apprehending every ache of shaft of pain, alive to blinding flashes of mortality, unarmed, totally vulnerable.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The quote reflects on aging, vulnerability, and confronting mortality with humor and acceptance.
- In plain terms
- Growing old means facing pain and death, but also laughing at yourself.
- What can you take from it?
- Embrace aging with humor and honesty.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How do you balance humor with seriousness when facing aging?
- What does vulnerability teach you about connection?
Another view
It may romanticize suffering and overlook practical coping strategies.
More from Diana Cooper
First you are young; then you are middle-aged; then you are old; then you are wonderful.
Permalink to quote #4 You find something agreeable in almost everyone. I am put off by anything not wholly agreeable. ~ Evelyn Waugh in a letter to Cooper.
Permalink to quote #6 It's nerve and brass, audace and disrespect, and leaping-before-you-look and what-the-hellism, that must be developed.
Permalink to quote #3
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