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About this quote

What does it mean?
Young men often dismiss older generations as mentally declining, projecting their own impatience or desire for change onto them.
In plain terms
Young people tend to think older people are losing their minds.
What can you take from it?
Beware of dismissing experience simply because it differs from your own.

Where it applies

  • family disputes
  • workplace dynamics
  • political debates

Putting it to work

  • seek intergenerational dialogue
  • question stereotypes about aging

Questions to consider

  • How do I view those older than me?
  • What biases shape my view of experience?

Another view

Some elders may genuinely struggle with cognition, so the observation isn't universally false.

More from Henry Adams

  1. The effect of power and publicity on all men is the aggravation of self, a sort of tumor that ends by killing the victim's sympathies.

    Permalink to quote #10
  2. Knowledge of human nature is the beginning and end of political education.

    Permalink to quote #12
  3. A friend in power is a friend lost.

    Permalink to quote #9

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