Just like those who are incurably ill, the aged know everything about their dying except exactly when.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Like the terminally ill, the elderly know much about their death but not its exact timing.
- In plain terms
- Older people understand aging but cannot predict when they will die.
- What can you take from it?
- Accept uncertainty about life's end despite experience.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How does knowing you’ll die affect daily choices?
- Can uncertainty be a source of freedom?
Another view
It generalizes all elders' experiences.
More from Philip Roth
Undermining experience, embellishing experience, rearranging and enlarging experience into a species of mythology.
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