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Friday, December 30, 2011

Maturity

Was chatting with a couple guys yesterday about how we still participate in sports at an age when our fathers were more sedentary, when one of them said, "Growing old is mandatory. Growing up is optional."

It's a great line; when I Googled it later, it was attributed to both Chili Davis and Bob Monkhouse. I also stumbled across a Wikiquotes site which featured observations on aging. A few of the more clever ones:

"On being old -- it's not nice but take comfort that you won't stay that way for ever." -- J.P. Donleavy

"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing."  -- Joseph Lee

"Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what happened." -- Jennifer Yane

"Wisdom doesn't necessarily come with age. Sometimes age just shows up all by itself." -- Tom Wilson

"It's never too late to be what you might have been." -- George Eliot

"First you forget names; then you forget faces; then you forget to zip up your fly; and then you forget to unzip your fly." -- Branch Rickey

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

John,
Great post, as always..you constantly push me physically, we will never grow up, never give in, never surrender, never quit, or give up, we will push the limits until they put us in a box. attitude is everything !! Let the youth try to keep up...if they can.

Mad Dog

John Craig said...

Mad Dog --
You didn't read my previous post: I've already given up.

Brian Fradet said...

John--

What a great post! Thanks also for your last commentary. And, kindly, please do the world a favor and continue writing as that is your unique gift to many people like me. Happy New Year--All Best, Brian

John Craig said...

Brian --
Thank you (though I basically had nothing to do with the writing of this post, it's just a collection of quotes). And Happy New Year to you.

Anonymous said...

I like what George Eliot said - "It's never too late to be what you might have been." The story of my life!

-birdie

John Craig said...

Birdie --
The story of all of our lives, unfortunately.