Aging Well Quotes

“Contrary to all expectations, I seem to grow happier as I grow older. I think that America has been sold on the theory that youth is marvelous but old age is a terror. On the contrary, it's taken me sixty years to learn how to live reasonably well, to do my work and cope with my inadequacies. For me youth was a woeful time—sick parents, war, relative poverty, the miseries of learning a profession, a mistake of a marriage, self-doubts, booze and blundering around. Old age is knowing what I'm doing, the respect of others, a relatively sane financial base, a loving wife and the realization that what I can't beat I can endure.”
― George E. Vaillant, Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development

“To the same question a 78-year-old Study member replied, “All the many plans for the day. I love life and all I do. I love the out of doors…. It is a joy to be alive and living with my best friend.” He was referring to his wife of fifty years with whom his sex life was still “very satisfying.”
― George E. Vaillant, Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development

“To know how to grow old is the master-work of wisdom, and one of the most difficult chapters in the great art of living”; so wrote Henri Amiel in 1874.”
― George E. Vaillant, Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development