In childhood, we yearn to be grown-ups. In old age, we yearn to be kids. It just seems that all would be wonderful if we didn’t have to celebrate our birthdays in chronological order.

It is utterly false and cruelly arbitrary to put all the play and learning into childhood, all the work into middle age, and all the regrets into old age.

Source: Margaret Mead, As quoted in Teacher’s Treasury of Stories for Every Occasion (1958) by Millard Dale Baughman, page: 69.

I’m afraid to grow up because sometimes it seems like things will never feel this beautiful again.

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If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older.

Source: Abraham Sutzkever, quoted in “Yiddish Poet Celebrates Life with His Language” by Joseph Berger, The New York Times (1985-03-17), Section 1, page 38. Misattribution: Often misattributed to Tom Stoppard, but no authentic source is yet found.

On our 21st birthday, we don’t care what the world thinks of us; on our 30th, we worry about what it is thinking of us; on our 40th, we discover that it wasn’t thinking of us at all.

When I was a kid and I wanted to be older, this shit was not what I expected.

Today is the oldest you’ve ever been, and the youngest you’ll ever be again.