Midlife Quotes

• As we reach midlife in the middle thirties or early forties, we are not prepared for the idea that time can run out on us, or for the startling truth that if we don't hurry to pursue our own definition of a meaningful existence, life can become a repetition of trivial maintenance duties.

  Gail Sheehy

  Meaningful, Running, Ideas

  Gail Sheehy (1977). “Passages: Predictable Crises of Adult Life”, Bantam

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• Women's liberation and the male midlife crisis were the same search--for personal fulfillment, common values, mutual respect, love. But while women's liberation was thought of as promoting identity, the male midlife crisis was thought of as an identity crisis.

  Warren Farrell

  Identity, Males, Common

  Warren Farrell (1994). “The myth of male power: why men are the disposable sex”

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• Midlife is when you reach the top of the ladder and find that it was against the wrong wall.

  Joseph Campbell

  Life, Wall, Ladders

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• I figure if Doc is right about the time I have left,I should wrap up my adolescence in the next few days, get into my early productive stages about the third week of school, go through my midlife crisis during Martin Luther King Jr's birthday, redouble my efforts at productivity and think about my legacy, say, Easter, and start cashing in my 401(k)s a couple weeks before Memorial Day.

  Chris Crutcher

  Memorial Day, Easter, Kings

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• It's kind of like a midlife crisis kind of thing. When you turn 40, you have to run the marathon, while all the parts still work properly.

  Joe Bastianich

  Running, Marathon, Kind

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• My generation is having its midlife crisis in its 20s.

  Edward Norton

  Generations, Crisis, My Generation

  "'Fight Club': It 'Just sort of clicked'" by Michael Sragow, www.cnn.com. October 19, 1999.

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• Turn your midlife crisis to your own advantage by making it a time for renewal of your body and mind, rather than stand by helplessly and watch them decline.

  Jane Brody

  Mind, Watches, Body

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• You know, let a few years go by until I hit my midlife crisis. Then that can be documented on film.

  Claire Danes

  Years, Film, Crisis

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• I say I have a midlife crisis every time I start and finish a record.

  Mika

  Records, Crisis, Midlife Crisis

  "The Nowhere Boy: Mika Finds Confidence in Coming Out". Interview with Zack Rosen, www.huffingtonpost.com. April 18, 2013.

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• Nothing bad is going to happen to us. If we get fired, it's not failure; its a midlife vocational reassessment.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Success, Happens, Ifs

  P J O'Rourke (1992). “Parliament of Whores-Open Mark”, Vintage Books USA

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• Most of us abandoned the idea of a life full of adventure and travel sometime between puberty and our first job. Our dreams died under the dark weight of responsibility. Occasionally the old urge surfaces, and we label it with names that suggest psychological aberrations: the big chill, a midlife crisis.

  Tim Cahill

  Dream, Jobs, Responsibility

  Tim Cahill (1987). “Jaguars ripped my flesh: adventure is a risky business”, Bantam Dell Pub Group

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• Middle age is youth without levity, and age without decay.

  Doris Day

  Wise, Time, Age

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Let go of who you think you're supposed to be and embrace who you are.

  Brené Brown

  Letting Go, Thinking, Unraveling

  Brené Brown (2011). “불완전함의 선물”, Cheongha/ Tsai Fong Books

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• We don't understand life any better at forty than at twenty, but we know it and admit it

  Jules Renard

  Birthday, Twenties, Forty

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• In the greatest confusion there is still an open channel to the soul. It may be difficult to find because by midlife it is overgrown, and some of the wildest thickets that surround it grow out of what we describe as our education. But the channel is always there, and it is our business to keep it open, to have access to the deepest part of ourselves.

  Saul Bellow

  Business, Confusion, Soul

  Foreword to "The Closing of the American Mind" by Allan Bloom, 1987.

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• Hollywood actresses age in dog years. I'm 25 in the rest of the world, but I'm about 48 in actress years. I'm just around the corner from my midlife crisis.

  Amber Heard

  Dog, Years, Age

  "20Q: Amber Heard". Interview with Eric Spitznagel, www.playboy.com. August 10, 2011.

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• Midlife is the time to let go of an overdominant ego and to contemplate the deeper significance of human existence.

  Carl Jung

  Letting Go, Ego, Time To Let Go

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• Midlife is not the time to disenchant ourselves. It's a time to turn on all our magic in full force.

  Marianne Williamson

  Magic, Force, Turns

  Marianne Williamson (2009). “The Age of Miracles: Embracing the New Midlife: Easyread Super Large 20pt Edition”, p.132, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• Much violence against women originates in emotional territory that they already command. By midlife and early old age, as the hormones of both genders change, women are in total, despotic control of their marriages.

  Camille Paglia

  Emotional, Age, Territory

  Camille Paglia (2011). “Vamps & Tramps: New Essays”, p.46, Vintage

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• You know what's funny? I don't ever feel the need to escape. I have a strong marriage. I like my life. You hear about these guys having midlife crises - I don't see that happening to me.

  Harry Connick, Jr.

  Funny, Strong, Guy

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• At midlife, you're pregnant with the best self you can be - someone who has learned enough from both successes and failures to add up to a fine human being.

  Marianne Williamson

  Self, Add, Success And Failure

  Source: rayhemachandra.com

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• Adam and Eve had their midlife Crisis when they realized that they were older than sin!

  Jonathan Edward Caldwell

  Religious, Sin, Adam

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• The place has had a super-conflicted relationship to its mission. In 1956, it opened as the Museum of Contemporary Crafts. Then in 1986 it had a midlife crisis and changed its name to the American Craft Museum. Then in 2002 the name changed again, this time to the Museum of Arts and Design. Maybe in 2025 the place will be called the Designatorium. The big problem with a museum of craft and design is that all art has craft and design.

  Jerry Saltz

  Art, Museums, Names

  "Museum Date". Interview with Justin Davidson, nymag.com. September 7, 2008.

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• What do you do when the story changes in midlife? When a tale you have told yourself turns out to be a little untrue, just enough to throw the world off-kilter? It’s like leaving the train at the wrong stop: You are still you, but in a new place, there by accident or grace, and you will need your wits about you to proceed.

  Gail Caldwell

  Grace, Leaving, Needs

  "New Life, No Instructions". Book by Gail Caldwell, wnpr.org. April 2014.

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• On my fortieth birthday, rather than merely bore my friends by having anything as mundane as a midlife crisis I decided it might be more interesting to actually terrify them by going completely mad and declaring myself to be a magician.

  Alan Moore

  Mad, Interesting, Might

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