Take care of your friends. Because there will come a time when you'll be no good to anyone, and the only reason for people to talk to you will be sheer habit.

Years ago, manhood was an opportunity for achievement, and now it is a problem to be overcome.

... life itself is brief, and that is what charges the day with such ridiculous beauty.

Being Lutheran, Mother believed that self-pity is a deadly sin and so is nostalgia, and she had no time for either

It's confidence; it has to be something good about getting old. One of the things is that you just don't stress about some stuff that made you so worried.

They say such nice things about people at their funerals that it makes me sad that I'm going to miss mine by just a few days.

Even in a time of elephantine vanity and greed, one never has to look far to see the campfires of gentle people.