Words are as recalcitrant as circus animals, and the unskilled trainer can crack his whip at them in vain.
Old age takes away from us what we have inherited and gives us what we have earned.
We are closer to the ants than to the butterflies. Very few people can endure much leisure.
Middle age snuffs out more talent than even wars or sudden death.
Wisdom is keeping a sense of fallibility of all our views and opinions.
As Coleridge said, "We receive but what we give." The happy life is a life of continual generosity in which we go out to meet and acclaim the world.