As we grow old, we become aware that death is drawing near; his shadow falls across our path; the realities of life seem less crude than of yore, the… - Stefan Zweig

To grow old means to be rid of anxieties about the past.

There are two kinds of pity. One, the weak and sentimental kind, which is really no more than the heart's impatience to be rid as quickly as possible of the painful emotion aroused by the sight of another's unhappiness, that pity which is not compassion, but only an instinctive desire to fortify one's own soul against the sufferings of another; and the other, the only one at counts, the unsentimental but creative kind, which knows what it is about and is determined to hold out, in patience and forbearance, to the very limit of its strength and even beyond.

Youth is always right. Those who follow the counsels of youth are wise.