When we were children, we used to think that when we were grown-up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability... To be alive is to be vulnerable.
Madeleine L'Engle "Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art", 1980
Categories: maturity

What I look forward to is continued immaturity followed by death.
Dave Barry
Categories: maturity

The purpose of life is to fight maturity.
Dick Werthimer
Categories: maturity

There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes.
Doctor Who
Categories: maturity

By the time I'd grown up, I naturally supposed that I'd be grown up.
Eve Babitz
Categories: maturity

To be mature means to face, and not evade, every fresh crisis that comes.
Fritz Kunkel
Categories: maturity

Every human being on this earth is born with a tragedy, and it isn't original sin. He's born with the tragedy that he has to grow up. That he has to leave the nest, the security, and go out to do battle. He has to lose everything that is lovely and fight for a new loveliness of his own making, and it's a tragedy. A lot of people don't have the courage to do it.
Helen Hayes in Roy Newquist, Showcase, 1966
Categories: maturity

Maturity is only a short break in adolescence.
Jules Feiffer
Categories: maturity

My Father taught me how to be a man – and not by instilling in me a sense of machismo or an agenda of dominance. He taught me that a real man doesn’t take, he gives; he doesn’t use force, he uses logic; doesn’t play the role of trouble-maker, but rather, trouble-shooter; and most importantly, a real man is defined by what’s in his heart, not his pants.
Kevin Smith My Boring Ass Life, 06-01-05
Categories: maturity

Age is no guarantee of maturity.
Lawana Blackwell The Courtship of the Vicar's Daughter, 1998
Categories: maturity

Adulthood isn't an award they'll give you for being a good child. You can waste... years, trying to get someone to give that respect to you, as though it were a sort of promotion or raise in pay. If only you do enough, if only you are good enough. No. You have to just... take it. Give it to yourself, I suppose. Say, I'm sorry you feel like that and walk away. But that's hard.
Lois McMaster Bujold A Civil Campaign, 1999
Categories: maturity

As the fruit ripens, so does man mature; after many rains, suns and blows.
Jose de la Luz y Caballero The Forbes Book of Business Quotations: 14,266 Thoughts on the Business of Life
Categories: aging growth maturity

All my life I used to wonder what I would become when I grew up. Then, about seven years ago, I realized that I was never going to grow up--that growing is an ever ongoing process.
M. Scott Peck Further Along the Road Less Traveled: The Unending Journey Toward Spiritual Growth
Categories: growth maturity self-improvement

With age comes the inner, the higher life. Who would be forever young, to
Elizabeth Cady Stanton The New Beacon Book of Quotations by Women
Categories: aging maturity growth

He whose mind is undismayed in pain, who is freed from longings for pleasure; from who passion, fear, and wrath have fled, is called a man of steady wisdom, a saintly man.
Hindu scripture Bhagavad Gita
Categories: acceptance wisdom lust maturity

This evening of a well-spent life brings its lamps with it.
Joseph Joubert The Forbes Book of Business Quotations: 14,266 Thoughts on the Business of Life
Categories: age maturity education memories hope

One of the signs of passing youth is the birth of a fellowship with other human beings as we take our place among them.
Virginia Woolf The New Beacon Book of Quotations by Women
Categories: maturity growth relationships society

To know how to grow old is the master-work of wisdom, and one of the most difficult chapters in the great art of living.
Henri Frederic Amiel The Forbes Book of Business Quotations: 14,266 Thoughts on the Business of Life
Categories: aging maturation wisdom maturity

In youth we learn, in age we understand.
Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach The New Beacon Book of Quotations by Women
Categories: aging maturity growth wisdom

The quickest way to change your attitude toward pain is to accept the fact that everything that happens to us has been designed for our spiritual growth.
M. Scott Peck Further Along the Road Less Traveled: The Unending Journey Toward Spiritual Growth
Categories: personal growth maturity attitude

When we were children, we used to think that when we were grown up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability.
Madeleine L'Engle The New Beacon Book of Quotations by Women
Categories: maturity adulthood fear change

Old age is ripeness.
American proverb The Prentice-Hall Encyclopedia of World Proverbs
Categories: age aging mature maturity wisdom

The process of maturing is an art to be learned, an effort to be sustained. By the age of fifty, you have made yourself what you are, and if it is good, it is better than your youth.
Marya Mannes Treasury of Women's Quotations
Categories: maturity growth self-improvement self-knowledge

Maturity is:
the ability to stick with a job until it's finished;
the ability to do a job without being supervised;
the ability to carry money without spending it; and
the ability to bear an injustice without wanting to get even.
Abigail Van Buren Treasury of Women's Quotations
Categories: maturity growth self-control wisdom

Another, equally important part of growing up is no
Elaine N. Aron The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You
Categories: maturity focus balance priorities choice

Emotional maturity is ability to stick to a job and to struggle through until it is finished; to endure unpleasantness, discomfort, and frustration; to give more than is asked for or required; to size things up and make independent decisions; to work under authority and to cooperate with others; to defer to time, other persons, and to circumstances.
Edward A. Strecker The Forbes Book of Business Quotations: 14,266 Thoughts on the Business of Life
Categories: maturity personal responsibility character self-control

We turn not older with years, but newer every day.
Emily Dickinson The New Beacon Book of Quotations by Women
Categories: future growth aging maturity attitude

It seems to me nowadays that the most important task for someone who is aging is to spread love and warmth wherever possible.
Kathe Kollwitz The New Beacon Book of Quotations by Women
Categories: aging maturity retirement meaning purpose fulfillment

Immaturity can last a lifetime.
Robert Half The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: character mature immaturity maturity responsibility blame

Don't pluck the apple while it is green; when it is ripe it will fall of itself.
Russian proverb The Prentice-Hall Encyclopedia of World Proverbs
Categories: maturity waiting patience growth readiness rushing

Let us never confuse stability with stagnation.
Mary Jean LeTendre Treasury of Women's Quotations
Categories: change balance maturity wisdom self-awareness self-knowledge

All that is good in man lies in youthful feeling and mature thought.
Joseph Joubert The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: maturity wisdom experience enthusiasm enthusiastic character

The better part of maturity is knowing your goals.
Arnold Glasow The Forbes Book of Business Quotations: 14,266 Thoughts on the Business of Life
Categories: vision goals purpose meaning fulfillment maturity

The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts.
Charles Darwin Peter McWilliams
Categories: self-control morality ethics self-improvement growth maturity thoughts

Let nothing good or bad upset the balance of your life.
Thomas à Kempis Body, Mind and Spirit
Categories: balance focus stability maturity calm serenity character

I know that many people feel that old age is a time to take it easy, but I compare my life now to being the last runner in a relay race. Would you have me slow down as I near the finish line?
Diogenes The Confidence Course: Seven Steps to Self-Fulfillment
Categories: excellence leadership maturity aging purpose fulfillment meaning

Forgiveness is the key to every aspect of spiritual growth.
Charles F. Stanley "The Victorious Pursuit: Winning Over Life's Struggles" by Charles F. Stanley, InTouch, March 1999.
Categories: forgiving forgiveness grief personal growth spirituality maturity

There is always something rather absurd about the past.
Max Beerbohm The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Categories: past humor perspective humility history forgiveness maturity immaturity mistakes

But sage experience only comes with years.
Samuel Coleridge, from the poem Quae Nocent Docent (In Christ's Hospital Book) The Portable Coleridge
Categories: wisdom knowledge mature maturity age aging experience learning time growth

A man of character finds a special attractiveness in difficulty, since it is only by coming to grips with difficulty that he can realize his potentialities.
Charles de Gaulle Words for All Occasions
Categories: adversity problems difficulties challenges obstacles character opportunity growth maturity

Maturity is achieved with a person accepts life as full of tension; when he does not torment himself with childish guilt feelings, but avoids tragic adult sins; when he postpones immediate pleasures for the sake of long-term values... Our generation must be inspired to search for that maturity which will manifest itself in the qualities of tenacity, dependability, co-operativeness and the inner drive to work and sacrifice for a nobler future of mankind.
Joshua L. Liebman The Forbes Book of Business Quotations: 14,266 Thoughts on the Business of Life
Categories: maturity guilty delayed gratification perseverance reliable cooperative work future vision perspective

When we can see past our own reflection - when we see and care beyond ourselves, when we see and learn from others - only then do we become adults.
Walter Anderson The Confidence Course: Sevens Steps to Self-Fulfillment
Categories: focus balance orientation community society responsibility maturity mature maturation growth service ministry

A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.
Alexander Pope The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase, Saying, and Quotation
Categories: mistakes responsibility responsible mature maturity character integrity honesty excuses blame blaming wisdom

There is nothing that God has judged good for us that He has not given us the means to accomplish, both in the natural and moral world. If we cry, like children, for the moon, like children we must cry on.
Edmund Burke The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: achievement accomplishment success ability potential realism reality desires goals crying mature maturity growth

When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives, my brothers, don't resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends. Realize that they come to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance. But let the process go on until that endurance is fully developed, and you will find you have become men of mature character, men of integrity with no weak spots.
James 1:2-4 Holy Bible
Categories: problems temptations difficulties obstacles challenges learning wisdom faith endurance character maturity integrity weakness

Botanists say that trees need the powerful March winds to flex their trunks and main branches, so that the sap is drawn up to nourish the budding leaves. Perhaps we need the gales of life in the same way, though we dislike enduring them. A blustery period in our fortunes is often the prelude to a new spring of life and health, success and happiness, when we keep steadfast in faith and look to the good in spite of appearances.
Jane Truax Words for All Occasions
Categories: storms difficulties challenges obstacles opportunities problems growth maturity faith success happiness attitude optimism optimistic

It is not uncommon to find oneself thinking such thoughts as "I can't stand this" or "If only I didn't have to do this." As the psychologist Albert Ellis notes, such thoughts frequently involve whining. In essence, we are acting like babies and whining about things "not being fair." One can continue to do this if one choose, say Ellis. However, it is usually more efficient to simply accept the fact that life is not always a bowl of cherries, stop whining, and get on with the task.
John D. Bransford and Barry S. Stein The Ideal Problem Solver
Categories: life fairness worry stress anxiety problems difficulty difficulties challenges action whine complain mature maturity thought