“Much of aging comes from a misunderstanding of the effect of comfort.”
Source: Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (2012), p. 55
“The world no doubt grows better; comfort is increased from age to age.”
"Thoughts on Labour" in The Dial (April 1841).
Context: The world no doubt grows better; comfort is increased from age to age. What is a luxury in one generation, scarce attainable by the wealthy, becomes at last the possession of most men. Solomon with all his wealth had no carpet on his chamber-floor; no glass in his windows; no shirt to his back. But as the world goes, the increase of comforts does not fall chiefly into the hands of those who create them by their work. The mechanic cannot use the costly furniture he makes. This, however, is of small consequence; but he has not always the more valuable consideration, TIME TO GROW WISER AND BETTER IN. As Society advances, the standard of poverty rises. A man in NewEngland is called poor at this day, who would have been rich a hundred and fifty years ago; but as it rises, the number that falls beneath that standard becomes a greater part of the whole population. Of course the comfort of a few is purchased by the loss of the many. The world has grown rich and refined, but chiefly by the efforts of those who themselves continue poor and ignorant. So the ass, while he carried wood and spices to the Roman bath, contributed to the happiness of the state, but was himself always dirty and overworked. It is easy to see these evils, and weep for them. It is common also to censure some one class of men — the rich or the educated, the manufacturers, the merchants, or the politicians, for example — as if the sin rested solely with them, while it belongs to society at large. But the world yet waits for some one to heal these dreadful evils, by devising some new remedy, or applying the old. Who shall apply for us Christianity to social life?
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Theodore Parker 31
abolitionist 1810–1860Related quotes
“The vivacity which increases with old age is not so far removed from folly.”
La vivacité qui augmente en vieillissant ne va pas loin de la folie.
Maxim 416.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)
Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon
(1862–1933) British Liberal statesman
Recreation (1919)
Context: It is sometimes said that this is a pleasure-seeking age. Whether it be a pleasure-seeking age or not, I doubt whether it is a pleasure-finding age. We are supposed to have great advantages in many ways over our predecessors. There is, on the whole, less poverty and more wealth. There are supposed to be more opportunities for enjoyment: there are moving pictures, motor-cars, and many other things which are now considered means of enjoyment and which our ancestors did not possess, but I do not judge from what I read in the newspapers that there is more content. Indeed, we seem to be living in an age of discontent. It seems to be rather on the increase than otherwise and is a subject of general complaint. If so it is worth while considering what it is that makes people happy, what they can do to make themselves happy, and it is from that point of view that I wish to speak on recreation.
Thomas Robert Malthus
(1766–1834) British political economist
Source: An Essay on The Principle of Population (First Edition 1798, unrevised), Chapter IX, paragraph 7, lines 1-4
“It is man's own fault, it is from want of use, if his mind grows torpid in old age.”
Samuel Johnson
(1709–1784) English writer
April 9, 1778
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol III
“As age increases, audacity leaks out and caution comes in.”
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher
(1841–1920) Royal Navy admiral of the fleet
p. 90. https://archive.org/stream/cu31924027924509#page/n121/mode/1up
Records (1919) https://archive.org/stream/cu31924027924509#page/n0/mode/1up
“Hesitation increases in relation to risk in equal proportion to age.”
Ernest Hemingway
(1899–1961) American author and journalist
Pt. 1, Ch. 3
Papa Hemingway (1966)
Diederik Aerts
(1953) Belgian theoretical physicist
Source: Perspectives on the World: an interdisciplinary reflection. (1995), p. iv
James Joyce
book
The Dead
Dubliners (1914)
Variant: One by one they were all becoming shades. Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age.
Source: "The Dead"
“Women may be the one group that grows more radical with age.”
Gloria Steinem
(1934) American feminist and journalist
Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions http://books.google.com/books?id=KVHmzw43TgkC&q=%22Women+may+be+the+one+group+that+grows+more+radical+with+age%22&pg=PT377#v=onepage (1983), p. 377