“Traits don't change, states of mind do.”

— Elizabeth Strout , book Olive Kitteridge

Source: Olive Kitteridge

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Elizabeth Strout 14

American writer 1956

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Variant: It is not the years in your life but the life in your years that counts.
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This has also been paraphrased "What matters most is not the years in your life, but the life in your years" and misattributed to Abraham Lincoln and Mae West
Context: All progress has resulted from people who took unpopular positions. All change is the result of a change in the contemporary state of mind. Don't be afraid of being out of tune with your environment, and above all pray God that you are not afraid to live, to live hard and fast. To my way of thinking it is not the years in your life but the life in your years that count in the long run. You'll have more fun, you'll do more and you'll get more, you'll give more satisfaction the more you know, the more you have worked, and the more you have lived. For yours is a great adventure at a stirring time in the annals of men.

“This is the worst trait of minds rendered arrogant by prosperity, they hate those whom they have injured.”
Hoc habent pessimum animi magna fortuna insolentes: quos laeserunt et oderunt.

Seneca the Younger Moral Essays

De Ira (On Anger): Book 2, cap. 33, line 6
Alternate translation: Men whose spirit has grown arrogant from the great favour of fortune have this most serious fault – those whom they have injured they also hate. (translation by John W. Basore)
Alternate translation: Whom they have injured they also hate. (translator unknown).
Moral Essays