“Your children's losing battle with time seems even sadder than your own.”
Rabbit at Rest (1990)
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John Updike 240
American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, an… 1932–2009Related quotes

The Night Is Large (1996), Introduction to Part III, Pseudoscience p. 171
Context: Debunking bad science should be constant obligation of the science community, even if it takes time away from serious research or seems to be a losing battle. One takes comfort from the fact there is no Gresham's laws in science. In the long run, good science drives out bad.
“Choose battles that you can win without losing your heart and your soul.”
Variant: Someday being with Dex will be a distant memory. This fact makes me sad too. Its the initial stages of grief that seem to be worst but in some ways, Its sadder as time goes by and you consider how much they're missed in your life.
Source: Something Borrowed

The Camelot Project interview (1996)
Context: When the legend is retold, it mirrors the reality of the time, and one can learn from studying how various authors have attempted to retell the story. I don't think we have an obligation to change it radically. I think that if we ever move too far from the basic story, we would lose something very precious. I don't, for instance, approve of fantasy that attempts to go back and rewrite the Middle Ages until it conforms to political correctness in the twentieth century. That removes all the benefit from reading the story. If you don't understand other people in their time and why they did what they did, then you don't understand your own past. And when you lose your past, you lose some potential for your own future.
Source: Why Men Love Bitches: From Doormat to Dreamgirl-A Woman's Guide to Holding Her Own in a Relationship

“And you will understand all too soon
That you, my children of battle, are your heroes”
Source: The Collected Poetry, 1968-1998
“The time to buy is when there's blood in the streets, even if the blood is your own.”
A statement sometimes attributed to him, and also, more plausibly, to the first Baron Rothschild (as one of 1871); as quoted in Heads I Win, Tails I Win: Why Smart Investors Fail and How to Tilt the Odds in Your Favour (2016) by Spencer Jakab, p. 221
Variants:
When there's blood in the streets it's time to buy.
As quoted in Inside Man (2006)
Disputed

As quoted in Honor Your Gifts (2007) by Dona M. Deane, p. 199.
Variant: But there is suffering in life, and there are defeats. No one can avoid them. But it's better to lose some of the battles in the struggles for your dreams than to be defeated without ever knowing what you're fighting for