Eventually, all mentor-disciple relationships are meant to pull apart, usually sometime in the mid-30s. Those who hang on, eventually the mentor drops the disciple, and that's no fun.
— Gail Sheehy
All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter into another!
Sex and older women used to be considered an oxymoron, rarely mentioned in the same breath.
Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.
There is no more defiant denial of one man's ability to possess one woman exclusively than the prostitute who refuses to redeemed.
The secret of a leader lies in the tests he has faced over the whole course of his life and the habit of action he develops in meeting those tests.
Changes are not only possible and predictable, but to deny them is to be an accomplice to one's own unnecessary vegetation.
I found the happiest woman in America is between 50 and 55, is happily married, has made significant progress in her career, and lives in a community where she can easily exercise outside. But the most important single thing was she had her last child before she was 35.
No sooner do we think we have assembled a comfortable life than we find a piece of ourselves that has no place to fit in.
It is a paradox that as we reach out prime, we also see there is a place where it finishes.
The delights of self-discovery are always available.
To be tested is good. The challenged life may be the best therapist.
Would that there were an award for people who come to understand the concept of enough. Good enough. Successful enough. Thin enough. Rich enough. Socially responsible enough. When you have self-respect, you have enough.
When men reach their sixties and retire, they go to pieces. Women go right on cooking.
I do think taking the 20s to take the most chances you can is important, because you're not going to hurt anyone else during that time. And if you do have a partner, you need a couple years to rehearse that relationship.
Over the next few years the boardrooms of America are going to light up with hot flashes.
If every day is an awakening, you will never grow old. You will just keep growing.
Growth demands a temporary surrender of security.
The perceptions of middle age have their own luminosity.
Ah, mastery... what a profoundly satisfying feeling when one finally gets on top of a new set of skills... and then sees the light under the new door those skills can open, even as another door is closing.
If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't grow, we aren't really living.
