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Adulthood Quotes

Browse 677 quotes about Adulthood.

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Adulthood Quotes

“I know I can't make time slow down, can't hold our life as it is in a freeze frame or slow my children's inexorable journeys into adulthood and lives of their own. But I can celebrate those journeys by bearing witness to them, by paying attention, and, perhaps most of all, by carrying on with my own growth and becoming. Now it dawns on me that the only way I can figure out what I'm meant to be doing is to try to understand who I'm meant to be...I will not waste this life, not one hour, not one minute. I will not take for granted the blessing of our being here...I will give thanks.”

KnowsWayGivingTryingChildrenI CanGrowthHoursMy OwnAttentionOur LivesJourneyMinutesFiguresBecomingBlessingWasteCelebrateThanksWitnessGrantedThis LifePay AttentionMy ChildrenDawnMeant To BeAdulthoodSlow DownFreezeOne HourOne MinuteMaking TimeInexorableCarrying OnBearing Witness
Author:Katrina Kenison
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“Yes, this is what I thought adulthood would be, a kind of long indian summer, a state of tranquility, of calm incuriousness, with nothing left of the barely bearable raw immediacy of childhood, all the things solved that had puzzled me when I was small, all mysteries settled, all questions answered, and the moments dripping away, unnoticed almost, drip by golden drip, toward the final, almost unnoticed, quietus.”

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Book:The Sea
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“The attack on youth is a national pathology, unwarranted by fact, smokescreen for the failure of adulthood and its leadership to confront larger predicaments. No rescue by the monied, governing, institutional, or otherwise privileged is in sight. It's up to the energy and inventiveness of the younger generation to pull the gated minds of millennium America toward acceptance of diversity, community, and fairness, and I hope they have as much fun as I did in my adolescences achieving what we Sixties kids only imagined.”

MindFactsKidsAmericaEnergyFunCommunityGenerationsAchieveAcceptanceYouthDiversitySightInventionFairnessRescueSixtyAdulthoodAdolescencePrivilegedGoverningMillenniumYounger GenerationPredicamentsPathologyInventiveness
Book:Framing youth: ten myths about the next generation
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“Associated with this weight gain are increased risks in adulthood for joint problems, angina, high blood pressure, heart attacks, strokes, type 2 diabetes and, ultimately, premature death. Outside of the human costs, health experts estimate that treating adult obesity-related ailments will cost the American economy nearly $150 billion in 2009.”

HumansHeartProblemLossEconomyRiskBloodTypeCostAdultsGainsWeightPressureBillionsExpertsRelatedAdulthoodStrokesJointsWeight LossObesityDiabetesPrematureHeart AttackAilmentsBlood PressureAmerican EconomyHigh Blood PressurePremature DeathType 2 Diabetes
Book:Calorie Wars: Fat, Fact and Fiction
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“Compulsory sports for those who by temperament or physique do not qualify may be a disaster. . . . The repercussions may be extreme . . . and they may be very long-lasting, even throughout adulthood.”

MayLongSportsExtremesDisasterLastingAdulthoodTemperamentRepercussionsCompulsoryLong LastingPhysique
Book:Reinterpreting the Unspeakable: Human Sexuality 2000: The Complete Interviewer and Clinical Biographer, Exigency Theory, and Sexology for the Third Millennium
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“I should never conclude were I to speak to you of all the misfortunes which have their origin in the faulty carriage of the body. All these defects, mortifying for those who have contracted them, cannot be remedied except in their early stages. A habit born in childhood is strengthened in youth, becomes deeply rooted in adulthood and is incurable in old age.”

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Author:Jean-Georges Noverre
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“I feel that adolescence has served its purpose when a person arrives at adulthood with a strong sense of self-esteem, the ability to relate intimately, to communicate congruently, to take responsibility, and to take risks. The end of adolescence is the beginning of adulthood. What hasn't been finished then will have to be finished later.”

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Author:Virginia Satir
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“Myths are about the human struggle to deal with the great passages of time and life--birth, death, marriage, the transitions from childhood to adulthood to old age. They meet a need in the psychological or spiritual nature of humans that has absolutely nothing to do with science. To try to turn a myth into a science, or a science into a myth, is an insult to myths, an insult to religion, and an insult to science. In attempting to do this, creationists have missed the significance, meaning, and sublime nature of myths. They took a beautiful story of creation and re-creation and ruined it.”

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Author:Michael Shermer
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“More than one philosopher has claimed that we ever remain children, far beneath the indurated layers that make up the armour of adulthood. Armour encumbers, restricts the body and soul within it. But it also protects. Blows are blunted. Feelings lose their edge, leaving us to suffer naught but a plague of bruises, and, after a time, bruises fade.”

ChildrenSoulFeelingsBodySufferingLosesProtectLeavingEdgesPhilosopherBlowFadesLayersAdulthoodPlagueBruisesArmour
Book:Memories of Ice: (Malazan Book of the Fallen: Book 3)
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“No one, it has been said, will ever look at the Moon in the same way again. More significantly can one say that no one will ever look at the earth in the same way. Man had to free himself from earth to perceive both its diminutive place in a solar system and its inestimable value as a life -fostering planet. As earthmen, we may have taken another step into adulthood. We can see our planet earth with detachment, with tenderness, with some shame and pity, but at last also with love.”

MenWayLooksMayHas BeensSaidEarthLastsValuesSpaceStepsTakenPlanetsMoonShamePityPerceiveTendernessAdulthoodOur PlanetDetachmentSpace ExplorationPlanet EarthSolar SystemFosteringOur Planet Earth
Author:Anne Morrow Lindbergh
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“Along the way [Mozart] got married; fathered seven children (two of whom survived into adulthood); performed as a pianist; violinist; and conductor; maintained a successful teaching studio; wrote thousands of letters; traveled widely; attended the theater religiously; played cards, billiards, and bocce; and rode horseback for exercise. Not bad for someone portrayed as a giggling idiot in the movies.”

WayChildrenTwoSuccessfulTeachingExerciseMarriedLettersTheaterSevenStudiosCardsIdiotAdulthoodTraveledSurvivedPianistConductorViolinistHorsebackBilliards
Author:Robert Greenberg
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“Many abused children cling to the hope that growing up will bring escape and freedom. But the personality formed in an environment of coercive control is not well adapted to adult life. The survivor is left with fundamental problems in basic trust, autonomy, and initiative. She approaches the tasks of early adulthood-establishing independence and intimacy-burdened by major impairments in self-care, in cognition and memory, in identity, and in the capacity to form stable relationships. She is still a prisoner of her childhood; attempting to create a new life, she reencounters the trauma.”

WellsChildrenStillsSelfProblemCareFormLeftMemoriesGrowing UpEnvironmentGrowingChildhoodIdentityPersonalityApproachMajorsAdultsCapacityTasksIndependenceFundamentalsTraumaIntimacySurvivorPrisonerStableInitiativeAdulthoodSelf CareNew LifeAutonomyAttemptingAdaptedCognitionAbused Children
Author:Judith Lewis Herman
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“With tremendous clarity and wisdom, Daniel Tomasulo has crafted a memoir at once heartbreaking and uplifting. Layers of time and memory—childhood, adolescence, early adulthood, middle age—are so beautifully revealed here, a trenchant reminder that our pasts are alive inside of us. There are psychologists who can write, and writers who can psychologize, but rarely have the two met on the page with such moving, profound results.”

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Author:Dani Shapiro
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“Childhood is not merely basic training for utilitarian adulthood. It should have some claims upon our mercy, not for its future value to the economic interests of competitive societies but for its present value as a perishable piece of life itself.”

ShouldValuesInterestPiecesEconomicChildhoodTrainingShould HaveMercyClaimsAdulthoodUtilitarianBasic Training
Book:The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America
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“It says, I think, that at root that we're children, or we'd like to be. And the best of us each keep as much of that childhood with us as we grow into adulthood, as we can muster... And even after we're past the point of being able to play the game with any skill, if we love it, then it's like Peter Pan - we remain boys forever, we don't die.”

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Author:John Thorn
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“I began writing for kids because I wanted to effect a change in American society. I continue in that spirit. By the time we reach adulthood, we are closed and set in our attitudes. The chances of a poet reaching us are very slim. But I can open a child's imagination, develop his appetite for poetry, and more importantly, show him that poetry is a natural part of everyday life. We all need someone to point out that the emperor is wearing no clothes. That's the poet's job.”

NeedsWritingChildrenI CanShowsKidsWantedJobsSpiritImaginationNaturalChanceAttitudeEffectsPoetClothesEverydayReachingPoetry IsAppetiteAdulthoodEveryday LifeEmperorAmerican SocietySlimChildren's Imagination
Author:Arnold Adoff
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“Why do children want to grow up? Because they experience their lives as constrained by immaturity and perceive adulthood as a condition of greater freedom and opportunity. But what is there today, in America, that very poor and very rich adolescents want to do but cannot do? Not much: they can do drugs, have sex, make babies, and get money (from their parents, crime, or the State). For such adolescents, adulthood becomes synonymous with responsibility rather than liberty. Is it any surprise that they remain adolescents?”

WantInspirationalChildrenStatesTodayAmericaOpportunitySexGrowsParentCan DoPoorResponsibilityLibertyGrowing UpRichGreaterConditionsCrimeBabyDrugSurpriseTeenagerPerceiveAdulthoodGet MoneyImmaturity
Author:Thomas Szasz
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“If we fail to provide boys with pro-social models of the transition to adulthood, they may construct their own. In some cases, gang initiation rituals, street racing, and random violence may be the result.”

IfsMaySocialResultsBoysCasesViolenceFailingStreetsModelsRitualTransitionRacingAdulthoodConstructsGangInitiationRandom Violence
Book:Boys Adrift: The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men
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“The experience of being in between-between the time we leave home and arrive at our destination; between the time we leave adolescence and arrive at adulthood; between the time we leave doubt and arrive at faith. It is like the time when a trapeze artist lets go the bars and hangs in midair, ready to catch another support: it is a time of danger, of expectation, of uncertainty, of excitement, or extraordinary aliveness.”

HomeArtistSupportDoubtDangerReadyLetting GoExpectationsExtraordinaryBarsUncertaintyExcitementDestinationAdulthoodAdolescenceTrapezeTrapeze Artists
Author:Paul Tournier
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“There are two novels that can transform a bookish 14-year-old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish daydream that can lead to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood ...in which large chunks of the day are spent inventing ways to make real life more like a fantasy novel. The other is a book about orcs.”

WayYearsTwoBookRealLordFantasyNovelRingsReal LifeAdulthoodDaydreamingInventingChunksCrippledAtlasFantasy NovelsOrcs
Author:Raj Patel
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“When I was growing up, books took me away from my life to a solitary place that didn't feel lonely. They celebrated the outcasts, people who sat on the margins of society contemplating their interiors. . . Books were my cure for a romanticized unhappiness, for the anxiety of impending adulthood. They were all mine, private islands with secret passwords only the worthy could utter.”

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Author:Jodie Foster
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