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Midlife Quotes

Browse 91 quotes about Midlife.

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Midlife Quotes

“He smiles and his wavy haired, bright eyed head scoops me in but quickly lands on Mimi. It lingers a bit long, his chest frozen as if the breath's been knocked out; he already loves her. Mothers know these things. It's the kind of love that springs from awe, attraction, intellectual curiosity, and finding a woman mom approves of... the girl next door with exciting fangs. I wonder if their offspring will have fangs.”

LoveArtMotherVampiresLove At First SightMidlifeMidlife CrisisMiddle AgeVincent Van Gogh
Book:Centerpieces
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“He smiles and his wavy haired, bright eyed head scoops me in but quickly lands on Mimi. It lingers a bit long, his chest frozen as if the breath's been knocked out; he already loves her. Mothers know these things. It's the kind of love that springs from awe, attraction, intellectual curiosity, and finding a woman mom approves of... the girl next door with exciting fangs. I wonder if their offspring will have fangs. - Holly Carter”

LoveVampiresLove At First SightMidlifeMidlife CrisisMiddle AgeVincent Van GoghHolly Carter
Book:Centerpieces
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“By midlife, we're usually aware enough to understand which of our issues most need attention. We've learned where we're strong, but also where we're weak. We know what parts of ourselves to be proud of and what parts of ourselves should change. We know what our issues are. It might not be a time when we're learning new things about ourselves so much as understanding more deeply what we already know. This is not the time to stop working on ourselves; it's the time when we've finally accumulated enough clues to help crack the case and solve the myself why and how we've kept ourselves bound for so long. Its not the time to give up and say, 'this is who I am, its too late to change.' Quite the opposite- its time to take a stand, once and for all, for your own potential. Don't worry that it took you so long to get to this point. It takes everyone this long. We know nothing until we know all the ways that we're not who we should be. Only then do we have a chance at becoming the people we've wanted to be, and God intended us to be, from the day we were born. And for that reason alone, these are sacred years.”

GrowthSelf AwarenessAgeingMidlife
Book:The Age of Miracles: Embracing the New Midlife
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“Wrecked and despondent at midlife, I need to undertake a strict personal evaluation that will lead to personal transformation. I must be willing to start afresh and attempt to make myself anew. In order to begin all over and not culminate in the same deadhead rut as before, I admit to harboring personal insecurities and boldly confront my greatest fears. In order to establish an altered foundation that will support a revised self, I commence by asking the pertinent questions. If I run fast enough and long enough, can I quash slavish personal demons and capture an elusive self? Can I exercise the self-discipline to eliminate the artificial screens that I hide behind in order to peer out at the formidable world? Do I possess the personal audacity to explore unfamiliar terrain and the internal grit to dual the primal flex of nature’s power while accepting on equal terms the thrall and tragic beauty of surviving in a violent habitat?”

TransformationMemoirSelf DeterminationBurnoutPersonal TransformationMidlifeMemoir Writing Self Appraisal
Book:Dead Toad Scrolls
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“I'm not knocking choices, just saying that having so many of them with so little support has led to a great deal of shame. Being a full and equal partner both at work and at home, having a rich social life, contributing to society, staying in shape - doing all that is exponentially harder than doing any one thing. We asked for more, and did we ever get it. I firmly believe it's fairer. Easier? No.”

ChoicesWomenFeminismShameGuiltMidlifeGeneration XGen X
Book:Why We Can't Sleep: Women's New Midlife Crisis
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“You might be chatting sociably with friends, and suddenly you notice that they're all flapping their hands at at their faces. You're all sitting there like a bunch of chickens - all flapping away. You hardly notice that you're doing it because it's such a habit. All clutching at your clothes to try and flap some cool air in, And all of you are bright red in the face." Sally, 58”

WomenSelf HelpConfidenceChickensSymptomsHormonesMenopauseMidlifePerimenopause
Book:Menopause: The Guide for Real Women
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“I could live this way indefinitely and I'd be all right ... I've done enough living and can now spend my time holding up the memories for contemplation, determining what it all meant. Images flood in: cities I've passed through; rooms where I've slept; friends who put me up or put up with me. In a couple of years I'll turn forty. Schopenhauer wrote that the first forty years are the text, the rest is the commentary. I see that, and yet I feel that I'm somehow at the start of a life, on the cusp, facing a future that's strange and turbulent but not entirely hopeless.”

WritingContemplationFortyMidlifeLockdownSchopehnauer
Book:Autobibliography
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“Gen Xers are in 'the prime of their lives' at a particularly dangerous and divisive moment,' Boomer marketing expert Faith Popcorn told me. 'They have been hit hard financially and dismissed culturally. They have tons of debt. They're squeezed on both sides by children and aging parents. The grim state of adulthood is hitting them hard. If they're exhausted and bewildered, they have every reason to feel that way.”

WomenMenopauseMidlifeGen X
Book:Why We Can't Sleep: Women's New Midlife Crisis
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“Midlife dynamically, for both straight and gay males, is often challenging as we face the reality that many of the dreams we had for our lives might not become a reality and unresolved conflicts come to the surface. For us to successfully transition in to the next phase of our lives we must find reconciliation of these issues. And for the gay male there is a sense that the gay self we have tried to keep in the closet or so many years begins to scream out. "Time is running out. When do I get to live?" You can't ignore that voice in the end, you can try and suppress it, and you can try and deny it, you can try and silence it by filling your life with other noises and diverting attention ......but that voice still exists. "Will my entire life be a lie?”

MidlifeMidlife CrisisComing Out Of The ClosetComing Out Stories
Book:A Life of Unlearning - a journey to find the truth
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“I might not know much about being a witch per se, but I know this: it's kind of a one-size-fits-all deal. Having gifts, being a wise woman, reading tarot--whatever your witchy quirks might be--those aspects of your life don't disappear just because you're busy for a few years changing diapers and driving kids to soccer practice.”

WitchWomanhoodWitchcraftQuirkyTarotMidlifeMidlife CrisisMidlife IdentityMidlife MagicWitchy Quirks
Book:Miss Fitz Discovers Midlife Magic
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“Spiritual crises happen to us every day. Most of them are sufficiently low grade, devoid of enduring consequences, so we pay no attention and keep on rolling. A spiritual crisis occurs when our identity, our roles, our values, or our road map are substantially called into question, prove ineffective, or are overwhelmed by experience that cannot be contained by our understandings of self and world.”

MidlifeMidlife CrisisSpiritual Crisis
Author:James Hollis, Ph.D.
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“People may call what happens at midlife 'a crisis,' but it's not. It's an unraveling - a time when you feel a desperate pull to live the life you want to live, not the one you're 'supposed' to live. The unraveling is a time when you are challenged by the universe to let go of who you think you are supposed to be and to embrace who you are.”

PeopleThinkingWantFeelsMayHappensMotivationalUniverseLetting GoCrisisWho You AreEmbraceSupposed To BeLive LifeDesperateMidlifeUnraveling
Book:The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are
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“Women's liberation and the male midlife crisis were the same search--for personal fulfillment, common values, mutual respect, love. But while women's liberation was thought of as promoting identity, the male midlife crisis was thought of as an identity crisis.”

ValuesCommonIdentityCrisisMalesLiberationFulfillmentMutualPromotingMutual RespectIdentity CrisisMidlifeMidlife CrisisLove RespectPersonal Fulfillment
Book:The Myth of Male Power: Why Men Are the Disposable Sex
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“As we reach midlife in the middle thirties or early forties, we are not prepared for the idea that time can run out on us, or for the startling truth that if we don't hurry to pursue our own definition of a meaningful existence, life can become a repetition of trivial maintenance duties.”

IfsIdeasRunningAgeExistenceMiddleDutyPreparedDefinitionsMeaningfulPursueFortyRepetitionMiddle AgesMaintenanceMidlife
Book:Passages: Predictable Crises of Adult Life
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