Thomas Hardy on maturity

The sudden disappointment of a hope leaves a scar which the ultimate fulfillment of that hope never entirely removes.

Patience, that blending of moral courage with physical timidity.

Like the British Constitution, she owes her success in practice to her inconsistencies in principle.

Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter can be said to remedy anything.

Kurt Vonnegut1922–2007Cat’s Cradle (1963), Chapter 88

• Laughter

Immoderate desire is the mark of a child, not a man.

Democritus460–360 BCFreeman (1948), p. 152

I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity.

Albert Einstein1879–1955Out of My Later Years (1950), Ch. 2 “Self-Portrait” (1936), p. 5

• Age