On the threshold of old age
These words of wisdom landed in my inbox at work today…
If you persist to the threshold of old age - your fiftieth year, let us say - you will be a powerful person yourself, with an accretion of peculiarities which other people will have to study in order to square you. The toes you will have trodden on by this time will be as sands on the sea-shore; and from far below you will mount the roar of a ruthless multitude of young men in a hurry. You may perhaps grow to be aware what they are in a hurry to do. They are in a hurry to get you out of the way.
Frances Cornford (née Darwin) 1886-1960
Mistake in the translation - that should read “60″.
Comment by jameshigham — April 14, 2008 @ 5:59 pm
Well, you would say that…!
Comment by Shades — April 14, 2008 @ 7:34 pm
I like this. Just let them go on by Shades and go on your merry way.
Comment by jmb — April 15, 2008 @ 2:57 am