#Maturity

"We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made up of layers, cells, constellations."

"Men must endureTheir going hence, even as their coming hither.Ripeness is all."

"When I lost her I gained the future, because she was my past, and she freed me to become who I was born to be."

"The greatest day in your life and mine is when we take total responsibility for our attitudes. That's the day we truly grow up."

"Caring - about people, about things, about life - is an act of maturity."

"A strong sense of humor, a really awesome personality, and maturity is also really important in a boyfriend. I tend to only be attracted to older guys for that reason. I just love guys who have a really strong sense of who they are."

"That’s the duty of the old, to be anxious on behalf of the young. And the duty of the young is to scorn the anxiety of the old."

"Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky."

"When a tree is polled, it will sprout new shoots nearer its roots. A soul that is ruined in the bud will frequently return to the springtime of its beginnings and its promise-filled childhood, as though it could discover new hopes there and retie the broken threads of life. The shoots grow rapidly and eagerly, but it is only a sham life that will never be a genuine tree."

"Never mourn the loss of innocence, because it always brings the much greater gain of wisdom."

"Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal."

"I began to understand that suffering and disappointments and melancholy are there not to vex us or cheapen us or deprive us of our dignity but to mature and transfigure us."

"Sometimes success will get in the way of maturity - at least temporarily."

"I am convinced that most people do not grow up...We marry and dare to have children and call that growing up. I think what we do is mostly grow old. We carry accumulation of years in our bodies, and on our faces, but generally our real selves, the children inside, are innocent and shy as magnolias."

"He did not like the grown-ups who talked down to him, but the ones who went on talking in their usual way, leaving him to leap along in their wake, jumping at meanings, guessing, clutching at known words, and chuckling at complicated jokes as they suddenly dawned. He had the glee of the porpoise then, pouring and leaping through strange seas."

"A little part of me dies every time I try to commit suicide. If life is a buffet, I’m still in the mac and cheese phase. Maybe one day I’ll mature into more of a meatloaf kind of guy."

"In a general sense, I admit to valuing the worldviews of men under the age of 40 and women over the age of 30."

"You are never too old to become younger!"

"For us lads of eighteen they ought to have been mediators and guides to the world of maturity, the world of work, of duty, of culture, of progress -- to the future."

"I will come back to you, I swear I will;And you will know me still.I shall be only a little tallerThan when I went."