Among the virtues and vices that make up the
British character, we have one vice, at least,
that Americans ought to view with sympathy. For
they appear to be the only people who share it
with us. I mean our worship of the antique. I do
not refer to beauty or even historical
association. I refer to age, to a quantity of
years.
-- William
Golding
1911-1993,
British Author
At
twenty a man is a peacock, at thirty a lion, at
forty a camel, at fifty a serpent, at sixty a
dog, at seventy an ape, at eighty a nothing at
all.
-- Baltasar
Gracian
1601-1658,
Spanish Philosopher, Writer
The older woman's love is not love of herself,
nor of herself mirrored in a lover's eyes, nor
is it corrupted by need. It is a feeling of
tenderness so still and deep and warm that it
gilds every grass blade and blesses every fly.
It includes the ones who have a claim on it, and
a great deal else besides. I wouldn't have
missed it for the world.
-- Germaine Greer
1939-, Australian
Feminist Writer
Women over fifty already form one of the largest
groups in the population structure of the
western world. As long as they like themselves,
they will not be an oppressed minority. In order
to like themselves they must reject
trivialization by others of who and what they
are. A grown woman should not have to masquerade
as a girl in order to remain in the land of the
living.
-- Germaine Greer
1939-, Australian
Feminist Writer
