To know how to grow old is the master work of wisdom, and one of the most difficult chapters in the great art of living.
Interpretation
Growing old requires wisdom and understanding; it's a challenging aspect of life.
Herman Melville's quote emphasizes that aging is not simply a biological process but a profound journey that requires wisdom to navigate. Mastering the art of growing old involves understanding life's complexities and embracing change, making it one of the most demanding yet crucial lessons in living fully.
In practice
A speaker at a retirement party could use this quote to reflect on the wisdom gained through the years.
A good laugh is a mighty good thing, and rather too scarce a good thing; the more's the pity. So, if any one man, in his own proper person, afford stuff for a good joke to anybody, let him not be backward, but let him cheerfully allow himself to spend and be spent in that way. And the man that has anything bountifully laughable about him, be sure there is more in that man than you perhaps think for.
The Marquesan girls dance all over; not only do their feet dance, but their arms, hands, fingers, ay, their very eyes seem to dance in their heads.
Dream tonight of peacock tails, Diamond fields and spouter whales. Ills are many, blessing few, But dreams tonight will shelter you.
Why did the old Persians hold the sea holy? Why did the Greeks give it a separate deity, and own brother Jove? Surely all this is not without meaning. And still deeper the meaning of that story of Narcissus, who because he could not grasp the tormenting mild image he saw in the fountain, plunged into it and was drowned. But that same image, we ourselves see in all rivers and oceans. It is the image of the ungraspable phantom of life; and this is the key to it all.
If some books are deemed most baneful and their sale forbid, how then with deadlier facts, not dreams of doting men? Those whom books will hurt will not be proof against events. Events, not books should be forbid.
You cannot spill a drop of American blood without spilling the blood of the whole world.... We are not a nation, so much as a world.
To be a man's own fool is bad enough, but the vain man is everybody's.
The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.
. . .There are moments when time does stop. We must be alert enough to notice such moments . . .
One needs to be slow to form convictions, but once formed they must be defended against the heaviest odds.
What once seemed such a curse has become a blessing. All the agony that threatened to destroy my life now seems like the fertile ground for greater trust, stronger hope, and deeper love.
All your scholarship, all your study of Shakespeare and Wordsworth would be in vain, if at the same time you do not build your character, and attain mastery over your thoughts and actions.
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