The advice we give and the advice that we’re willing to take changes as we age. In each season of life, we face a different set of problems and seek a different set of answers. The issues that a teenager ponders are much different from the concerns of an octogenarian.
Here is a compilation of a few quotes and books, grouped by the ages of the people who said or wrote them.
Advice from kids
“When I’m too big for you to hold, I’ll hold you instead”
— Ashlyn, age 5
“Keep trying, don’t give up!”
— Peptoc, West Side Elementary School students
“If they’re not your friend every day, they’re not your friend any day.”
— @eddieb676, Twitter
Advice from teenagers
“They grew up on the outside of society. They weren’t looking for a fight. They were looking to belong.”
― S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders
“No matter where you go or what you do to distract yourself, reality catches up with you eventually.”
― Kody Keplinger, The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend
“Two hungry people should never make friends. If they do, they eat each other up. It is the same with one person who is hungry and another who is full: they cannot be real, real friends because the hungry one will eat the full one. You understand?”
― Helen Oyeyemi, The Icarus Girl
Advice from people in their 20s
“Keep in mind that many people have died for their beliefs; it’s actually quite common. The real courage is in living and suffering for what you believe.”
― Christopher Paolini, Eragon
“’You must never behave as if your life belongs to a man. Do you hear me?’ Aunty Ifeka said. ‘Your life belongs to you and you alone.’”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun
“That’s the thing about lessons, you always learn them when you don’t expect them or want them.”
― Cecelia Ahern, If You Could See Me Now
Book: Unlimited Power, by Tony Robbins
Advice from people in their 30s
“Someone with half your IQ is making 10x as you because they aren’t smart enough to doubt themselves.”
— Ed Latimore, Twitter
“The trouble is if you don’t spend your life yourself, other people spend it for you.”
― Peter Shaffer, Five Finger Exercise
“People tend to complicate their own lives, as if living weren’t already complicated enough.”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind
Book: The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, by Timothy Ferriss
Book: Awaken the Giant Within, by Tony Robbins
Book: How to Succeed with People, by Stephen R. Covey
Advice from people in their 40s
“If you want a golden rule that will fit everything, this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”
— William Morris, Hopes and Fears for Art
“A good apology is like antibiotic, a bad apology is like rubbing salt in the wound.”
— Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days.”
— Annie Dillard, The Writing Life
Book: The Law of Success, by Napoleon Hill
Book: How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie
Advice from people in their 50s
“Busy is a decision. We do the things we want to do, period. If we say we are too busy, it is just shorthand for the thing being ‘not important enough’ or ‘not a priority.’ Busy is not a badge. You don’t find the time to make things, you make the time to do things.”
— Debbie Millman, In the Company of Women
“I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I just lived the length of it. I want to live the width of it as well.”
— Diane Ackerman, Meditations for Women Who Do Too Much
“There will be a few times in your life when all your instincts will tell you to do something, something that defies logic, upsets your plans, and may seem crazy to others. When that happens, you do it. Listen to your instincts and ignore everything else. Ignore logic, ignore the odds, ignore the complications, and just go for it.”
― Judith McNaught, Remember When
Book: Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill
Book: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen R. Covey
Book: How I Raised Myself From Failure to Success in Selling, by Frank Bettger
Advice from people in their 60s
“Understanding a person’s hunger and responding to it is one of the most potent tools you’ll ever discover for getting through to anyone you meet in business or your personal life.”
— Mark Goulston, Just Listen
“Most things break, including hearts. The lessons of life amount not to wisdom, but to scar tissue and callus.”
― Wallace Stegner, The Spectator Bird
Book: The Master-Key to Riches, by Napoleon Hill
Book: How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, by Dale Carnegie
Book: The Power of Ambition, by Jim Rohn
Advice from people in their 70s
“Any knowledge that doesn’t lead to new questions quickly dies out: it fails to maintain the temperature required for sustaining life.”
— Wisława Szymborska, The Poet and the World
“There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do.”
— Freya Stark, The Journey’s Echo
“There’s the story, then there’s the real story, then there’s the story of how the story came to be told. Then there’s what you leave out of the story. Which is part of the story too.”
― Margaret Atwood, MaddAddam
Book: The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness, by Stephen R. Covey
Advice from people in their 80s and beyond
“I am not sure that digging in our past guilts is a useful occupation for the very old, given that one can do so little about them. I have reached a stage at which one hopes to be forgiven for concentrating on how to get through the present.”
― Diana Athill, Somewhere Towards the End
“Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up. Day by day, and at the end of the day-if you live long enough-like most people, you will get out of life what you deserve.”
― Charles T. Munger, Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger
“The world that we think we see
is only our best guess.”
― Margaret Atwood, Dearly: New Poems
Book: You Can Work Your Own Miracles, by Napoleon Hill