Forties Quotes

“Men in their forties were so sexy: the calm assurance of what a man liked and didn’t, where he set limits and where he set none, experience and a sense of adventure. It made the sex so much better.”
― Andrew Sean Greer, Less

“I'm forty-two," he said. "That's eighty-four in musician years.”
― Monica Wood

“The middle of life has these cul-de-sac days. In your twenties you think, Surely I am going somewhere, and later--as in now--you think, Nope.”
― Leslie Daniels, Cleaning Nabokov's House

“I have never been more relieved than on the morning of my fortieth birthday...it felt like I'd been released.”
― Glynnis MacNicol, No One Tells You This

“COOKBOOK FOR
THE MODERN HOUSEWIFE

The cover was red with a subtle crosshatch pattern and distressed, the book's title stamped in black ink- all of it faded with age. Bordering the cookbook's cover were hints of what could be found inside. Alice tilted her head as she read across, down, across, and up the cover's edges. Rolls. Pies. Luncheon. Drinks. Jams. Jellies. Poultry. Soup. Pickles. 725 Tested Recipes.
Resting the spine on her bent knees, the cookbook dense yet fragile in her hands, Alice opened it carefully. There was an inscription on the inside cover. Elsie Swann, 1940. Going through the first few, age-yellowed pages, Alice glanced at charts for what constituted a balanced diet in those days: milk products, citrus fruits, green and yellow vegetables, breads and cereals, meat and eggs, the addition of a fish liver oil, particularly for children. Across from it, a page of tips for housewives to avoid being overwhelmed and advice for hosting successful dinner parties. Opening to a page near the back, Alice found another chart, this one titled Standard Retail Beef Cutting Chart, a picture of a cow divided by type of meat, mini drawings of everything from a porterhouse-steak cut to the disgusting-sounding "rolled neck."
Through the middle were recipes for Pork Pie, Jellied Tongue, Meat Loaf with Oatmeal, and something called Porcupines- ground beef and rice balls, simmered for an hour in tomato soup and definitely something Alice never wanted to try- and plenty of notes written in faded cursive beside some of the recipes. Comments like Eleanor's 13th birthday-delicious! and Good for digestion and Add extra butter. Whoever this Elsie Swann was, she had clearly used the cookbook regularly. The pages were polka-dotted in brown splatters and drips, evidence it had not sat forgotten on a shelf the way cookbooks would in Alice's kitchen.”
― Karma Brown, Recipe for a Perfect Wife

“I know I'm turning forty-three this year, but is it still okay for me to cry in public?”
― Kafka Asagiri, 文豪ストレイドッグス 55Minutes [Bungō Stray Dogs 55 Minutes]

“In western societies many people become sick in their thirties, develop serious medical conditions in their forties and are disabled in their fifties.”
― Steven Magee

“There's this piece of contemporary mythology that the forties are the best time of your life. A load of cock, so far as I'm concerned.”
― Penelope Lively, Passing On

“It was disabling sickness in my forties that turned me into a leading scientist as I went on a voyage of discoveries to treat it.”
― Steven Magee

“In my forties, I had two options: 1. Do the biological research into High Altitude Observatory Disease (HAOD) and live longer. 2. Do nothing and die prematurely from disease.”
― Steven Magee

“In my forties I faced a dilemma: Understand the biological effects of radiation or die prematurely. I chose to understand radiation.”
― Steven Magee

“Making friends in your forties is hard. Keeping friends in your forties is hard. Basically, friendship in your forties is just hard.”
― Judi Ketteler

“I started to get very itchy ankles in my late forties and they were so itchy that I would scratch them red raw. The itching miraculously disappeared after I started hormone supplementation.”
― Steven Magee

“Disability in my forties turned me into a thinker.”
― Steven Magee

“I developed atopic asthma after living an allergy free life until my forties.”
― Steven Magee

“In my forties, death was staring me in the face and I fought back.”
― Steven Magee

“Most people are sickly by their forties. They say only 5% of them are actually healthy!”
― Steven Magee

“After a decade in high altitude professional astronomy, I looked really old and obese in my forties!”
― Steven Magee, Toxic Altitude

“My mother always says the forties are the best. You look good, you feel good, and, more or less, you have your shit together.”
― Amy Poeppel, Far and Away