Midlife Crisis Quotes

“Towards the end of your life you have something like a pain schedule to fill out—a long schedule like a federal document, only it's your pain schedule. Endless categories. First, physical causes—like arthritis, gallstones, menstrual cramps. New category, injured vanity, betrayal, swindle, injustice. But the hardest items of all have to do with love. The question then is: So why does everybody persist? If love cuts them up so much....”
― Saul Bellow, More Die of Heartbreak

“I feel as if I have been piling things into my arms for the last twenty years, holding it all,
managing it all, doing it all, being it all and suddenly I am looking at the pile, realizing how much
of it doesn’t belong to me, and hungering to let it drop, to lay it all down, to walk away. I have
learned that when people see you carrying a lot and not dropping anything, that they often
think, “I guess she can hold this for me.” When they see you saying yes, they decide to also ask
you for things. When they see you doing something, they think, “She can do something for me
too.” And, eventually, the load becomes unbearable and you are driven into the ground by a
weight that you have opened your arms to accept.”
― Molly Remer, Walking with Persephone

“All three are hip-deep in midlife, when the eyes go and the waistline spreads and the city on the hill that shone so brightly in youth turns out to be more like a semi-incorporated town in the middle of a garbage strike. An age when a person can feel not so much himself as an inexplicably inferior version of himself.”
― Mary McNamara

“People talk a lot about midlife crisis, the momentary stress that arises when you finally slack off. The sublime flash of greenish light as the curtain of the sanctuary rips, when poets start reviewing books and programmers take jobs in quality control.”
― Nell Zink, The Wallcreeper

“An alignment crisis happens when we remain chronically misaligned with our purpose.”
― Karen Whitten, The 25 Mindsets: Understand Anyone, Even Yourself

“Imagine what our story would look like if, rather than succumbing to the insistent voices of family or culture, we determined that our vocation was to be a better human.”
― James Hollis, Ph.D.

“I couldn't bear being this suburban mom who was alternating between screaming at her kids and being the heartfelt, privileged witness to their joy. But the people around us - the haranguing mothers and sexless fathers - I kept trying to find ways that I was better than these people, but all I kept landing on was the fact that the common denominator was me.”
― Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Fleishman Is in Trouble

“Your mindset touches nearly every aspect of your life, yet for the most part, you don’t realize it exists, or that most people come equipped with a different mindset than you.”
― Karen Whitten, The 25 Mindsets: Understand Anyone, Even Yourself

“Your mindset is fundamental to who you are: it’s what you know deep down to your core and why you do what you do. Like an operating system, it runs in the background and guides your decisions, interactions, and how you interface with the world around you.”
― Karen Whitten, The 25 Mindsets: Understand Anyone, Even Yourself

“We were never meant to be like each other. Instead, we’re perfectly designed to complement one another.”
― Karen Whitten, The 25 Mindsets: Understand Anyone, Even Yourself

“You are far more extraordinary than you have allowed yourself to believe. Every mindset is important, valuable, significant, and equipped with incredible gifts. Our world would not be as enjoyable, beautiful, or productive without any one mindset.”
― Karen Whitten, The 25 Mindsets: Understand Anyone, Even Yourself

“You aren’t a jumbled assortment of traits and characteristics. On the contrary, the various aspects of your being are sublimely interconnected.”
― Karen Whitten, The 25 Mindsets: Understand Anyone, Even Yourself

“To find out who you are, you must also see who you are not.”
― Karen Whitten, The 25 Mindsets: Understand Anyone, Even Yourself

“A mindset is an innate disposition governing how you expect people to behave (and not behave), what you are motivated to do (and not do), and why you do what you do (and the consequence if you do not).”
― Karen Whitten, The 25 Mindsets: Understand Anyone, Even Yourself

“Though you may value many principles, there is one you instinctively uphold above all others.”
― Karen Whitten, The 25 Mindsets: Understand Anyone, Even Yourself

“The formula to end burnout is straightforward: maximize your passion and minimize your void.”
― Karen Whitten, The 25 Mindsets: Understand Anyone, Even Yourself

“When someone compromises your mindset principle, your “Grr!” reflex automatically kicks in. Just like your physiological reflexes, this psychological reflex serves and protects by safeguarding a virtue of humanity.”
― Karen Whitten, The 25 Mindsets: Understand Anyone, Even Yourself

“Purpose is heartfelt, benevolent, and personally meaningful to you. It’s a state of being that you desire for yourself, yet you recognize its importance in the world, and you want it for others too.”
― Karen Whitten, The 25 Mindsets: Understand Anyone, Even Yourself

“Some wealthy men bought soccer teams; others acquired new wives or had their current ones rebuilt; some endowed hospitals or art galleries; it was Brunetti's destiny to live in a country where they began political parties.”
― Donna Leon

“I started asking myself 'What am I doing?' a few years ago when I was about 43 years old. It felt like some sort of midlife crisis at first. My wife and I had moved to another country five years before, and I wasn't quite happy with my life there. It never felt like 'home', I never belonged there. Objectively speaking, my career was going well and I was making good money. But I didn't care about the job I had, I was going through the motions. It felt off, and it was making me feel anxious about the future. I lost my mom to cancer when she was 47 years old. In my mind, that could be my fate too. What if I only had four more years? Am I wasting the time I have left?”
― Daniel Voigt Godoy, You're Not Your Job: Going Above and Beyond for Yourself

“I might not know much about being a witch per se, but I know this: it's kind of a one-size-fits-all deal. Having gifts, being a wise woman, reading tarot--whatever your witchy quirks might be--those aspects of your life don't disappear just because you're busy for a few years changing diapers and driving kids to soccer practice.”
― Red Tash, Miss Fitz Discovers Midlife Magic

“Midlife Haiku

First: love. Then marriage.
A mortgage. And a divorce.
Is that all there is…?”
― Peter Radley

“What's often called a 'midlife crisis' is not a crisis at all, but a midlife transformation yearning to unfold. Embrace the discomfort, for it is the sound of your authentic future beginning to unfold.”
― Anoir Ou-chad

“Roy Scheider was mad because it was all about the kids”
― Michael A. Smith, Jaws 2: The Making of the Hollywood Sequel

“The man who views the world at 50 the same as he didn't 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.

Muhammad Ali”
― Julie Hannan, The Midlife Crisis Handbook: Finding Direction in the Second Half of Life

“First, the curiosity rots. Then the dick stops working. Then the kindness. You turn into a gray thing. A thing that drives on the freeway and curses at strangers. A thing that drinks light beer in front of the television, waiting for the void.”
― lokesh tuli, Notes From Exile: The "Manual for the Broken”

“The Goal is to be Distinguishably Well-Travelled.
They tell you to see the world so you can take pretty pictures and brag at dinner parties. To hell with that.
I want to travel to see if the misery is different in Tokyo than it is in Los Angeles.
I want to collect sunrises like loose change and sins like souvenirs.
To be 'well-travelled' isn't about the stamps in your passport. It’s about how many times you’ve had your heart broken by a city you can never go back to.”
― Lokesh Tuli, Notes From Exile: The "Manual for the Broken”

“The audacity of humans to back to things they know are harmful....

We return to the ex who ruined us, the bottle that drowned us, and the job that kills us everyday you know Why?
Because peace is Fucking boring, and we are terrified of being bored.
We don’t want a happy ending. We want a god damn story.”
― lokesh tuli, Notes From Exile: The "Manual for the Broken”

“How dumb was it to keep trying to make it work with someone who doesn't even care if I even exist…

It’s the definition of insanity, isn’t it? Banging your head against a beautiful wall, hoping it magically turns into a door.

I was playing the tragic hero, and she wasn't even in the audience”
― Lokesh Tuli, Notes From Exile: The "Manual for the Broken”

“I hate to break it to you but Nobody gives a fuck about your sad story.”

Look around. Everybody has bad a story to tell.

Everybody has been beaten by something. You aren’t special because you got hurt.

Whatever broke you, that’s on them. But the fact that you’re still broken? That’s on you,

So Stop waiting for an apology that will never come.”
― Lokesh Tuli, Notes From Exile: The "Manual for the Broken”