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    The Last Word

    Words of Wisdom About Aging

    Wisdom

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    “You remember too much, my mother said to me recently. Why hold onto all that? And I said, Where can I put it down?”

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    — Anne Carson, Canadian poet and winner of the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature

    “In the game of life, we must play what is dealt to us, and the glory consists, not so much in winning, but in playing a poor hand well.”

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    — Josh Billings, the pen name of 19th-century humorist and lecturer Henry Wheeler Shaw

    “I’ve come to realize the pleasures of being a nothing-to-lose, take-no-shit older woman; of looking at what once seemed to be outer limits but turned out to be just road signs.”

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    — Gloria Steinem, acclaimed journalist, trailblazing feminist, and one of the most important leaders of the women’s rights movement in the late 20th and early 21st centuries

    “We overlay the present onto the past. We look back through the lens of what we know now, so we’re not seeing it as the people we were, we’re seeing it as the people we are, and that means the past has been radically altered.”

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    — Ann Patchett, Award-winning American author of fiction, non-fiction, children’s books, and owner of the Nashville bookstore Parnassus Books. Her acclaimed books include Bel Canto, Tom Lake, The Dutch House, and her recent novel Whistler

    “I’m not afraid of dying. I’m afraid of not living.”

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    — Dolly Parton, an American singer-songwriter, actress, businesswoman, and philanthropist who recently passed away at the age of 80. Dubbed the “Queen of Country”, Parton was one of the most successful country music performers in history

    “The past is our definition. We may strive with good reason to escape it, or to escape what is bad in it. But we will escape it only by adding something better to it.”

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    — Wendell Berry, an American novelist, poet, essayist, environmental activist, cultural critic, and farmer who was closely identified with rural Kentucky. Berry recently died at the age of 92.