Monty Don Quotes

One wouldn't want to have the same dilemmas at 50 as one had at 15. And indeed I don't. I have a very different take on life.

At the age of 60, I am less experimental and more mature. I want most of all to convey my understanding of life.

Life is not quantifiable in terms of age, but I suppose in my fifties I am more grounded and more at ease in my own skin than when I was younger. I have a confidence that I didn't have before from the experiences I've had.

I'm a much better mother at 46... than if I were like, 21 or 25.

Many years ago, I used to say, 'I haven't lived long enough to be great.' Now I don't say that.

The advantage of age is that you swap youth for wisdom. You're so full of insecurities when you're young. 'Who am I? What do I have to do for people to like me?' You get caught up in things. You get very emotional about things.

The feelings we all have as 50-year-olds are different than the feelings we all have as 30-year-olds. That informs everything we do.

Deeper things, heavier things happen to you as you get older and makes you more open.

I have a feeling that books are a lot like people - they change as you age, so that some books that you hated in high school will strike you with the force of a revelation when you're older.

I'm far more comfortable in my 40s than I ever was.

Self-acceptance has been a blessed by-product of middle age.

I guess the older I get, the more understanding and forgiving I've become.

When I was at drama school, I wanted to change the world, and thought I had some great wisdom to impart to people about humanity. Now that I'm older, I know enough to realise that I know nothing at all.

My advice would be not to write until after 35. You need some experience, and for life to knock you about a bit. Growing up is so hard you probably won't have much emotion to spare anyway.

I think I've become more modest as the years have gone on.

The more you've lived, the more you've experienced, you emotionally know a lot more, especially if you haven't had a regular, straightforward kind of life.

You see things differently at 40 than you do at 31. Especially if you got to 40 the way I did.

So, do I think I'm missing something? I really don't, and I think that comes with age.

I think it's nice to age gracefully. OK, you lose the youth, a certain stamina and dewy glow, but what you gain on the inside as a human being is wonderful: the wisdom, the acceptance and the peace of mind. It's a fair exchange.

I'm enjoying 40. Old enough to know better, young enough not to care.

When I passed the age of 50, I learned how to control my emotions.

Of middle age the best that can be said is that a middle-aged person has likely learned how to have a little fun in spite of his troubles.

What I've observed and what I've imagined - and definitely what I'm hoping - happens as you get older is that there's a mellowing, an acceptance that comes with time. I guess that I'll find out.

As I get older, I get smaller. I see other parts of the world I didn't see before. Other points of view. I see outside myself more.

The perceptions of middle age have their own luminosity.