In the 28 May 1840 entry to his journal, Ralph Waldo Emerson observes:

Old Age. — Sad spectacle that a man should live and be fed that he may fill a paragraph every year in the newspapers for his wonderful age, as we record the weight and girth of the Big Ox, or Mammoth Girl. We do not count a man's years until he has nothing else to count.

_{(cf. "Age Not Reckoned by Years" in CharlesLambiana (24 Oct 2000), and LifeTimeManagement2 (17 Jun 2001), RalphWaldoEmerson (5 Aug 2003), ...)}

TopicLiterature - TopicLife - 2007-05-22

(correlates: DavidCopperfieldOnBusyMischief, ConstantCrisis, HelloSailor, ...)