Thoughts on growing old

"Belief in our mortality, the sense that we are eventually

 going to crack up and be extinguished like the

 flame of a candle, I say, is a gloriously fine thing.  It 

makes us sober; it makes us a little sad; and many

 of us it makes poetic.  But above all, it makes it

 possible for us to make up our mind and arrange to 

live sensibly, truthfully and always with a sense of

 our own limitations.  It gives us peace also, because

true peace of mind comes from accepting the worst.

     Deprived of immortality, the proposition of living

 becomes a simple proposition.  It is this: that we are on

 this earth, rarely more than seventy years, and that 

therefore we have to arrange our lives so that we 

may live as happily as we can under a given set of

circumstances. ...  It made us therefore, cling to

 life─the life of the instinct and the life of senses─on

 the belief that, as we are all animals, we can be truly

 happy only when all our normal instincts are

satisfied normally.  This applies to the enjoyment of

 life in all its aspects.

     A sad poetic touch is added to this intense love of

 life by the realization that this life we have is

 essentially mortal.  For if this earthly existence is all

 we have, we must try the harder to enjoy it while it 

lasts.  A vague hope of immortality detracts from our

 wholehearted enjoyment of this earthly existence."

  Lin Yutang, The Importance of Living