On What the Young Teach the Old

“I said, Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom. But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.”

“Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand judgment.”

“Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king, who will no more be admonished.”

“I have learned much from my teachers, and more from my companions, but from my students I have learned more than from them all.”

“Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in faith, in purity.”

“Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength.”

“And a little child shall lead them.”

“When I walk along with two others, they may serve me as my teachers. I will select their good qualities and follow them, their bad qualities and avoid them.”

“If an old woman says she knows everything, let her put up her own fence.”

Young people who had regular, warm contact with an older person held markedly less negative views of age. Contact worked even secondhand, through a friend who had it.

People who held positive beliefs about growing old lived, on average, seven and a half years longer than those who did not. What the young believe about age becomes the life they will live.