Agora que o novo ano começa, logo após o velho ter acabado, lembro algumas das citações recolhidas de uma curiosa antologia “Keeping my Words: From Craddle to Grave”, recolhida por Magnus Magnussum:

“It is only rarely that one can see in a little boy the promise of a man, but one can almost always see in a little girl the threat of a woman”
Alexandre Dumas filho (1824-95)

“Children nowadays love luxury, have bad manners, contempt for authority, disrespect for elders”
Sócrates (469-399 AC)

“I expect you’ll be becoming a school master, sir. That’s what most of the gentlemen does, sir, that gets sent down for indecent behaviour”
Evelynn Waugh (1903-66) Decline and Fall

“Men who are unhappy, like men who sleep badly, are always proud of the fact”
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) Conquest of Happiness

“Reading about sex in yesterday’s novels is like watching people smoke in old films”
Faye Weldon (1931), in Guardian 1 Dezembro 1989

“All the same, you know, parents – especially step parents – are sometimes a bit of a disappointment to their children. They don’t fulfil the promise of their early years.”
Anthony Powell (1905-2000), A Buyer’s Market

“My true friends have always given me that supreme proof of devotion, a spontaneous aversion for the man I loved.”
Colette (1873-1954) Break of Day

“It is in the thirties that we want friends. In the forties we know they won’t save us anymore than love did.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) The Crack Up

“To my deafness I’m accustomed,
To my dentures, I’m resigned,
I can manage my bifocals,
But o, how I miss my mind”
Alec Douglas Home (1903-95)

“Growing old is like being increasingly penalised for a crime you haven’t committed”
Anthony Powell (1905-2000) Temporary Kings

“That was a good career move”
Gore Vidal (1925) sobre a morte de Truman Capote em 1984

De Bag