Dorothy Sayers on the Advantages of Middle Age

"The golden age for all who live by their brains is the period from forty to sixty. They have learnt their technique and are ready to create freely in their chosen medium, and with wider knowledge they have gained wider interests... They have become more entertaining and easier to get on with, because they no longer take themselves with such agitated seriousness. The delight of middle-age is a paradox: that as one becomes more important to others one becomes less important to oneself... Only in middle age is it gloriously revealed to one that what one says and does makes little difference in the long run to anybody, and that therefore one may as well say and do what one likes."