Mid-Life Crisis Quotes & Interesting Thoughts
A midlife crisis is a time of reflection and/or transition in which an individual reassesses their life, their purpose, their goals and objectives. This can be a period of significant stress and confusion, and may lead to impulsive or irrational decisions.
But that’s the main stories you hear, right? The cliché fast cars, the total 180 degree changes that people make.
A midlife crisis can actually manifest itself in a number of ways.
Some people may experience a sudden change in their career or lifestyle, while others may feel like they are stuck in a rut and can’t move forward.
Some may turn to risky behaviors in an attempt to shake things up in their lives.
Others may experience a more general sense of dissatisfaction or unease.
Most experts however, agree that a midlife crisis is not an actual clinical condition, but rather a normal part of the aging process. Many people go through a period of reflection and reassessment at some point in their lives.
It’s for this reason, we’ve collated a great list of mid-life crisis quotes that speak of change, purpose, fear, mortality, feeling unfulfilled and the power of being grateful for what we do have. We’ve also included a great sample of quotes of real people who speak of their mid-life crisis as well.
Mid-Life Crisis Quotes
“You can see it as a mid-life crisis or you can see it as a mid-life awakening.” Dan Pearce
“It’s bad timing, but a lot of kids become teenagers just as their parents are hitting their mid-life crisis. So everybody’s miserable and confused and seeking that new sense of identity.” Laurie Halse Anderson
“Your days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun. If you do not, the sun will soon set, and you with it.” Marcus Aurelius
“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
“To come across as younger than they are: Women buy creams that promise to slow aging; men buy fast cars.” Mokokoma Mokhonoana
“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.” Epicurus
“Midlife crisis begins sometime in your 40s, when you look at your life and think, ‘Is this all?’ And it ends about 10 years later, when you look at your life again and think, ‘Actually, this is pretty good.’” Donald Richie
“Do one thing every day that scares you.” Eleanor Roosevelt
“I want to live my life in such a way that when I get out of bed in the morning, the devil says, “aw shit, he’s up!” Steve Maraboli
“Change is superficial. Transformation is deep. It alters our perception of reality and therefore causes everything in our life to shift. Transformation is what happens when we live our life rather than analyze it.” Frank Natale
“Most of us abandoned the idea of a life full of adventure and travel sometime between puberty and our first job. Our dreams died under the dark weight of responsibility. Occasionally the old urge surfaces, and we label it with names that suggest psychological aberrations: the big chill, a midlife crisis.” Tim Cahill
“Her complexity is a glorious fire that consumes, while her simplicity goes unapproachable. But if one takes time to understand her, there is something beautiful to find, something simple to be loved. But she goes unloved, for being misunderstood.” Anthony Liccione
“Be mindful. Be grateful. Be positive. Be true. Be kind.” Roy T. Bennett
“It does not matter how long you are spending on the earth, how much money you have gathered or how much attention you have received. It is the amount of positive vibration you have radiated in life that matters.” Amit Ray
“When I first decided, I was going to have a go at writing a book – and really, it was a mid-life crisis – I was 39. I was in business with my husband; we had a very busy lifestyle and quite a hectic schedule running this flourishing business in travel, and I found myself waking up and realising that I didn’t want to do this anymore.” Fiona McIntosh
“Your purpose in life is to find your purpose and give your whole heart and soul to it.” Buddha
“I think midlife crisis is just a point where people’s careers have reached some plateau and they have to reflect on their personal relationships.” Bill Murray
“Fear doesn’t shut you down; it wakes you up” Veronica Roth
“We all have different desires and needs, but if we don’t discover what we want from ourselves and what we stand for, we will live passively and unfulfilled.” Bill Watterson
“Over 90% of people go home at the end of the day feeling unfulfilled by their work, and I won’t stop working until that statistic is reversed – until over 90% of people go home and can honestly say, ‘I love what I do.’” Simon Sinek
“In my early fifties, I was going through a phase where few things felt right, and I was trying to figure out those that did. It was not uncommon. In your twenties, you pursue your dreams. By your late thirties and early forties, you hit a certain stride. Then you hit your fifties, you get your first annoying thoughts of mortality, you begin more serious questioning of not just the meaning of your life but of what’s working, what’s not working, and what you still want, and all of a sudden you don’t know which way is up. You thought you knew but don’t. You just want to get to where life feels okay again.” Dick Van Dyke
“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” Marcel Proust
“Carve your name on hearts, not tombstones. A legacy is etched into the minds of others and the stories they share about you.” Shannon Alder
“If you have a strong purpose in life, you don’t have to be pushed. Your passion will drive you there.” Roy T. Bennett
“Here comes 40. I’m feeling my age and I’ve ordered the Ferrari. I’m going to get the whole mid-life crisis package.” Keanu Reeves
“Each life unfulfilled, you see;
It hangs still, patchy and scrappy:
We have not sighed deep, laughed free,
Starved, feasted, despaired,—been happy.” Robert Browning
“There was a time when people had the decency to wait until they were approaching 50 to have a mid-life crisis. Now it seems many thirtysomethings find themselves succumbing to existential navel-gazing.” Mark Barrowcliffe
“Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder. Help someone’s soul heal. Walk out of your house like a shepherd.” Rumi
“The mid-life crisis hits men harder than women.” Sonia Johnson
“Be grateful for what you already have while you pursue your goals.
If you aren’t grateful for what you already have, what makes you think you would be happy with more.” Roy T. Bennett
“I tend to do something for two years then move on to something new. Yoga, then biking, then weightlifting, then back to biking. The moment it feels like a rut, I switch and search for a new love. It’s like having a midlife crisis, but without the new wife or cheesy BMW.” Brad Meltzer
“The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving.” Johann wolfgang von Goethe
“See, what you’re meant to do when you have a mid-life crisis is buy a fast car, aren’t you? Well, I’ve always had fast cars. It’s not that. It’s the fear that you’re past your best. It’s the fear that the stuff you’ve done in the past is your best work.” Robbie Coltrane
“Your emotions make you human. Even the unpleasant ones have a purpose. Don’t lock them away. If you ignore them, they just get louder and angrier.” Sabaa Tahir
“I wouldn’t go back on my old days, though; everybody needs to have their wild years. It’s just a question of when and I’d rather have had them early than be doing it as a mid-life crisis type thing.” Rob Lowe
“I’d say imagine that you wake up one morning when you’re going through a midlife crisis. You’re getting divorced. Your kids won’t speak to you. Their faces are covered with acne, and you have to decide why you should get out of bed. That’s the career you should pick. The one that keeps you going no matter what, even if your life is falling apart. That’s how I feel about my career.” Henry Louis Gates
“I totally relate to Tom Cruise. He’s not crazy, it’s just the litany of the mid-life crisis.” Bret Easton Ellis
“My career started young and I was really ambitious, and then I had success and I hung out with people who were much older. I think I might have been temporally misplaced, so I thought I was 40. It was a premature midlife crisis.” Elizabeth Gilbert
“The midlife crisis you’re having at 30 is indulgent, but the midlife crisis you have at 45 is to an extent thrust upon you.” Moby
“If you live your life all out today, not only is it fun, but you are preventing a midlife crisis.” Daphne Oz
“My generation is having its midlife crisis in its 20s.” Edward Norton
“Midlife crisis is that moment when you realize your children and your clothes are about the same age.” William D Tammeus
“We live for our unfulfilled dreams when we are alive. Our fulfilled dreams live for us when we are gone!” Israelmore Ayivor
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