Carl Jung, at 85 yrs.,reflecting on the aging process
Letters of C. G. Jung: Volume 2, 1951-1961
Carl Jung, at 85 yrs.,reflecting on the aging process:
“Old age is only half as funny as one is inclined to think.
It is at all events the gradual breaking down of the bodily machine, with which foolishness identifies as ourselves.
It is indeed a major effort– the magnum opus in fact– to escape in time from the narrowness of its embrace and to liberate our mind to the vision of the immensity of the world, of which we form an infinitesimal part.
In spite of the enormity of our scientific cognition we are yet hardly at the bottom of the ladder, but we are at least so far that we are able to recognize the smallness of our knowledge.
The older I grow the more impressed I am by the frailty and uncertainty of our understanding, and all the more I take recourse to the simplicity of immediate experience so as not to lose contact with the essentials, namely the dominants which rule human existence throughout the millenniums.“ (C.G.Jung Letters 2. 1951-1961. p.580)