Carl Jung: Mature youth begins, as one says, at seventy
To Charles H. Tobias
Dear Sir, 27 October 1958
A bird has whistled to me and told me that you have reached your 70th year of life.
Although I do not know you, I assume you are quite satisfied with this achievement.
It is something.
I can talk with some authority, as I am in my 84th and still in passably good form and-looking back, as you probably do on this day of celebration and congratulation-! see following behind myself the long chain of 5 children, 19 grandchildren, and about 8 or 9 great-grandchildren.
(The latter number is not quite safe as at frequent intervals a new one drops from heaven.)
Mature youth begins, as one says, at seventy and it is in certain respects not so nice and in others more beautiful than childhood.
Let us hope that in your case the latter part of the sentence will confirm itself.
My best wishes,
Yours cordially,
C.G. Jung ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 462-463
A youth who tries to carry over his childish egoism into adult life must pay for this mistake with social failure
The afternoon of human life must also have a significance of its own and cannot be merely a pitiful appendage to life’s morning.
The significance of the morning undoubtedly lies in the development of the individual, our entrenchment in the outer world, the propagation of our kind, and the care of our children.
This is the obvious purpose of nature. But when this purpose has been attained -and more than attained-shall the earning of money, the extension of conquests, and the expansion of life go steadily on beyond the bounds of all reason and sense?
Whoever carries over into the afternoon the law of the morning, or the natural aim, must pay for it with damage to his soul, just as surely as a growing youth who tries to carry over his childish egoism into adult life must pay for this mistake with social failure.; Carl Jung; In CW 8, page 787.
