I know I shouldn’t be impressed, but I can’t help thinking that’s a great effort for a cohort in which the youngest is now 75 years old

Our relationship with alcohol is also highly related to when we were born. In fact, regular drinking is one of the clearest examples of a cohort effect we’ll see in this book. Figure 5.2 tracks the proportions of cohorts in England who have said they drink alcohol on five or more days a week over the last 20 years. The lines are incredibly flat, with a strict generational hierarchy and extremely consistent gaps between each. Around three in ten of the Pre-War generation drink alcohol five or more days a week; as far as we can tell, they always have and always will. I know I shouldn’t be impressed, but I can’t help thinking that’s a great effort for a cohort in which the youngest is now 75 years old.

B. Duffy, The Generation Divide (2023), loc. 2,049

What is the point of investing in a process of learning about the world if there is almost no time to put that information to use?

Once I knew this stage was coming, interacting with these animals, especially the friendly ones, became poignant. Their time was so short. This discovery also made the puzzle of their large brains even more acute. What is the point of building a large nervous system if your life is over in a year or two? The machinery of intelligence is expensive, both to build and to run. The usefulness of learning, which large brains make possible, seems dependent on lifespan. What is the point of investing in a process of learning about the world if there is almost no time to put that information to use?

P. Godfrey-Smith, Other minds: the octopus and the evolution of intelligent life (2017), loc. 1,986

Astonishing teenagers are a recurring theme in Pakistan's cricket history

Astonishing teenagers are a recurring theme in Pakistan's cricket history. Of the 33 players recorded as making their Test debut before the age of eighteen, 15 are Pakistanis.

P. Oborne, Wounded tiger (2014), 386

If old women are supposed to not want to cause any trouble, Celia had decided to cause as much trouble as possible

Celia was one of the few women I knew who was very like herself. She was more like herself than I was like myself. She did not try to please anyone and certainly did not fit the patriarchy's idea of what an old woman should be like: patient, self-sacrificing, servicing everyone's needs, pretending to be cheerful when she felt suicidal. If old women are supposed to not want to cause any trouble, Celia had decided to cause as much trouble as possible.

D. Levy, Real Estate (2021), 124

A man of forty-five can consider himself still young till the moment comes when he realises that he has children old enough to fall in love

A man of forty-five can consider himself still young till the moment comes when he realises that he has children old enough to fall in love. The Prince felt old age come over him in one blow

G. Tomasi di Lampedusa, The Leopard (1958), tr. A. Colquhon (1961), 47