| The Columbia World of Quotations. 1996. |
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| NUMBER: | 42973 |
| QUOTATION: | The old—like children—talk to themselves, for they have reached that hopeless wisdom of experience which knows that though one were to cry it in the streets to multitudes, or whisper it in the kiss to one’s beloved, the only ears that can ever hear one’s secrets are one’s own! |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Eugene O’Neill (1888–1953), U.S. dramatist. Tiberius, in Lazarus Laughed, act 4, sc. 1.
For a related comment, see Eric Hoffer’s statement on talking to oneself, under “old age.” |
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| | | The Columbia World of Quotations. Copyright © 1996 Columbia University Press. |
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