Adulting Quotes

“Because the terrible thing about becoming an adult is being forced to realize that absolutely nobody cares about us, we have to deal with everything ourselves now, find out how the whole world works. Work and pay bills, use dental floss and get to meetings on time, stand in line and fill out forms, come to grips with cables and put furniture together, change tires on the car and charge the phone and switch the coffee machine off and not forget to sign the kids up for swimming lessons. We open our eyes in the morning and life is just waiting to tip a fresh avalanche of "Don't Forget!"s and "Remember!"s over us. We don't have time to think or breathe, we just wake up and start digging through the heap, because there will be another one dumped on us tomorrow. We look around occasionally, at our place of work or at parents' meetings or out in the street, and realize with horror that everyone else seems to know exactly what they're doing. We're the only ones who have to pretend. Everyone else can afford stuff and has a handle on other stuff and enough energy to deal with even more stuff. And everyone else's children can swim.”
― Fredrik Backman, Anxious People

“I squinted at her. “You’re an adult.” “You’re an adult too.” “But you’re an older adult. You’ve had more practice.” Mom leaned back and laughed.”
― Ilona Andrews, White Hot

“And I think we got it all wrong. Growing up isn’t so much about gaining wisdom as it is collecting a list of things we've lost interest in. The passions that once burned brightly dim with the years, not because they’re less important, but because familiarity breeds contentment—or perhaps complacency.”
― Aura Biru, We Are Everyone

“Naturally, I handled it like any mature adult would—opened Settings, scrolled down to ‘Feelings,’ and opted out.”
― R.P. Gage, Noetic Gravity

“Our Peter Pan generation is unhappy. All our lives, we want to grow up—
to be treated like adults, to have freedom to choose. Then we get here and
it turns out being an adult sucks. We pay the bills and taxes, watching others succeed while we are forever waiting for our turn.

We believe we are special, but nothing special has come our way.”
― Marcella Purnama, What I Wish I Had Known

“Not now, imp. We have many dull adult things to do.”
― Holly Black, The Prisoner’s Throne

“But maybe that’s all adults really were, just big kids with more responsibility and a lot of practice covering it up.”
― Andrew Van Wey, By the Light of Dead Stars

“Enfant, je t'en voulais de ne pas dire, de ne pas faire. Adulte, je comprends enfin que tu ne sais juste pas dire, tu ne sais juste pas faire.”
― Panayotis Pascot, La prochaine fois que tu mordras la poussière

“I never thought I’d need to teach myself how to nap, but here I am, an adult who finally figured it out.”
― Ken Breniman, Subversive Acts of Humanity: A Survival Guide for Choosing Evolution over Self-Destruction

“I guess I’m only talking about my childhood. Things that become part of you when you’re a child and then you grow up and somehow they don’t—and that’s how you never get to be a mature person, an adult, with those naïve beliefs in you that never grew up . . .”
― Romain Gary, The Gasp

“This grown-up thing isn’t for sissies.”
― Sarah Addison Allen, Other Birds

“Sadie didn't know why she bothered. You would think women would want to stick together when there weren't that many of them, but they never did. It was as if being a woman was a disease that you didn't want to catch. As long as you didn't associate with the other women you could imply to the majority, the men: I'm not like those other ones. - Sadie Green”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

“When Yvonne had first come over, thirty minutes ago, they had started going at it so loud that I knew the whole building must'a overheard....

Now they calmed down a little, no more shouting, just tvoices. After it had got completely quiet on the other side of the wall, I got scared thinking they might'a strangled each other.”
― David Barclay Moore, The Stars Beneath Our Feet

“And she wondered, for the first time, if the real shame was not in growing up, but in never being able to”
― P.H. Low, These Deathless Shores

“Advice to myself:
In your 20-30s, go for jack of all trades, try everything (aligned w/ your values & beliefs).

Then 30s-40s, go for master of 1 field, jack of many trades.

Then 40-50s go for jack of a few trades, master of a few fields/niches.”
― Amos Lau, asian marketer

“After a long, sunny day, you return home and dip your legs in water. You re-read your favourite book and surprisingly find new sentences to highlight. You find a shirt you love in your closet, one you thought was lost forever. You come across an old test paper from school with a 10/10 and a star given by the teacher. You take a shower, and the water is just the right temperature. You find an old handwritten note in the pocket of your jeans.
You make coffee, and it tastes like heaven. You didn’t change the recipe; it just happened. The point is that you deserve someone who makes you feel exactly the way such moments do.”
― Rithvik Singh, Thank You for Leaving

“Go with me into the book. I dare you. It's safe there.”
― Niedria Kenny, Order in the Courtroom: The Tale of a Texas Poker Player

“When you make a mistake own it and repair the damage as best you can, otherwise it will own and damage you.”
― Cassie Alegria

“I'm glad my condo was furnished. Because, how do you buy a couch? I have no idea. This grown-up thing isn’t for sissies.'
Truer words had never been spoken.”
― Sarah Addison Allen, Other Birds

“With his total cholesterol over250 and his weight not far behind, there were no more Philly cheesesteaks, fries, and a large soda sitting in his car with one of the guys. Now it was turkey lasagna at home alone. He wondered if a longer life was worth living if you couldn't eat whatever the hell you wanted to eat.”
― Lisa Unger, Fragile

“Être une femme, adulte, grosse, était mon pire cauchemar. J'ai 27 ans et je suis devenue mon pire cauchemar.”
― Marie de Brauer, Ne jamais couler

“Did anyone stay in their twenties after high school or did everyone just pass GO to collect a 401k and diapers?”
― Krista Ritchie & Becca Ritchie, Addicted for Now

“He thought you were real until he met the realest. That's why he doesn't eff with you like that anymore. We aren't talking about anyone's boyfriend. We are talking about that man who thought you were his friend until he met a friend. Stop being a messy bird.”
― Niedria D. Kenny

“You grow, not because you do, but because you have to.”
― Dominic Riccitello

“Your calling is deeper than your job, your career, and all your benchmarks of success.”
― Os Guinness, the call

“These are the years when the man changes into the man he’s gonna become for the rest of his life.”
― Uncle Ben, Movie Spider-Man 1

“Peter: If I grow up, I-I'll have to get a job in an office and marry a girl and shave my face and buy a house... and have children and keep pets and be responsible and drive a car and nothing will ever be fun again.”
― Andy Winter, Peter Pan

“No longer were tears and fear and uncertainty seen as just a child who was scared; now they were a pathetic excuse for an adult. No longer were my sensory issues seen as those of a little girl with extra support needs; now I was an adult who was noncompliant and a burden.”
― Chloé Hayden, Different, Not Less: A Neurodivergent's Guide to Embracing Your True Self and Finding Your Happily Ever After

“Goodbye, New York," I whispered, my voice barely audible against the soft rustling of the leaves. It wasn't a permanent farewell, merely a temporary separation, but it still tugged at my heartstrings. With all its noise, chaos, beauty, and ugliness, this city was a part of me.”
― Justine Castellon, The Last Snowfall

“I never thought I’d need to teach myself how to nap, but here I am—an adult who finally figured it out.”
― Ken Breniman, Subversive Acts of Humanity : A Survival Guide for Choosing Evolution over Self-Destruction