Welcome to our collection of adult quotes, where wisdom, humor, and insight converge to illuminate the experience of adulthood. Whether you’re navigating the complexities of relationships, careers, or self-discovery, these quotes offer a poignant reflection of the journey we all undertake as we mature and evolve. From renowned thinkers to beloved authors, each quote encapsulates a nugget of truth about the joys, challenges, and paradoxes of being an adult in today’s world.
As we journey through life, adulthood presents us with a myriad of opportunities for growth and self-realization. It’s a phase where we grapple with responsibility, wrestle with identity, and strive to find our place in the world. Through the lens of these quotes, we invite you to explore the multifaceted facets of adulthood, from its profound moments of introspection to its lighter, more whimsical aspects. Whether you’re seeking inspiration, comfort, or simply a moment of reflection, these quotes serve as gentle reminders of the richness and complexity inherent in the human experience. Now, without further ado, delve into the wisdom of adulthood that awaits below.
They were using the dolls to project their dreams of their own futures as adult women. Ruth Handler
I think that inside every adult is the heart of a child. We just gradually convince ourselves that we have to act more like adults. Shigeru Miyamoto
Above all, though, children are linked to adults by the simple fact that they are in process of turning into them. For this they may be forgiven much. Children are bound to be inferior to adults, or there is no incentive to grow up. Philip Larkin
The distinction between children and adults, while probably useful for some purposes, is at bottom a specious one, I feel. There are only individual egos, crazy for love. Niccolo Machiavelli
I have a natural affinity with children and adults who can’t accept adult responsibility. Dexter Fletcher
We want everybody to act like adults, quit playing games, realize that it’s not just my way or the highway. Barack Obama
My mother, whom I love dearly, has continually revised my life story within the context of a complicated family history that includes more than the usual share of divorce, step-children, dysfunction, and obfuscation. I’ve spent most of my adult life attempting to deconstruct that history and separate fact from fiction. Melissa Gilbert
When I did ‘Mimic,’ it was such a difficult experience to try to make. Believe it or not, I did try to make a really adult giant bug movie. And then, in the course of the process, it kind of died a horrible death and gave birth to the movie that exists now, which now, in retrospect, I like. But it’s not the movie I set out to do. Guillermo del Toro
A child-like man is not a man whose development has been arrested; on the contrary, he is a man who has given himself a chance of continuing to develop long after most adults have muffled themselves in the cocoon of middle-aged habit and convention. Aldous Huxley
Juvenile justice is probably the area that’s most ripe for reform, in the nice liberal sense of the word, simply because there’s no getting around the fact that a teenage brain is not an adult brain. Robert Sapolsky
Ninety eight percent of the adults in this country are decent, hardworking, honest Americans. It’s the other lousy two percent that get all the publicity. But then, we elected them. Lily Tomlin
Adults tell students that it gets better, that the world changes after school, that being ‘different’ will pay off sometime after graduation. But no one explains to them why. Alexandra Robbins
To be adult is to be alone. Jean Rostand
Teenagers watch and listen to all kinds of things. It is the nature of being a teenager to seek out intense stuff. Stuff about death and sex and love and fear. Teenagers are the bravest, most curious, most philosophical, most open-minded readers there are, which is why so many less-than-young adults like writing for them. Matt Haig
When you’re doing something you’re not used to, you kind of realize that you’re still a kid: even though the whole world around you sees you as an adult and you’re expected to act like an adult, you still haven’t actually grown up. Mitski
Many of our deepest motives come, not from an adult logic of how things work in the world, but out of something that is frozen from childhood. Kazuo Ishiguro
I think kids want the same thing from a book that adults want – a fast-paced story, characters worth caring about, humor, surprises, and mystery. A good book always keeps you asking questions, and makes you keep turning pages so you can find out the answers. Rick Riordan
You must write for children in the same way as you do for adults, only better. Maxim Gorky
As an adult, I’ve always tried to be a good person my whole life, so I’ve made good friends, and I’ve always built great relationships and been friendly with people. I always think what you do to others will come to you, so that’s how I treat people. Roman Reigns
Bullying can happen as an adult, it can happen as a child, in college, or your work place, everywhere. Porsha Williams
You’re dead if you aim only for kids. Adults are only kids grown up, anyway. Walt Disney
The value of marriage is not that adults produce children but that children produce adults. Peter De Vries
Every child should have a caring adult in their lives. And that’s not always a biological parent or family member. It may be a friend or neighbor. Often times it is a teacher. Joe Manchin
The woods that I loved as a child are entirely gone. The woods that I loved as a young adult are gone. The woods that most recently I walked in are not gone, but they’re full of bicycle trails. Mary Oliver
A healthy male adult bore consumes each year one and a half times his own weight in other people’s patience. John Updike
We should face reality and our past mistakes in an honest, adult way. Boasting of glory does not make glory, and singing in the dark does not dispel fear. Hussein of Jordan
Three children have become adults since a phone call with Jo Rowling, containing one small clue, persuaded me that there was more to Snape than an unchanging costume, and that even though only three of the books were out at that time, she held the entire massive but delicate narrative in the surest of hands. Alan Rickman
I’m 48 years old, not a kid anymore by any definition, but here is a universal truth that every adult at some point will realize: We are all always 17 years old, waiting for our lives to begin. Harlan Coben
Adolescents are not monsters. They are just people trying to learn how to make it among the adults in the world, who are probably not so sure themselves. Virginia Satir
I come from a part of Nigeria where a lot of value is placed on implicit communication. The ‘well brought up’ child is the one who can pick up nonverbal cues from adults and interpret them correctly. Ayobami Adebayo
Kids are born curious about the world. What adults primarily do in the presence of kids is unwittingly thwart the curiosity of children. Neil deGrasse Tyson
Most of us remember adolescence as a kind of double negative: no longer allowed to be children, we are not yet capable of being adults. Julian Barnes
I think growing up is difficult and it’s a process that I’m always interested in, with kids and adults, they are often on two different universes. Alice Hoffman
I think it just helps to be very aware that fundamentally, there are no adults. Everyone is making it up as they go along. You have to find your own path, picking, choosing, taking and discarding as you see fit. Naval Ravikant
Young adults love to play games and they’re thirsty for social interaction, but a lot of bar and restaurant experiences are quite unsatisfactory on the social level. What young people need is a place that has the feel of an unhosted party where they find themselves interacting with like-minded strangers. Nolan Bushnell
Girls are socialised in ways that are harmful to their sense of self – to reduce themselves, to cater to the egos of men, to think of their bodies as repositories of shame. As adult women, many struggle to overcome, to unlearn, much of that social conditioning. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Why should society feel responsible only for the education of children, and not for the education of all adults of every age? Erich Fromm
I’d never been religious, but I’d always obeyed my elders. My decision to become an omnivore was fraught, not because it was a religious transgression but because it was my first act of self-assertion as a young adult. Samin Nosrat
Is adult entertainment killing our children? or is killing our children entertaining our adults? Marilyn Manson
I feel very lucky to have grown up having interaction with adults who were making change but who were far from perfect beings. That feeling of not being paralyzed by your incredible inadequacy as a human being, which I feel every day, is a part of the legacy that I’ve gotten from so many of the adult elders. Marian Wright Edelman
Philosophers are adults who persist in asking childish questions. Isaiah Berlin
Are kids smarter than adults? All evidence points to that being true. Natalie Jeremijenko
For 24 years of my adult life, by choice I weighed well over 200 pounds. I say ‘by choice’ because I have never ‘accidentally’ eaten anything, so when I choose to eat too much, I have chosen to weigh too much. Zig Ziglar
A child becomes an adult when he realizes that he has a right not only to be right but also to be wrong. Thomas Szasz
I am not a snowflake. I am not a sweet, infantilising symbol of fragility and life. I am a strong, fierce, flawed adult woman. I plan to remain that way, in life and in death. Stella Young
Acting is playing pretend, playing a children’s game at an adult level, but with children’s rules. It’s fun to play bad guys. I’ve never been in a fight in my life, so it’s fun to play something that’s different. Ray Liotta
Let’s figure out ways of keeping our children out of the juvenile justice system and in the classroom so that they’ll thrive. Because if you’re in the juvenile justice system, the chances of your going into the adult penal system are greatly increased. Valerie Jarrett
From taking photographs of George and Charlotte, I have been struck by the wonderful lack of self-consciousness that you see in photographs of children, without the self-awareness that adults generally feel. Kate Middleton
I was born with an adult head and a tiny body. Like a ‘Peanuts’ character. Jon Stewart
Want to raise children who will be happy adults? Teach them not to whine. Dennis Prager
My niece was very much caught up in the vampire craze for young adults, and she thought having a vampire boyfriend would be a cool thing. What do you do on a first date? The more I thought about it, the more fun I had imagining what you’d serve a vampire for dinner. Deborah Harkness
When childhood dies, its corpses are called adults. Brian Aldiss
Kids can sniff out a moral. They can feel the heavy hand of an adult. Jeff Kinney
Another belief of mine; that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise. Margaret Atwood
Just before my 16th birthday, Natalie Dormer said to me, ‘As soon as you turn 16, you’re going to work adult hours. People will try take advantage of you, so it’s important not to be a pushover.’ Sophie Turner
The problem is that too many adults think their kids’ lives are simple, or they try to make their lives simple, when their emotional lives are just as complicated as ours. They might have a few less tools to deal with it because they’re young, but the emotions are all the same, and the subject matter is all the same. Sherman Alexie
I had this rare privilege of being able to pursue in my adult life, what had been my childhood dream. Andrew Wiles
First and foremost, we need to be the adults we want our children to be. We should watch our own gossiping and anger. We should model the kindness we want to see. Brene Brown
I loved ‘A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.’ I read it later as an adult, but I loved ‘We Have Always Lived in a Castle.’ And that brings you around to ‘The Lottery.’ You can’t pretend – it’s a lottery in which you draw a name and people die. That’s a short story, but it’s such an incredible short story. Suzanne Collins
Tolerating organized crime promotes the cheap philosophy that everything is a racket. It promotes cynicism among adults. It contributes to the confusion of the young and to the increase of juvenile delinquency. Robert Kennedy
The average adult laughs 15 times a day; the average child, more than 400 times. Martha Beck
One can love a child, perhaps, more deeply than one can love another adult, but it is rash to assume that the child feels any love in return. George Orwell
Crimes against children are the most heinous crime. That, for me, would be a reason for capital punishment because children are innocent and need the guidance of an adult society. Clint Eastwood
It is critical that parents and other trusted adults initiate conversations with kids about underage drinking well in advance of the first time they are faced with a decision regarding alcohol. Xavier Becerra
Divorce is hard enough when you’re an adult – never mind when you’re a child. That was probably when my shyness started, when I was at my shyest. DanTDM
The point of ‘777’ is for the world to hear adult Key. Your favorite new rapper’s favorite rapper, grown up. My job was to lay any canvas he needed at any given moment. Kenny Beats
When I was a kid, there was no collaboration; it’s you with a camera bossing your friends around. But as an adult, filmmaking is all about appreciating the talents of the people you surround yourself with and knowing you could never have made any of these films by yourself. Steven Spielberg
There is nothing funny about Halloween. This sarcastic festival reflects, rather, an infernal demand for revenge by children on the adult world. Jean Baudrillard
If you’re an adult and you choose not to believe in science, fine, but please don’t prevent your children from learning about it and letting them draw their own conclusions. Bill Nye
Learning is what most adults will do for a living in the 21st century. S. J. Perelman
Adults are obsolete children. Dr. Seuss
The cell phone has become the adult’s transitional object, replacing the toddler’s teddy bear for comfort and a sense of belonging. Margaret Heffernan
Research has shown that a barren environment is much more damaging to baby animals than it is to adult animals. It does not hurt the adult animals the same way it damages babies. Temple Grandin
Every time an adult is going to write something for a teenager and you don’t have, physically, a person who is that, you are always going to be a little off. Zoe Saldana
Let me tell you something about full moons: kids don’t care about full moons. They’ll play in a full moon, no worries at all. They only get scared of magic or werewolves from stupid adults and their stupid adult stories. Neil deGrasse Tyson
Thirty was so strange for me. I’ve really had to come to terms with the fact that I am now a walking and talking adult. C. S. Lewis
Government has the role of suiting people for freedom. People aren’t made for freedom spontaneously. There’s sort of a 19-year race between when people are born and when they become adults. And government has a role in making them, at the end of 19 years, suited to be upright, trustworthy repositories of popular sovereignty. George Will
The older I get, the younger I feel. Growing up, I was always the kid, but I spoke like an adult and was in adult roles. I didn’t feel like a kid. The older I get, I actually feel younger! Which is good. I always thought when you get older, you’ll want to slow down, but I want to do even more. Brooke Shields
Understand: as children and young adults, we are taught to conform to certain codes of behavior and ways of doing things. We learn that being different comes with a social price. Robert Greene
The solution to adult problems tomorrow depends on large measure upon how our children grow up today. Margaret Mead
What a distressing contrast there is between the radiant intelligence of the child and the feeble mentality of the average adult. Sigmund Freud
There are times where fans don’t understand that change is inevitable or that changes are done too fast. They say, ‘We like the way you used to be.’ Or they say, ‘We liked what you did then.’ You can’t stay the same. As you mature as an adult, you find out you have to keep changing in this business. It’s something The Undertaker laid on me. Bray Wyatt
Some say it is the elements of hope and wonder in children’s books that make them special. But there are many dark young adult novels these days. Adults loved Harry Potter, though it was written for the young. In the end, it is probably up to the reader of any age to decide if this book is for him or her. Katherine Paterson
Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race. H. G. Wells
Adults are always asking kids what they want to be when they grow up because they are looking for ideas. Paula Poundstone
If you are young and you drink a great deal it will spoil your health, slow your mind, make you fat – in other words, turn you into an adult. P. J. O’Rourke
The day the child realizes that all adults are imperfect, he becomes an adolescent; the day he forgives them, he becomes an adult; the day he forgives himself, he becomes wise. Alden Nowlan
As I got older, I never considered that tons of people were watching me on television every week. I give a nod to my parents for keeping me as normal as I could be in an un-normal adult world. Angela Cartwright
It’s been very funny to try to act like an adult. Even getting dressed. Every day, I’m like, ‘Should I wear a blazer and walk around with an umbrella? Do I carry a briefcase?’ Because I’m trying to be some image of the adults I saw on TV growing up. John Mulaney
Certainly in the movie business there are bullies all over – bullies in the distribution business, exhibition business, production. Fine-tuning adult bullying is different. When a bully is an adult, it’s a whole different set of colors. Martin Kove
What is an adult? A child blown up by age. Simone de Beauvoir
To be more childlike, you don’t have to give up being an adult. The fully integrated person is capable of being both an adult and a child simultaneously. Recapture the childlike feelings of wide-eyed excitement, spontaneous appreciation, cutting loose, and being full of awe and wonder at this magnificent universe. Wayne Dyer
Fettucini alfredo is macaroni and cheese for adults. Mitch Hedberg
My mom was a terrible parent of young children. And thank God – I thank God every time I think of it – I was sent to my paternal grandmother. Ah, but my mother was a great parent of a young adult. Maya Angelou
Adults are locked into car payments and divorces and work. They haven’t got time to think fresh. Gary Paulsen
I realized I didn’t want there to be anything left unsaid with my mom. I didn’t want there to be questions that I still had about who she was and what her life was like. And I didn’t want her to have questions about me as an adult. Anderson Cooper
The average, healthy, well-adjusted adult gets up at seven-thirty in the morning feeling just plain terrible. Jean Kerr
I think exercise tests us in so many ways, our skills, our hearts, our ability to bounce back after setbacks. This is the inner beauty of sports and competition, and it can serve us all well as adult athletes. Peggy Fleming
For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country. And not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change. And I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction. Michelle Obama
My parents were children during the Great Depression of the 1930s, and it scarred them. Especially my father, who saw destitution in his Brooklyn, New York neighborhood; adults standing in so called ‘bread lines,’ children begging in the streets. Bill O’Reilly
