The young, their lives ahead of them, think life is long; the old, their lives ending, know that it is short. Why knowledge in the second case? Because the old, some of them anyway, are surveyors of life and not mere livers of it. This suggests that the old who lose themselves in the quotidian round may avoid the view from above and cultivate thereby a life-enhancing illusion.
Not filed under Sage Advice, but under Art of Life.