If you would have your son to walk honourably through the world you must not attempt to clear the stones from his path but teach him to walk firmly over them - not insist upon leading him by the hand but let him learn to go alone.
I am firmly of the opinion that women who make a lot of effort to hang onto their looks in middle age (unless they are beauties entertainers or prostitutes) are rather sad as one should surely have something more substantial to recommend one by this time such as kindness or cleverness.
There is no absurdity so palpable but that it may be firmly planted in the human head if you only begin to inculcate it before the age of five by constantly repeating it with an air of great solemnity.
The aging process has you firmly in its grasp if you never get the urge to throw a snowball.