Let us suppose that both optimists and pessimists are right, and right simultaneously. Yes, old age is affliction — especially, it is afflicted with the idea of affliction. As long as we regard each tremor, each little liver spot, each forgotten name as only a sign of decay, we are afflicting older age with our minds as much as our minds are afflicted by older age. The very repetition of our negative diagnosis of what's happening to us each time we see our face in the mirror shows how powerful is the idea to which we have harnessed our later life.
— James Hillman, The Force of Character