Words Of Wisdom From The World's Most Famous Senior Citizens

Andrew Zuckerman, a 30-year-old photographer and film-maker has spent the last year travelling the globe, photographing some of the world's most iconic faces, but with a catch: all of them were born before 1942.

Zuckerman's cites America's obsession with youth as inspiration: "We're doing a disservice to ourselves by not looking to our elders. We should be saying, 'What have you learnt?' and seeing what we can pick up from that."

His subjects include such luminaries as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Willie Nelson, Madeline Albright, Clint Eastwood and Nelson Mandela.

Here are some excerpts from their words of wisdom:

Willie Nelson

"Necessity is still the mother of invention, and if we start really needing energy, we'll get it. We have solar, we've got water, we've got all kinds of things that we can use, and eventually people will start realising that there are alternative energies and you don't have to go around the world starting wars over oil.

If everyone just takes care of their own area then we won't have any problems. Be here. Be present. Wherever you are, be there. And look around you and see what needs to be changed."

Jane Goodall

"We've been very arrogant in assuming that there's this sharp line dividing us from the rest of the animal kingdom, and we need to realise that we are not the only beings on this planet with personalities, minds and, above all, feelings and emotions. We need to be a little more respectful."

Dame Judi Dench

"The key to a good relationship is absolutely, undoubtedly: don't take the person for granted. Don't ever think that they're going to come back to you just because you happen to be married. Always make the effort; and hopefully don't make the effort recognisably."

Clint Eastwood

"Take your profession seriously; don't take yourself seriously. Don't take yourself seriously in the process, because you really only matter to a certain degree in the whole circus out here. If a person is confident enough in the way they feel, whether it's an art form or whether it's just in life, it comes off - you don't have anything to prove; you can just be what you are."

Madeleine Albright

"Being a parent is one of the most difficult and demanding and rewarding things that you can possibly be; you really are responsible for the day-to-day upbringing of your child. With grandkids, you can just reward. It's just a perfect relationship.

It's something new, but exercise is very important to my well-being. And I now leg-press over 400lb."

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[pjburns11]

Aging with dignity all - except Kissinger. War criminals have no dignity.

[Tamoomoo]

I love Jane Goodall, ever since I was a little girl. I really admire her and that's one of the reasons I'm such an animal lover today. Four cats and a dog to prove it!

[wellingtonian]

Wonderful words from Mr. Mandela! Billy Connolly is just fantastic :) Nice article

[dahpunkster]

Liked Judi dench's that is so true

[Ohg]

Nobody done axed us what we thought. .....................
http://thefiresidepost.com/2008/10/01/rednecks-for-palin-wasilla-aa/

[ICUP]

Does Teddy tell you how to get away with manslaughter?

[PeaceOnEarth62]

ouch

[pjburns11]

Does Kissinger explain how to get away with a holocaust in SE Asia?

[javagirl322]

I can't stand Kissinger... a deceitful b$stard!!

[MadeinAmericaProud]

Thanks to Kissinger, we now receive product from communist people in China. when will these blue collar worker light a fire to their brain. national security is not just fighting two wars, it should be safe products we Americans make.

[KRayRPh]

T H A N K Y O U !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[JohnnyKong]

This body of work implies that only famous senior citizens are capable of wisdom and speak English fluently. All fluff imo.

[Scottso]

I didn't pick up on that implication. If anything, it may imply that people are more inclined to listen for a moment to someone they recognize. A book full of non-famous old people, no matter how valuable their wisdom, would not sell. Or, more likely, would not even be published.

And I'd go further to say that just because people are famous, their thoughts shouldn't be written off as just "fluff". I think that a few overly-vocal Hollywood types have made the "opinion of a famous person" to be automatically laughable. Which is a shame.

[KRayRPh]

There is a reason those folks are recognized by the "rest of us" !!! It's called accomplishment.

[yannb]

ERRATUM:
Read "America's most famous" where it is printed "World's most famous".
This is one of the most common error in American-English.

[Zubeck]

Tutu, Mandela, & Dench are American? Try to keep up.

[Scottso]

ADDENDUM:
People who take every opportunity to call out Americans for their perceived self-importance are often made to look like fools when they make mistakes in their call-out. Especially when they throw in some Latin in order to appear even more superior to the delusional, self-congratulatory Americans they attempt to lambaste.

Well pointed out, Zubeck

[tlgeiger62]

Wonderful ... I hope people visit the site to watch this...

http://www.andrewzuckerman.com/

[Progress08]

I have a senior crush on Judi Dench. I know she's 25 yrs my senior, but she's still got it goin on.

[Lupin77]

Looking at these people, I can't help thinking that if they dyed their hair, they could look 10 years younger. Just imagine each one with a darker shade of hair color or blondish rather than white or silver haired. They don't have to look like ancient relics.

[ptillen]

From their comments in this article and everything else we know about them, I can't imagine that any of these people have the remotest interest in looking ten years younger. They have much, much more important things to care about.

[emncaity]

No kidding. Besides, a woman who's taken care of herself, but has grey hair? Dayum. If you haven't seen that as attractive, go back to high school.

[2sunny]

May I tell you about my beautiful white streaks of hair that adorn my head? I wear my natural state honorably. I need not desguise my true nature by pretending what I am not. I am Woman!

[KRayRPh]

Perhaps they are not shallow enough to care, or would not want to be mistaken for Joan Rivers.

[Myrell002]

uh ? over 400lbs? Madeleine Alright? huh?

[Scottso]

Right? I'd like to see her in an Olympic singlet, squatting 400lbs. Not in some weird, pervy kinda way. I'd just like to see it. For laughs.

[green321]

kissinger's inclusion in this article totally spoils it...what was the writer thinking?

[joebiz]

"But no American foreign policy can be based only on national security " human rights and human dignity will always be a fundamental objective of American foreign policy if public support is to be maintained."

---Henry Kissinger

Mr. Rolling Crime Wave made this statement above. The same guy that advises the GOP, including Mrs. "Foreign Policy Challeged" Palin.

Kissinger has been complicity in a series of alleged war crimes in Indochina, Bangladesh, Chile, Cyprus and East Timor. Laos is still recovering from being bombed into the stone-age, good going Henry. Human rights, huh.

Read it and see for yourself:
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Kissinger/CaseAgainst1_Hitchens.html
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Kissinger/CaseAgainst2_Hitchens.html

[spartanmom]

He's just saying that you need a whitewash of human rights over your real reasons to bring the American public along. He isn't saying that they are important in their own right.