The Oxford Book Of Ages

This ingenious anthology of quotations compiles the wit and wisdom of some of the more remarkable figures of the past and present, as they reflect on their achievements, aspirations--and what it means to be a certain age.

This ingenious anthology of quotations compiles the wit and wisdom of some of the more remarkable figures of the past and present, as they reflect on their achievements, aspirations--and what it means to be a certain age.

-Your alma mater asks you to say a few words at an upcoming fundraising dinner -You've won an employee award and will have to give a short acceptance speech at the ceremony -Your parents are celebrating their 50th anniversary, and you'd like to make a toast at their party Everyone's counting on you to sound polished, to be prepared, to speak with savvy-in short, to give a speech that's as memorable as the occasion itself. Don't dread these invitations to speak. Instead, learn to prepare clear, concise, and engaging speeches that will live up to your audience's expectations and match the mood of the occasion. Award-winning corporate speechwriter Joan Detz offers solid advice for tackling this nerve-racking task-with pointers, tips, and trade secrets that will help you make the most of every speaking opportunity. Clearly written and fun to read, this invaluable guide provides all the practical advice and encouragement you need to deliver a winning speech.

Draws on the author's own experiences as an Episcopal priest, Hollywood producer, and civil rights activist to provide lessons for readers of middle age, addressing such themes as remembering, maturing, simplifying, and understanding.

The book analyzes, synthesizes, and evaluates the insights of the world's outstanding thinkers, prophets, and literary masters on the good, the morally right, and the lovely (part one); the question whether the world operates on the basis of such universal laws as the logos, the tao, and the principle of polarity (part two); what there is and isn't in the world, including such categories as existence, reality, being, and nonbeing (part three); and pre-eminently credible and enriching beliefs about truth, wisdom, and what it all means (part four). Emphasis is placed on the divergent views of such intellectual giants as Confucius and Laotse in ancient China; the classical Hindu philosophers from ancient times to Gandhi and Tagore; patriarchs and prophets quoted in Scripture; Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle; Saints Augustine and Thomas Aquinas in the Middle Ages; Descartes, Spinoza, Locke, Hume, and Kant; and nineteenth- and twentieth-century luminaries such as Bentham, Mill, Peirce, James, Dewey, Sartre, and Wittgenstein. The differences and resemblances of their cogitations are portrayed as a conversation of the ages on questions of persistent concern.

Extensively revised and updated to reflect the current state of knowledge in the study of aging, this Fourth Edition offers a complete profile of the aging process at all levels, from molecules and cells to demography and evolution. Written by international experts in current basic and clinical aging research, this text includes aspects of individu

The Decline of Life is an ambitious and absorbing study of old age in eighteenth-century England. Drawing on a wealth of sources - literature, correspondence, poor house and workhouse documents and diaries - Susannah Ottaway considers a wide range of experiences and expectations of age in the period, and demonstrates that the central concern of ageing individuals was to continue to live as independently as possible into their last days. Ageing men and women stayed closely connected to their families and communities, in relationships characterized by mutual support and reciprocal obligations. Despite these aspects of continuity, however, older individuals' ability to maintain their autonomy, and the nature of the support available to them once they did fall into necessity declined significantly in the last decades of the century. As a result, old age was increasingly marginalized. Historical demographers, historical gerontologists, sociologists, social historians and women's historians will find this book essential reading.