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Middle age (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠a second puberty, a storm-and-stress with tempests of passion — and the clock's hand cannot be put back: what youth found outside, the afternoon must find within.

Middle age (n.) brings, ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠between thirty-five and forty, a change rising from the unconscious: depressions, childhood traits returning, or convictions hardening until around fifty a period of intolerance and fanaticism sets in — as if the principles were endangered.

Middle age (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠when losing the anima stops being harmless: before 35 a man must be a man; after it, without her, comes rigidity, pedantry, and finally a childish softening with a tendency to alcohol.

Middle age (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠when the last gleam of childhood illusion fades — though many go as children to their graves.

Middle age (n.) turns ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠what was first passion into duty and finally an intolerable burden, a vampire battening on its creator; "I want" becomes the inexorable "I must" — and at the moment of greatest unfolding, evening is born.