What I look forward to is continued immaturity¹ followed by death.

Dave Barry (1947 - )

The purpose of life is to fight maturity².

Dick Werthimer

There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes.

Doctor Who

By the time I'd grown up, I naturally supposed that I'd be grown up.

Eve Babitz

To be mature means to face, and not evade³, every fresh crisis that comes.

Fritz Kunkel

Every human being on this earth is born with a tragedy, and it isn't original sin. He's born with the tragedy that he has to grow up. That he has to leave the nest, the security, and go out to do battle. He has to lose everything that is lovely and fight for a new loveliness of his own making, and it's a tragedy. A lot of people don't have the courage to do it.

Helen Hayes (1900 - 1993), in Roy Newquist, Showcase, 1966

I thought being an adult meant knowing what you believe, but that has not been my experience.

John Green, The Fault in Our Stars, 2012

Maturity is only a short break in adolescence⁴.

Jules Feiffer (1929 - )

My Father taught me how to be a man – and not by instilling⁵ in me a sense of machismo or an agenda of dominance. He taught me that a real man doesn’t take, he gives; he doesn’t use force, he uses logic⁶; doesn’t play the role of trouble-maker, but rather, trouble-shooter; and most importantly, a real man is defined by what’s in his heart, not his pants.

Kevin Smith, My Boring Ass⁷ Life, 06-01-05

That's the worst of growing up, and I'm beginning to realize it. The things you wanted so much when you were a child don't seem half so wonderful to you when you get them.

L. M. Montgomery (1874 - 1942), Anne of Green Gables, 1908

Age is no guarantee of maturity.

Lawana Blackwell, The Courtship of the Vicar's Daughter, 1998

Adulthood⁸ isn't an award they'll give you for being a good child. You can waste... years, trying to get someone to give that respect to you, as though it were a sort of promotion⁹ or raise in pay. If only you do enough, if only you are good enough. No. You have to just... take it. Give it to yourself, I suppose. Say, I'm sorry you feel like that and walk away. But that's hard.

Lois McMaster Bujold, A Civil Campaign, 1999

When we were children, we used to think that when we were grown-up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability... To be alive is to be vulnerable.

Madeleine L'Engle (1918 - ), "Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art", 1980

The grass is always greener once you don't have to mow¹⁰ a lawn anymore.

Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive, Young Hope, 04-26-13