Quote of the Day: Sam Ewing on Life & Wisdom

You’re standing under the harsh salon lights, coat still on, listening as the receptionist chirps the new price like it’s weather. You do the math in your head, not because you’re cheap, but because you’re trying to locate the moment when “normal” slipped away. The little luxuries that used to feel routine now come with a wince, and somehow the mirror seems to agree. That’s when Sam Ewing lands his punchline: “Inflation is when you pay fifteen dollars for the ten-dollar haircut you used to get for five dollars when you had hair.”

Ewing’s joke works because it isn’t really about haircuts. It’s about the slow-motion shock of realizing the same life costs more each year, even when your paycheck doesn’t. Inflation isn’t a single headline; it’s a thousand petty recalculations, grocery aisles, rent renewals, tipping screens, until you start questioning your own memory. Was it ever that cheap, or is nostalgia just a bad accountant?

But the line has a second edge: time is inflating, too. The earlier price isn’t just a number; it’s a snapshot of who you were when you paid it. Ewing braids economics with mortality, reminding us that rising costs arrive alongside changing bodies, shifting needs, and shrinking certainties. The laugh is rueful because it’s true: the bill climbs even as the reasons for it fade.

A midcentury specialist in compact wisdom, Sam Ewing built a legacy on aphorisms that traveled widely, often repeated, occasionally misattributed, but enduring because they compress big systems into human scale.

March 14 is also Pi Day, a celebration of numbers and the strange comfort of patterns. Ewing’s advice is to keep your sense of humor while you confront the arithmetic, and to treat resilience as a daily practice: notice the creep, adjust with intention, and don’t let the price tag rewrite your dignity.