Life & Wisdom Quote by Don Herold

Regret rarely confesses itself plainly; it dresses up as wisdom. Don Herold’s line works because it flips the usual bargain of adulthood. We tend to assume maturity means fewer problems. Herold argues the opposite: a well-lived life might contain more “actual troubles” precisely because it involves choosing, risking, disappointing people, failing publicly. Real trouble is often the price of participation.

The real target is the imaginary: the anxieties we rehearse as if they’re preparation, the catastrophes we pre-suffer to feel in control. “Imaginary ones” isn’t just worry; it’s the private theater where perfectionism, fear of judgment, and delayed living get to look responsible. Herold’s sly move is admitting that imaginary troubles can outweigh the real, not in objective severity but in duration. Actual problems arrive, demand action, and eventually end. Imagined ones can run for decades on repeat, immune to evidence.

Context matters: Herold wrote in an early-to-mid 20th century America that prized respectability and self-management, when “nerves” and anxiety were both stigmatized and common. As a humorist, he isn’t delivering a therapist’s reassurance; he’s using comedic understatement (“perhaps”) to puncture our self-seriousness. The subtext is a rebuke to the fantasy of a trouble-free do-over. You don’t get the second life where you’re safe and admired and unhurt. You get the one where you trade the endless low-grade dread for a few sharp, honest difficulties - and call that an upgrade.