Aging & Wisdom Quote by Ed Wynn

Wynn’s line is vaudeville wisdom with a stealthy edge: it sells reassurance, but it also smuggles in a work ethic. “Exaggerated fears of age” frames anxiety as a kind of melodrama, something we perform for ourselves the way an entertainer performs for a crowd. He’s not denying the reality of aging; he’s mocking the panic around it, the runaway imagination that turns a number into a verdict.

The “formula” matters. It’s comic framing - tidy, almost like a magic trick - and that’s the point. As an entertainer who made a living by turning jitters into laughter, Wynn understands that fear is often just unprocessed attention. So he redirects attention to the only unit you can actually manage: “every day.” The calendar, in this setup, becomes a neutral clerk, an indifferent record-keeper. Let it do its job. Stop negotiating with it.

There’s subtext here about control and consent. Aging is inevitable; dread is optional. “Take care” is wonderfully elastic: it can mean discipline (sleep, health, money), emotional maintenance (relationships, curiosity), even craft (show up, practice, keep the act sharp). Coming from a performer in an industry obsessed with youth and novelty, the line reads less like a Hallmark comfort and more like a survival strategy: don’t stare at the cliff edge, build a steady routine that keeps you useful, present, and maybe even playful.

It’s a joke that doubles as a boundary: you don’t beat time by arguing with it. You beat it by refusing to let it eat today.