"Maturity is only a short break in adolescence"
About this Quote
Maturity, in Feiffer's hands, is less a finish line than a coffee break. The joke lands because it punctures a deeply American fantasy: that adulthood is a stable state you graduate into, complete with permanent composure and a matching set of answers. Feiffer flips that script with a cartoonist's economy. "Only" and "short" do the heavy lifting, shrinking adulthood down to a temporary ceasefire in the longer war of wanting, panicking, performing, and improvising - the stuff we like to file under "adolescence" because it sounds forgivable there.
The subtext is affectionate but unsentimental. Feiffer isn't arguing that people can't grow; he's suggesting that what we call maturity is often a pose we strike for employers, spouses, children, and the mirror. It's a social credential, not a psychological destination. That framing carries a quiet critique of postwar respectability - the era that insisted on clean narratives: boy becomes man, girl becomes woman, everybody settles down. Feiffer, whose work skewered hypocrisy, conformity, and the anxious theater of modern life, treats that story as a gag told with straight face.
Context matters: Feiffer's career sits at the crossroads of mid-century neurosis and late-century self-awareness, from Cold War jitters to therapy-speak going mainstream. The line anticipates a culture where "adulting" becomes its own punchline. The sting is that adolescence isn't something you outgrow; it's something you manage - briefly, imperfectly, and usually between crises.
The subtext is affectionate but unsentimental. Feiffer isn't arguing that people can't grow; he's suggesting that what we call maturity is often a pose we strike for employers, spouses, children, and the mirror. It's a social credential, not a psychological destination. That framing carries a quiet critique of postwar respectability - the era that insisted on clean narratives: boy becomes man, girl becomes woman, everybody settles down. Feiffer, whose work skewered hypocrisy, conformity, and the anxious theater of modern life, treats that story as a gag told with straight face.
Context matters: Feiffer's career sits at the crossroads of mid-century neurosis and late-century self-awareness, from Cold War jitters to therapy-speak going mainstream. The line anticipates a culture where "adulting" becomes its own punchline. The sting is that adolescence isn't something you outgrow; it's something you manage - briefly, imperfectly, and usually between crises.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
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