This quote by Lawrence Durrell speaks to the indignity of aging. He likens the experience of growing old to being physically smacked, suggesting that it is a kind of punishment. He implies that aging is an insult, a humiliation, and a source of pain. Durrell's words recommend that he sees aging as a negative experience, one that is undeserved and undesirable. He suggests that it is a type of suffering, and that it is something that ought to not be accepted. His words likewise recommend that he believes that aging is a type of injustice, which it must not be endured. Durrell's quote speaks to the difficulty of growing old, and the sensations of vulnerability and disappointment that can accompany it.
"We should so provide for old age that it may have no urgent wants of this world to absorb it from meditation on the next. It is awful to see the lean hands of dotage making a coffer of the grave"