In old age the question is: what have you made of your love?

What it means

As children we worry about being loved. By the end of life the question turns around: what did we do with the love we had? It is worth asking now, while there is time to answer it well.

The source

"In old age the question is: what have you made of your love?" Carl Jung said it in Contributions to Analytical Psychology (1928), 'The Love Problem of the Student'. Translated by H. G. and C. F. Baynes, 1928.

"For the phase of childhood the love of the parents is the problem; for the aged man the problem is, what has he made of his love."

H. G. and C. F. Baynes, 1928, Contributions to Analytical Psychology (1928), 'The Love Problem of the Student'. Text read at archive.org.

Who said it

Carl Jung (1875–1961). Swiss psychiatrist who broke with Freud and founded analytical psychology. He mapped the persona, the shadow, the collective unconscious and the lifelong work of becoming yourself, which he called individuation. Our lines come only from his writings published before 1931, in our own translations from the German or in English translations of the time.

Questions

What does "In old age the question is: what have you made of your love?" mean?

As children we worry about being loved. By the end of life the question turns around: what did we do with the love we had? It is worth asking now, while there is time to answer it well.

Who said "In old age the question is: what have you made of your love?"?

Carl Jung (1875–1961). Source: Contributions to Analytical Psychology (1928), 'The Love Problem of the Student'.

What is the original wording?

For the phase of childhood the love of the parents is the problem; for the aged man the problem is, what has he made of his love (H. G. and C. F. Baynes, 1928). Translated by H. G. and C. F. Baynes, 1928.

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"In old age the question is: what have you made of your love?" (Carl Jung, Contributions to Analytical Psychology (1928), 'The Love Problem of the Student', trans. H. G. and C. F. Baynes, 1928). https://spartansurfers.com/quotes/in-old-age-the-question-is-what-have