Quote Of The Day By Jane Fonda: 'So Much Of Your Life Gets Better As You...'

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Jane Fonda is the very definition of Hollywood royalty. The daughter of legendary "12 Angry Men" and "The Grapes of Wrath" star Henry Fonda, Jane was born in New York City in December 1937. She rose to prominence as an actor herself in the 1960s, and achieved arguably her greatest success in her chosen profession in the 1970s, winning the Academy Award for best actress on not one, but two occasions. Jane found further success in the 1980s, through her continued work on the big screen and also thanks to the "9 to 5" star's iconic series of record-shattering home exercise videos — even if Jane Fonda consistently downplayed her success to appease her second husband, Tom Hayden.

Unsurprisingly, Jane Fonda's stunning transformation isn't over yet, nor is her esteemed film career. She celebrated her 88th birthday in December 2025, and graced screens as recently as 2024, in JLo's musical film, "This Is Me... Now: A Love Story." Additionally, in March 2026, news broke that Jane would be starring in Lionsgate's planned film adaptation of author Virginia Evans' award-winning 2025 novel "The Correspondent." With all that in mind, the actor has certainly had a lot of time to not only experience, but also reflect on her life, career, and how to let past hang-ups fall to the wayside. Hence why we picked the beloved "Klute" star's insightful comments about aging as our quote of the day.

"So much of your life gets better as you age," as Jane Fonda pointed out during a December 2024 appearance on "CBS Sunday Morning." The Oscar-winning actor elaborated, "We get less stressed, we become kinder to ourselves and braver. We're less judgmental, and best of all we stop caring so much about what other people think of us — which, believe me, saves a lot of time." Fonda notably uttered these words towards the end of a longer segment meant to push back on the notion that getting older is an inherently negative experience. 

She sought to do this by redefining the term "senior moment," instead highlighting major accomplishments individuals have achieved later in life — namely, when explorer Barbara Hillary successfully reached the North Pole at the age of 75. The segment itself was based around research suggesting that having a positive outlook on aging can actually add years to one's life. Given that Fonda herself adopts such an approach and is still making movies well into her golden years, alongside her celebrated activism, we find it difficult to argue.

In her quote about aging, Jane Fonda is clearly saying that while getting older obviously has its fair share of drawbacks, it has plenty of benefits as well. Most notably, the longer you're alive, the easier it becomes to let go of negative mindsets — whether you're adopting them yourself or aiming them at others — as you start to realize that they're not conducive to a happy life. Not only is the "Coming Home" star living proof that age doesn't necessarily dictate greater ability, but her remarks about no longer caring what other people think also show a great deal of growth on Fonda's part. The prolific performer frequently made it a point to understate her fame and accomplishments when she was married to Tom Hayden, a noted political activist who took exception to her Hollywood lifestyle. 

Fonda, a prominent activist in her own right, even confessed in the book "50 Oscar Nights" that she kept her own Academy Awards out of sight during her second marriage. More than 30 years on from Fonda's divorce from Hayden, it's clear that the actor is done sweating how others perceive her. The best part is, while Fonda's perspective on aging is sure to provide some comfort to those getting up there in years themselves, there's absolutely nothing to stop you from applying her smart advice about not caring what others think and not being too judgmental of people yourself no matter how old you are.

• "I love mistakes because it's the only way you learn. You don't learn from successes; you don't learn from awards; you don't learn from celebrity; you only learn from wounds and scars and mistakes and failures. And that's the truth."
• "When you can't remember why you're hurt, that's when you're healed."
• "Ask questions. Stay curious. It's much more important to stay interested than to be interesting."
• "For so long, it seemed like if you said you were a feminist, you were anti-men. I think that's dissipated for the most part now. I hope that men understand that the fight for equality benefits everyone, and that it's in everyone's best interest to have men and women be able to shoulder the same societal responsibilities at every single level — economically, militarily, spiritually, parentally."
• "The bravest soldiers aren't unafraid, but they're the ones who are able to harness their fear on behalf of courage."