Betty White’s memoir "If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won’t)" was published when the beloved late comedienne was 89 years old. White, who passed away at the end of 2021, preserved her positive and jolly attitude over the course of a more than 80-year career. To her, humor and gratitude went hand in hand: As she wrote in her memoir, “Old age isn’t for sissies … but if you are still functioning and not in pain, gratitude should be the name of the game." It’s a comment that brings to mind a favorite line of White’s alter ego, Rose Nylund, the character she played on the long-running sitcom "The Golden Girls": “My mother always used to say, ‘The older you get, the better you get, unless you're a banana.’”

We are often told that happiness, or at least its pursuit, is the most important goal in life. But many of us struggle to figure out just how to achieve this elusive joy. In his 2010 novel “I Shall Wear Midnight,” from his 41-book “Discworld” fantasy series, author and literary icon Sir Terry Pratchett offers us a hint: If we spend life’s precious days intentionally unearthing our own greatest talents, passions, and abilities, happiness will follow where they lead.

George Santayana was a Spanish-born American writer and philosopher in the early 20th century. A prolific man of letters, Santayana believed in the human capability to learn, regardless of age. He resigned his post at Harvard University after only five years to pursue his own studies, which led him to publish numerous works — from novels to philosophy treatises. His words here remind us that real youth is mental, not physical: In staying curious and lighthearted, we can experience youth at any age.

Author and screenwriter Vicki Baum’s life was bookended by her youth in Austria and her final decades as a U.S. citizen. In between, she experienced major artistic breakthroughs while living in Germany. In 1929, she published the international bestseller “People in a Hotel” — the basis for “Grand Hotel,” 1932’s Best Picture Oscar winner starring Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, and the Barrymore brothers. Yet this period of great literary success began with modern dance, a discovery Baum made while researching her successful earlier novel, 1921’s “Ina Raffay’s Dances.” Baum spent more than a decade studying modern dance, a creative outlet that brought her immense delight and opened her mind to new avenues of storytelling. Encouraged to improvise at the end of her very first class, she would later remember, “I felt as though I hadn’t begun to live until that afternoon.”

Before becoming a beloved writer of the 1970s, Richard Bach had a considerable career as a pilot. He first experienced the wonder of flying at age 14, and went on to serve as an aviator in the military as well as on film shoots and in flying circuses. These experiences influenced his 1970 novel “Jonathan Livingston Seagull,” a story of a gull who flies for enjoyment rather than survival. Bach prioritized that sense of wonder throughout his life, and his philosophy invites us not to let fear stand in the way of seeking new experiences. In fact, it’s often when we push past that initial resistance that we stumble upon something truly wondrous.