A major advantage of age is learning to accept people without passing judgment.

The line frames aging not as decline but as moral and emotional education. Carpenter suggests that experience can soften the impulse to categorize others quickly, replacing snap verdicts with a steadier tolerance. “Accept” here does not necessarily mean approving everything; it implies recognizing people’s complexity and granting them dignity without making oneself the arbiter of their worth. The “advantage” is thus a kind of earned humility: after enough life, one sees how partial one’s information usually is, how often circumstances shape behavior, and how easily judgment becomes self-protective or self-flattering. The quote aligns with Carpenter’s public voice—witty but humane—valuing empathy over righteousness.