People tend to become more emotionally intelligent as they age and mature.

Attributed to Daniel Goleman, this statement expresses a common claim in emotional-intelligence discourse: that with age and life experience, many people improve at recognizing emotions, regulating impulses, empathizing, and navigating relationships. Read charitably, it is a probabilistic observation (“tend to”), not a guarantee—maturation can bring more practice in conflict, loss, work, and intimacy, all of which can refine self-awareness and social judgment. The line also implies that emotional intelligence is developable rather than fixed, aligning with the broader EI framework that treats these capacities as skills that can grow through feedback, reflection, and learning over time.