Longevity, like intelligence and good looks and health and strength of character, is largely a matter of genetic heritage. Choose your parents with care.
Each thing in its way, when true to its own character, is equally beautiful. (p 41)
A woman, as much as a man, is responsible by the age of forty for the character of her face. But women, obeying the biological imperative, strive harder to preserve a youthful appearance (the reproductive look) and lose it sooner.
We judge individual man and women as we do nations and races -- by the character of their achievement and by their achievement of character.