Age Quotations

Age

Quotes about age

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Organized alphabetically by author

• All the best sands of my life are somehow getting into the wrong end of the hourglass. If I could only reverse it! Were it in my power to do so, would I?
  • Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Leaves From a Notebook, Ponkapog Papers (1903).

• I still think of myself as I was 25 years ago. Then I look in a mirror and see an old bastard and I realize it's me.
  • Dave Allen, The Independent (1993).

• I recently turned 60. Practically a third of my life is over.
  • Woody Allen, The Observer Review (1996).

• When you're forty, half of you belongs to the past — and when you're seventy, nearly all of you.
  • Jean Anouilh, Time Remembered

• Age is strictly a case of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.
  • Jack Benny, New York Times (1974).

• Yet somehow our society must make it right and possible for old people not to fear the young or be deserted by them, for the test of a civilization is in the way that it cares for its helpless members.
  • Pearl S. Buck, My Several Worlds (1954), p. 337.

• Old age isn’t so bad when you consider the alternative.
  • Attributed to Maurice-Auguste Chevalier in James B. Simpson, Contemporary Quotations (1964), p. 295, citing The New York Times (Sunday, October 9, 1960); reported as unverified in Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations (1989).

• As I give thought to the matter, I find four causes for the apparent misery of old age; first, it withdraws us from active accomplishments; second, it renders the body less powerful; third, it deprives us of almost all forms of enjoyment; fourth, it stands not far from death.
  • Cicero, De Senectute (Of Old Age), book 5, section 15; reported in Herbert N. Couch, Cicero on the Art of Growing Old (1959), p. 21.

• No one is so old that he does not think he could live another year.
  • Cicero, De Senectute.

• "I said, Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom.

But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.

Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand judgment."

• Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite (Job 32:7-9).

• Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man
  • Leviticus 19:32

• A man is as old as he's feeling, a woman is as old as she looks.
  • Mortimer Collins, The Unknown Quantity

• As we grow old....the beauty turns inward.
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals

• If youth only knew; if only age could.
  • Henri Estienne, Les Prémices (1594).

• An old goat is never the more reverend for his beard.
  • Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia

• Old age is not so fiery as youth, but when once provoked cannot be appeased.
  • Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia

• To an old man any place that's warm is homeland.
  • Maxim Gorky, The Lower Depths

• Old age is like an opium-dream. Nothing seems real except what is unreal.
  • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., Over the Teacups

• When grace is joined with wrinkles, it is adorable. There is an unspeakable dawn in happy old age.
  • Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

• Old age deprives the intelligent man only of qualities useless to wisdom.
  • Joseph Joubert, Pensees

• This increase in the life span and in the number of our senior citizens presents this Nation with increased opportunities: the opportunity to draw upon their skill and sagacity—and the opportunity to provide the respect and recognition they have earned. It is not enough for a great nation merely to have added new years to life—our objective must also be to add new life to those years.
  • John F. Kennedy, special message to the Congress on the needs of the nation’s senior citizens (February 21, 1963); in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1963, p. 189.

• En vieillissant, on devient plus fou et plus sage.

  As one grows older, one becomes wiser and more foolish.

  • François de La Rochefoucauld, Réflexions ou Sentences et Maximes Morales (1655); translation by Edward M. Stack (1956), p. 26; reported in Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations (1989).

• Peu de gens savent être vieux.

  Few persons know how to be old.

  • François de La Rochefoucauld, Maximes (1665–1678), 448.

• La vieillesse est un tyran qui défend, sur peine de la vie, tous les plaisirs de la jeunesse.

  Old age is a tyrant who forbids, upon pain of death, all the pleasures of youth.

  • François de La Rochefoucauld, Maximes (1665–1678), 461.

• Perhaps being old is having lighted rooms inside your head, and having people in them, acting. People you know, yet can't quite name.
  • Phillip Larkin, The Old Fools (1974).

• I've changed my attitudes about what it means to age. Sometimes people decide it's their lot in life to be old, but people like Grandma bring color and excellence to their lives. That's what I've tried to do, too. I'm looking forward to the next stage.
  • Cloris Leachman, reported in Bill Adler, Funny Ladies: The Best Humor from America's Funniest Women (2001), p. 19.

• Old age has its pleasures, which though different, are not less than the pleasures of youth.
  • W. Somerset Maugham, The Summing Up

• Growing old is no more than a bad habit which a busy man has no time to form.
  • André Maurois, The Art of Living (1940), chapter 8, p. 282–83, as translated by James Whitall.

• Age imprints more wrinkles on the mind than it does on the face.
  • Montaigne, Essays

• The real affliction of old age is remorse.
  • Cesare Pavese, The moon and the bonfire, chapter VIII, p. 49

• I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.
  • William Shakespeare, Richard II

• There are so few who can grow old with a good grace.
  • Richard Steele, The Spectator (1712).

• Old age is the most unexpected of things that can happen to a man.
  • Leon Trotsky, Diary in Exile (1959).

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 12-17.

• It is always in season for old men to learn.
  • Æschylus, Age.

• Weak withering age no rigid law forbids, With frugal nectar, smooth and slow with balm, The sapless habit daily to bedew, And give the hesitating wheels of life Gliblier to play.
  • John Armstrong, The Art of Preserving Health (1744), Book II, line 484.

• What is it to grow old? Is it to lose the glory of the form, The lustre of the eye? Is it for Beauty to forego her wreath? Yes; but not this alone.
  • Matthew Arnold, Growing Old.

• On one occasion some one put a very little wine into a wine cooler, and said that it was sixteen years old. "It is very small for its age," said Gnathæna.
  • Athenæus, Deipnosophists, XIII. 46.

• Men of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon, and seldom drive business home to the full period, but content themselves with a mediocrity of success.
  • Francis Bacon, Essay XLII, Of Youth and Age.

• Old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.
  • Quoted by Francis Bacon, Apothegm 97.

• Old age comes on apace to ravage all the clime.
  • James Beattie, The Minstrel (1771), Book I, Stanza 25.

• An old man in a house is a good sign in a house.
  • Ascribed to Ben Syra (from the Hebrew).

• Old age doth in sharp pains abound; We are belabored by the gout, Our blindness is a dark profound, Our deafness each one laughs about. Then reason's light with falling ray Doth but a trembling flicker cast. Honor to age, ye children pay! Alas! my fifty years are past!
  • Pierre-Jean de Béranger, Cinquante Ans. C. L. Betts' translation.

• By candle-light nobody would have taken you for above five-and-twenty.
  • Isaac Bickerstaf, Maid of the Mill, Act I, II.

• Age shakes Athena's tower, but spares gray Marathon.
  • Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto II (1812), Stanza 88.

• What is the worst of woes that wait on age? What stamps the wrinkle deeper on the brow? To view each loved one blotted from life's page, And be alone on earth as I am now.
  • Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto II (1812), Stanza 98.

• He has grown aged in this world of woe, In deeds, not years, piercing the depths of life. So that no wonder waits him.
  • Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto III (1816), Stanza 5.

• Years steal Fire from the mind, as vigor from the limb; And life's enchanted cup but sparkles near the brim.
  • Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto III (1816), Stanza 8.

• Oh, for one hour of blind old Dandolo, Th' octogenarian chief, Byzantium's conquering foe!
  • Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto IV (1818), Stanza 12.

• Just as old age is creeping on apace, And clouds come o'er the sunset of our day, They kindly leave us, though not quite alone, But in good company—the gout or stone.
  • Lord Byron, Don Juan (1818-24), Canto III, Stanza 59.

• My days are in the yellow leaf; The flowers and fruits of love are gone; The worm, the canker, and the grief Are mine alone!
  • Lord Byron, On this day I complete my Thirty-sixth Year.

• For oute of olde feldys, as men sey, Comyth al this newe corn from yere to yere; And out of olde bokis, in good fey, Comyth al this newe science that men lere.
  • Geoffrey Chaucer, The Parlement of Fowles, line 21.

• I think every man is a fool or a physician at thirty years of age.
  • Dr. Cheyne.

• Mature fieri senem, si diu velis esse senex.

  You must become an old man in good time if you wish to be an old man long.

  • Cicero, De Senectute, 10 (quoted as an "honoured proverb.").

• The spring, like youth, fresh blossoms doth produce, But autumn makes them ripe and fit for use: So Age a mature mellowness doth set On the green promises of youthful heat.
  • Sir John Denham, Cato Major, Part IV, line 47.

• His eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.
  • Deuteronomy, XXXIV. 7.

• Youth is a blunder; Manhood a struggle; Old Age a regret.
  • Benjamin Disraeli, Coningsby, Book III, Chapter I.

• The Disappointment of Manhood succeeds to the delusion of Youth; let us hope that the heritage of Old Age is not Despair.
  • Benjamin Disraeli, Vivian Grey, Book VIII, Chapter IV.

• No Spring nor Summer Beauty hath such grace As I have seen in one Autumnal face.
  • John Donne, Ninth Elegy, To Lady Magdalen Herbert.

• Fate seem'd to wind him up for fourscore years; Yet freshly ran he on ten winters more; Till like a clock worn put with eating time, The wheels of weary life at last stood still.
  • John Dryden, Œdipus, Act IV, scene 1.

• His hair just grizzled As in a green old age.
  • John Dryden, Œdipus, Act III, scene 1.

• Forsake not an old friend; for the new is not comparable to him: a new friend is as new wine; when it is old, thou shalt drink it with pleasure.
  • Ecclesiasticus, IX. 10.

• Nature abhors the old.
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, Circles.

• We do not count a man's years, until he has nothing else to count.
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson, Society and Solitude, Old Age.

• Remote from cities liv'd a Swain, Unvex'd with all the cares of gain; His head was silver'd o'er with age, And long experience made him sage.
  • John Gay, Fables (1727), Part I, The Shepherd and the Philosopher.

• In a good old age.
  • Genesis, XV. 15.

• Old and well stricken in age.
  • Genesis, XVIII. 11.

• She may very well pass for forty-three, In the dusk with a light behind her.
  • W. S. Gilbert, Trial by Jury.

• Das Alter macht nicht kindisch, wie man spricht, Es findet uns nur noch als wahre Kinder.

  Age childish makes, they say, but 'tis not true; We're only genuine children still in Age's season.

  • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust, Vorspiel auf dem Theater, line 180.

• Old age is courteous—no one more: For time after time he knocks at the door, But nobody says, "Walk in, sir, pray!" Yet turns he not from the door away, But lifts the latch, and enters with speed, And then they cry, "A cool one, indeed."
  • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Old Age.

• O blest retirement! friend to life's decline— Retreats from care, that never must be mine How blest is he who crowns, in shades like these, A youth of labour with an age of ease!
  • Oliver Goldsmith, The Deserted Village (1770), line 97.

• I love everything that's old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wine.
  • Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, Act I, scene 1.

• They say women and music should never be dated.
  • Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, Act III.

• Alike all ages: dames of ancient days Have led their children thro' the mirthful maze, And the gay grandsire, skill'd in gestic lore, Has frisk'd beneath the burthen of threescore.
  • Oliver Goldsmith, The Traveller (1764), line 251.

• Slow-consuming age.
  • Thomas Gray, Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College (1742), Stanza 9.

• Struggle and turmoil, revel and brawl— Youth is the sign of them, one and all. A smoldering hearth and a silent stage— These are a type of the world of Age.
  • William Ernest Henley, Of Youth and Age, Envoy.

• To be seventy years young is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful than to be forty years old.
  • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., on the seventieth birthday of Julia Ward Howe, May 27, 1889.

• You hear that boy laughing? You think he's all fun; But the angels laugh, too, at the good he has done. The children laugh loud as they troop to his call. And the poor man that knows him laughs loudest of all!
  • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., The Boys, Stanza 9.

• A green old age, unconscious of decays, That proves the hero born in better days.
  • Homer, The Iliad, Book XXIII, line 925. Pope's translation.

• When he's forsaken, Wither'd and shaken, What can an old man do but die?
  • Thomas Hood, Ballad.

• Tempus abire tibi est, ne… Rideat et pulset lasciva decentius ætas.

  It is time for thee to be gone, lest the age more decent in its wantonness should laugh at thee and drive thee off the stage.

  • Horace, Epistles, Book II. 2. 215.

• Boys must not have th' ambitious care of men, Nor men the weak anxieties of age.
  • Horace, Of the Art of Poetry, Wentworth Dillon's trans, line 212.

• Seu me tranquilla senectus Exspectat, seu mors atris circumvolat alis.

  Either a peaceful old age awaits me, or death flies round me with black wings.

  • Horace, Satires, Book II. 1. 57.

• Ladies, stock and tend your hive, Trifle not at thirty-five; For, howe'er we boast and strive, Life declines from thirty-five; He that ever hopes to thrive Must begin by thirty-five.
  • Samuel Johnson, To Mrs. Thrale, when Thirty-five, line 11.

• Superfluous lags the veteran on the stage, Till pitying Nature signs the last release, And bids afflicted worth retire to peace.
  • Samuel Johnson, Vanity of Human Wishes, line 308.

• L'on craint la vieillesse, que l'on n'est pas sûr de pouvoir atteindre.

  We dread old age, which we are not sure of being able to attain.

  • Jean de La Bruyère, Les Caractères, XI.

• L'on espère de vieillir, et l'on craint la vieillesse; c'est-à-dire, l'on aime la vie et l'on fuit la mort.

  We hope to grow old and we dread old age; that is to say, we love life and we flee from death.

  • Jean de La Bruyère, Les Caractères, XI.

• The sunshine fails, the shadows grow more dreary, And I am near to fall, infirm and weary.
  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Canzone.

• How far the gulf-stream of our youth may flow Into the arctic regions of our lives, Where little else than life itself survives.
  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Morituri Solutamus, line 250.

• Whatever poet, orator, or sage May say of it, old age is still old age.
  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Morituri Solutamus, line 264.

• For age is opportunity no less Than youth itself, though in another dress, And as the evening twilight fades away The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.
  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Morituri Solutamus, line 281.

• And the bright faces of my young companions Are wrinkled like my own, or are no more.
  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Spanish Student (1843), Act III, scene 3.

• The course of my long life hath reached at last, In fragile bark o'er a tempestuous sea, The common harbor, where must rendered be, Account of all the actions of the past.
  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Old Age.

• Age is not all decay; it is the ripening, the swelling, of the fresh life within, that withers and bursts the husk.
  • George MacDonald, The Marquis of Lossie, Chapter XL.

• What find you better or more honorable than age? Take the preeminence of it in everything;—in an old friend, in old wine, in an old pedigree.
  • Shakerley-Marmion, Antiquary, Act II, scene 1.

• When you try to conceal your wrinkles, Polla, with paste made from beans, you deceive yourself, not me. Let a defect, which is possibly but small, appear undisguised. A fault concealed is presumed to be great.
  • Martial, Epigrams (c. 80-104 AD), Book III, Epistle 42.

• Set is the sun of my years; And over a few poor ashes, I sit in my darkness and tears.
  • Gerald Massey, A Wail.

• Old wood to burn! Old wine to drink! Old friends to trust! Old authors to read!—Alonso of Aragon was wont to say in commendation of age, that age appeared to be best in these four things.
  • Melchior, Floresta Española de Apothegmas o Sentencias, etc., II. 1. 20.

• The ages roll Forward; and forward with them, draw my soul Into time's infinite sea. And to be glad, or sad, I care no more; But to have done, and to have been, before I cease to do and be.
  • Owen Meredith (Lord Lytton), The Wanderer, Book IV, A Confession and Apology, Stanza 9.

• So may'st thou live, till like ripe fruit thou drop Into thy mother's lap, or be with ease Gather'd, not harshly pluck'd, for death mature.
  • John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book XI, line 535.

• So Life's year begins and closes; Days, though short'ning, still can shine; What though youth gave love and roses, Age still leaves us friends and wine.
  • Thomas Moore, Spring and Autumn.

• We age inevitably: The old joys fade and are gone: And at last comes equanimity and the flame burning clear.
  • James Oppenheim, New Year's Eve.

• Thyself no more deceive, thy youth hath fled.
  • Petrarch, To Laura in Death, Sonnet LXXXII.

• Senex cum extemplo est, jam nec sentit, nec sapit; Ajunt solere eum rursum repuerascere.

  When a man reaches the last stage of life,—without senses or mentality—they say that he has grown a child again.

  • Plautus, Mercator, II. 2. 24.

• Why will you break the Sabbath of my days? Now sick alike of Envy and of Praise.
  • Alexander Pope, First Book of Horace, Epistle I, line 3.

• Learn to live well, or fairly make your will; You've played, and loved, and ate, and drank your fill. Walk sober off, before a sprightlier age Comes tittering on, and shoves you from the stage.
  • Alexander Pope, Imitations of Horace, Book II, Epistle 2, line 322.

• Me let the tender office long engage To rock the cradle of reposing age; With lenient arts extend a mother's breath, Make languor smile, and smooth the bed of death; Explore the thought, explain the asking eye! And keep awhile one parent from the sky.
  • Alexander Pope, Prologue to the Satires, line 408.

• His leaf also shall not wither.
  • Psalms I. 3.

• The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
  • Psalms XC. 10.

• So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
  • Psalms XC. 12.

• Das Alter ist nicht trübe weil darin unsere Freuden, sondern weil unsere Hoffnungen aufhören.

  What makes old age so sad is, not that our joys but that our hopes cease.

  • Jean Paul Richter, Titan, Zykel 34.

• Age has now Stamped with its signet that ingenuous brow.
  • Samuel Rogers, Human Life (1819).

• O, roses for the flush of youth, And laurel for the perfect prime; But pluck an ivy branch for me, Grown old before my time.
  • Christina G. Rossetti, Song, Stanza 1.

• I'm growing fonder of my staff; I'm growing dimmer in the eyes; I'm growing fainter in my laugh; I'm growing deeper in my sighs; I'm growing careless of my dress; I'm growing frugal of my gold; I'm growing wise; I'm growing,—yes,— I'm growing old.
  • Saxe, I'm Growing Old.

• On his bold visage middle age Had slightly press'd its signet sage.
  • Walter Scott, Lady of the Lake (1810), Canto I, Part XXI. (1810).

• Thus pleasures fade away; Youth, talents, beauty, thus decay, And leave us dark, forlorn, and gray.
  • Walter Scott, Marmion (1808), introduction to Canto II, Stanza 7.

• Thus aged men, full loth and slow, The vanities of life forego, And count their youthful follies o'er, Till Memory lends her light no more.
  • Walter Scott, Rokeby, Canto V, Stanza 1.

• Old friends are best. King James us'd to call for his Old Shoes, they were easiest for his Feet.
  • Selden, Table Talk, Friends.

• Nihil turpius est, quam grandis natu senex, qui nullum aliud habet argumentum, quo se probet diu vixisse, præter ætatem.

  Nothing is more dishonourable than an old man, heavy with years, who has no other evidence of his having lived long except his age.

  • Seneca, De Tranquillitate, 3. 7.

• Turpis et ridicula res est elementarius senex: juveni parandum, seni utendum est.

  An old man in his rudiments is a disgraceful object. It is for youth to acquire, and for age to apply.

  • Seneca, Epistolæ Ad Lucilium, XXXVI. 4.

• Senectus insanabilis morbus est.

  Old age is an incurable disease.

  • Seneca, Epistolæ Ad Lucilium, CVIII. 29.

• For we are old, and on our quick'st decrees The inaudible and noiseless foot of Time Steals ere we can effect them.
  • William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well (1600s), Act V, scene 3, line 40.

• Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty; For in my youth I never did apply Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood; Nor did not with unbashful forehead woo The means of weakness and debility; Therefore my age is as a lusty winter, Frosty, but kindly.
  • William Shakespeare, As You Like It (c.1599-1600), Act II, scene 3, line 47.

• All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages. At first the infant, Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms. And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school. And then the lover, Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier, Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard, Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel, Seeking the bubble reputation Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice, In fair round belly with good capon lined, With eyes severe and beard of formal cut, Full of wise saws and modern instances; And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon, With spectacles on nose and pouch on side, His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice, Turning again toward childish treble, pipes And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, That ends this strange eventful history, Is second childishness and mere oblivion, Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans every thing.
  • William Shakespeare, As You Like It (c.1599-1600), Act II, scene 7, line 139. Same idea in Jean de Courcy—Le Chemin de Vaillance. Copy in British Museum, King's MSS. No. 14. E, II. See also Horace—Ars Poetica. 158. (Ages given as four). In the Mishna, the ages are given as 14, by Jehuda, son of Thema. In Plato's (spurious) Dialog. Axiochus, Socrates sums up human life.

• There is an old poor man Oppressed with two weak evils, age and hunger.
  • William Shakespeare, As You Like It (c.1599-1600), Act II, scene 8, line 129.

• Though now this grained face of mine be hid In sap-consuming winter's drizzled snow, And all the conduits of my blood froze up, Yet hath my night of life some memory.
  • William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors, Act V, scene 1, line 311.

• What should we speak of When we are old as you? When we shall hear The rain and wind beat dark December.
  • William Shakespeare, Cymbeline (1611), Act III, scene 3, line 36.

• An old man is twice a child.
  • William Shakespeare, Hamlet (1600-02), Act II, scene 2, line 404.

• At your age, The hey-day in the blood is tame, it's humble, And waits upon the judgment.
  • William Shakespeare, Hamlet (1600-02), Act III, scene 4, line 68.

• Begin to patch up thine old body for heaven.
  • William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part II (c. 1597-99), Act II, scene 4, line 193.

• Some smack of age in you, some relish of the saltness of time.
  • William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part II (c. 1597-99), Act I, scene 2, line 91.

• You are old; As you are old and reverend, you should be wise.
  • William Shakespeare, King Lear (1608), Act I, scene 4, line 261.

• Nature in you stands on the very verge Of her confine.
  • William Shakespeare, King Lear (1608), Act II, scene 4, line 148.

• Pray, do not mock me: I am a very foolish fond old man, Fourscore and upward; not an hour more nor less, And, to deal plainly, I fear I am not in my perfect mind.
  • William Shakespeare, King Lear (1608), Act IV, scene 7, line 59.

• My way of life Is fallen into the sear, the yellow leaf, And that which should accompany old age, As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends, I must not look to have; but, in their stead, Curses not loud, but deep, mouth-honor breath, Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not.
  • William Shakespeare, Macbeth (1605), Act V, scene 3, line 22.

• Superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency lives longer.
  • William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice (late 1590s), Act I, scene 2, line 8.

• Nor age so eat up my invention.
  • William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing (1598-99), Act IV, scene 1, line 192.

• Give me a staff of honor for mine age, But not a sceptre to control the world.
  • William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus (c. 1584-1590), Act I, scene 1, line 198.

• "You are old, Father William," the young man cried, "The few locks which are left you are gray; You are hale, Father William,—a hearty old man: Now tell me the reason, I pray."
  • Robert Southey, The Old Man's Comforts, and how he Gained Them.

• When an old gentleman waggles his head and says: "Ah, so I thought when I was your age," it is not thought an answer at all, if the young man retorts: "My venerable sir, so I shall most probably think when I am yours." And yet the one is as good as the other.
  • Robert Louis Stevenson, Crabbed Age and Youth.

• Every man desires to live long; but no man would be old.
  • Jonathan Swift, Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting.

• I swear she's no chicken; she's on the wrong side of thirty, if she be a day.
  • Jonathan Swift, Polite Conversation (c. 1738), I.

• Vetera extollimus recentium incuriosi.

  We extol ancient things, regardless of our own times.

  • Tacitus, Annales (AD 117), II. 88.

• Vetera semper in laude, præsentia in fastidio.

  Old things are always in good repute, present things in disfavour.

  • Tacitus, Dialogue de Oratoribus, 18.

• An old man is twice a child.
  • John Taylor, The Old, Old, very Old Man (Thomas Parr).

• O good gray head which all men knew.
  • Alfred Tennyson, On the Death of the Duke of Wellington, Stanza 4.

• Age too shines out: and, garrulous, recounts the feats of youth.
  • James Thomson, The Seasons, Autumn (1730), line 1231.

• Annus enim octogesimus admonet me, ut sarcinas colligam, antequam proficiscare vita.

  For my eightieth year warns me to pack up my baggage before I leave life.

  • Varro, De Re Rustica, I, 1.

• For Age with stealing steps Hath clawed me with his crutch.
  • Thomas Vaux, The Aged Lover renounceth Love. (Quoted in Hamlet, Act V, scene 1. Not in quartos).

• Omnia fert ætas, animum quoque.

  Age carries all things away, even the mind.

  • Virgil, Eclogues (c. 37 BC), IX. 51.

• Venerable men! you have come down to us from a former generation. Heaven has bounteously lengthened out your lives, that you might behold this joyous day.
  • Daniel Webster, Address at Laying the Corner-Stone of the Bunker Hill Monument (June 17, 1825).

• Is not old wine wholesomest, old pippins toothsomest, old wood burn brightest, old linen wash whitest? Old soldiers, sweetheart, are surest, and old lovers are soundest.
  • John Webster, Westward Ho, Act II, scene 1.

• Thus fares it still in our decay, And yet the wiser mind Mourns less for what age takes away Than what it leaves behind.
  • William Wordsworth, The Fountain, Stanza 9.

• But an old age serene and bright, And lovely as a Lapland night, Shall lead thee to thy grave.
  • William Wordsworth, To a Young Lady.

• The monumental pomp of age Was with this goodly Personage; A stature undepressed in size, Unbent, which rather seemed to rise In open victory o'er the weight Of seventy years, to loftier height.
  • William Wordsworth, White Doe of Rylstone, Canto III.

Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)

Quotes reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895).

• An aged Christian with the snow of time on his head may remind us that those points of earth are whitest that are nearest heaven.
  • Edwin Hubbell Chapin, p. 439.

• Thanks to that regular and temperate course of life I have ever lived, I am still capable of taking an active part in these public scenes of business. In fine, he who fills up every hour of his life in such kind of labors as those I have mentioned, will insensibly slide into old age without perceiving its arrival; and his powers, instead of being suddenly and prematurely extinguished, will gradually decline by the gentle and natural effect of accumulated years.
  • Cicero, p. 438.

• The day of life spent in honest and benevolent labor comes in hope to an evening calm and lovely; and though the sun declines, the shadows that he leaves behind are only to curtain the spirit unto rest.
  • Henry Giles, p. 438.

• It is not so bad a thing to grow old; it is only getting a little nearer home; a little nearer to immortal youth.
  • Arthur Henry Kenney, p. 439.

• Age is not all decay; it is the ripening, the swelling of the fresh life within, that withers and bursts the husk.
  • George MacDonald, p. 439.

• The second childhood of a saint is the early infancy of a happy immortality, as we believe.
  • William Mountford, p. 438.

• The years of old age are stalls in the cathedral of life in which for aged men to sit and listen and meditate and be patient till the service is over, and in which they may get themselves ready to say "Amen" at the last, with all their hearts and souls and strength.
  • William Mountford, p. 439.

• My God! my time is in Thine hands. Should it please Thee to lengthen my life, and complete, as Thou hast begun, the work of blanching my locks, grant me grace to wear them as a crown of unsullied honor.
  • Christian Scriver, p. 439.

Unsourced

• Age has a good mind and sorry shanks.
  • Pietro Aretino

• Alonso of Aragon was wont to say in commendation of age, that age appears to be best in four things, —- old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.
  • Francis Bacon

• I believe the true function of age is memory. I'm recording as fast as I can.
  • Rita Mae Brown

• A man's only as old as the woman he feels.
  • Groucho Marx

• Growing old is no more than a bad habbit which a busy man has no time to form.
  • André Maurois, quoted in The Aging American

• An old man loved is winter with flowers.
  • German proverb

• I think age is a very high price to pay for maturity.
  • Tom Stoppard

• Regrets are the natural property of grey hairs.
  • Charles Dickens

• The whole business of marshaling one's energies becomes more and more important as one grows older.
  • Hume Cronyn

• There are only three ages for women in Hollywood — Babe, District Attorney, and Driving Miss Daisy.
  • Goldie Hawn

• Times go by: reputation increases, ability declines.
  • Dag Hammarskjold

• To me, old age is always fifteen years older than I am.
  • Bernard Baruch

• We are always the same age inside.
  • Gertrude Stein

• When a man retires and time is no longer a matter of urgent importance, his colleagues generally present him with a watch.
  • R. C. Sherriff

• When you become senile, you won't know it.
  • Bill Cosby

• When young we are faithful to individuals, when older we grow loyal to situations and to types.
  • Cyril Connolly

• When your friends begin to flatter you on how young you look, it's a sure sign you're getting old.
  • Mark Twain

• You will become a hypocrite, you'll become a liar. You'll try and paper up your own cracks... and that's what being an adult is all about. Then you have babies and... that's it. Sorry!
  • Thom Yorke

• Your life only tips into old age if regrets begin to outnumber dreams.
  • Peter Baskerville

• My secret to a long, healthy life is to always keep working. It keeps me busy and happy, and gives me a reason to stay alive.
  • Johannes Heesters (Dutch-German actor, singer, entertainer and media-personality, worlds oldest living performer)

Anonymous

• Age before beauty.

• Age brings wisdom, but pain brings understanding.

• Age is a bad traveling companion.
  • English proverb

• To be mature is to accept imperfections
  • Fortune cookie

• Age is nothing but a number
  • Dove Chocolate Promise Message

• There are no charms or medicine against old age.
  • Anonymous, quoted in The Journal of Negro History, Edited by Carter G. Woodson, Volume 1 Number 1 (1916).

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