Age

“So may'st thou live, till like ripe fruit thou dropGather'd, not harshly pluck'd, for death mature.”

“So Life's year begins and closes;Age still leaves us friends and wine.”

“We age inevitably:And at last comes equanimity and the flame burning clear.”

“Thyself no more deceive, thy youth hath fled.”

“Why will you break the Sabbath of my days?Now sick alike of Envy and of Praise.”

“Learn to live well, or fairly make your will;Comes tittering on, and shoves you from the stage.”

“Me let the tender office long engageAnd keep awhile one parent from the sky.”

“His leaf also shall not wither.”

“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.”

“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”

“The longer I live, the more urgent it seems to me to endure and transcribe the whole dictation of existence up to its end, for it might just be the case that only the very last sentence contains that small and possibly inconspicuous word through which everything we had struggled to learn and everything we had failed to understand will be transformed suddenly into magnificent sense.”

“Age has nowStamped with its signet that ingenuous brow.”

“O, roses for the flush of youth,Grown old before my time.”

“I'm growing fonder of my staff;I'm growing old.”

“Thus pleasures fade away;And leave us dark, forlorn, and gray.”

“Thus aged men, full loth and slow,Till Memory lends her light no more.”

“Old friends are best. King James us'd to call for his Old Shoes, they were easiest for his Feet.”

“Every pleasure defers to its last its greatest delights.”

“For we are old, and on our quick'st decreesSteals ere we can effect them.”

“Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty;Frosty, but kindly.”

“There is an old poor manOppressed with two weak evils, age and hunger.”

“Though now this grained face of mine be hidYet hath my night of life some memory.”

“What should we speak ofThe rain and wind beat dark December.”

“An old man is twice a child.”

“At your age,And waits upon the judgment.”

“Begin to patch up thine old body for heaven.”

“Some smack of age in you, some relish of the saltness of time.”

“You are old;As you are old and reverend, you should be wise.”

“Nature in you stands on the very vergeOf her confine.”

“Pray, do not mock me:I fear I am not in my perfect mind.”

“My way of lifeWhich the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not.”

“Superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency lives longer.”

“Nor age so eat up my invention.”

“Give me a staff of honor for mine age,But not a sceptre to control the world.”

“You are old, Father William," the young man cried,Now tell me the reason, I pray.”

“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.”

“Every man desires to live long; but no man would be old.”

“I swear she's no chicken; she's on the wrong side of thirty, if she be a day.”

“An old man is twice a child.”

“O good gray head which all men knew.”

“Age too shines out: and, garrulous, recounts the feats of youth.”

“For Age with stealing stepsHath clawed me with his crutch.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Thus fares it still in our decay,Than what it leaves behind.”

“But an old age serene and bright,Shall lead thee to thy grave.”

“The monumental pomp of ageOf seventy years, to loftier height.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“It is not so bad a thing to grow old; it is only getting a little nearer home; a little nearer to immortal youth.”

“Age is not all decay; it is the ripening, the swelling of the fresh life within, that withers and bursts the husk.”

“The second childhood of a saint is the early infancy of a happy immortality, as we believe.”

“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.”

“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.”

“When an untaught, run-of-the-mill person, himself subject to aging, not beyond aging, sees another who is aged, he is horrified, humiliated, & disgusted, oblivious to himself that he too is subject to aging, not beyond aging. If I – who am subject to aging, not beyond aging – were to be horrified, humiliated, & disgusted on seeing another person who is aged, that would not be fitting for me.”

“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.”

“No one is so old that he does not think he could live another year.”

“Let no one be slow to seek wisdom when he is young nor weary in search thereof when he is grown old. For no age is too early or too late for the health of the soul. And to say that the season for studying philosophy has not yet come, or that it is past and gone, is like saying that the season for happiness is not yet or that it is now no more.”

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

“Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man”

“One should pay attention to an old man's words. One should submit oneself to his protection.”

“The instructions of an old man are precious.”

“Age is deformed, youth unkind,We scorn their bodies, they our mind.”

“If youth only knew; if only age could.”

“I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.”

“An old goat is never the more reverend for his beard.”

“Old age is not so fiery as youth, but when once provoked cannot be appeased.”

“Age imprints more wrinkles on the mind than it does on the face.”

“That time of year thou mayst in me beholdBare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.”

“As we grow old....the beauty turns inward.”

“When grace is joined with wrinkles, it is adorable. There is an unspeakable dawn in happy old age.”

“There is nothing so unreasonable as infancy, excepting the maturer stages of life.”

“Old age deprives the intelligent man only of qualities useless to wisdom.”

“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?”

“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.”

“I recently turned 60. Practically a third of my life is over.”

“When you're forty, half of you belongs to the past — and when you're seventy, nearly all of you.”

“The land of easy mathematics where he who works adds up and he who retires subtracts.”

“Old age is like learning a new profession. And not one of your own choosing.”

“Nothing is so hateful to the philistine as the "dreams of his youth." ... For what appeared to him in his dreams was the voice of the spirit, calling him once, as it does everyone. It is of this that youth always reminds him, eternally and ominously. That is why he is antagonistic toward youth.”

“Age is strictly a case of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.”

“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.”

“The years swarm around me like midges, and though each tiny bite only costs me a single drop of blood, they are so thick I am nearly bled dry.”

“Old age isn’t so bad when you consider the alternative.”

“A man is as old as he's feeling, a woman is as old as she looks.”

“At times it seems to me that I am living my life backwards, and that at the approach of old age my real youth will begin. My soul was born covered with wrinkles—wrinkles my ancestors and parents most assiduously put there and that I had the greatest trouble removing.”

“To an old man any place that's warm is homeland.”

“Pilkington, at Mombasa, had produced individuals who were sexually mature at four and full-grown at six and a half. A scientific triumph. But socially useless. Six-year-old men and women were too stupid to do even Epsilon work. And the process was an all-or-nothing one; either you failed to modify at all, or else you modified the whole way. They were still trying to find the ideal compromise between adults of twenty and adults of six. So far without success. Mr. Foster sighed and shook his head.”

“Old age is like an opium-dream. Nothing seems real except what is unreal.”

“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.”

“Perhaps being old is having lighted rooms inside your head, and having people in them, acting. People you know, yet can't quite name.”

“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.”

“Never respect years, only deeds.”

“Will nature make a man of me yet?”

“Old age has its pleasures, which though different, are not less than the pleasures of youth.”

“Growing old is no more than a bad habit which a busy man has no time to form.”

“The real affliction of old age is remorse.”

“There are so few who can grow old with a good grace.”

“People don't grow up — they just begin to overestimate their own importance.”

“Old age is the most unexpected of things that can happen to a man.”

“Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years; people grow old by deserting their ideals.”

“No two moments in the life of an individual are exactly alike; there is between the later and the earlier periods only the similarity of the higher and lower parts of a spiral ascent.”

“Older people are most beautiful when they have what is lacking in the young: poise, , wisdom, , and this post-heroic absence of agitation.”

“Much of aging comes from a misunderstanding of the effect of comfort.”

“There are some people who imagine that older adults don't know how to use the internet. My immediate reaction is, "I've got news for you, we invented it."”

“Nothing makes a man feel older than a young woman.”

“It is always in season for old men to learn.”

“Weak withering age no rigid law forbids,Gliblier to play.”

“What is it to grow old?Yes; but not this alone.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.”

“Old age comes on apace to ravage all the clime.”

“An old man in a house is a good sign in a house.”

“Old age doth in sharp pains abound;Alas! my fifty years are past!”

“By candle-light nobody would have taken you for above five-and-twenty.”

“Age shakes Athena's tower, but spares gray Marathon.”

“What is the worst of woes that wait on age?And be alone on earth as I am now.”

“He has grown aged in this world of woe,So that no wonder waits him.”

“Years stealAnd life's enchanted cup but sparkles near the brim.”

“Oh, for one hour of blind old Dandolo,Th' octogenarian chief, Byzantium's conquering foe!”

“Just as old age is creeping on apace,But in good company—the gout or stone.”

“My days are in the yellow leaf;Are mine alone!”

“For oute of olde feldys, as men sey,Comyth al this newe science that men lere.”

“I think every man is a fool or a physician at thirty years of age.”

“The spring, like youth, fresh blossoms doth produce,On the green promises of youthful heat.”

“His eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.”

“Youth is a blunder; Manhood a struggle; Old Age a regret.”

“The Disappointment of Manhood succeeds to the delusion of Youth; let us hope that the heritage of Old Age is not Despair.”

“No Spring nor Summer Beauty hath such graceAs I have seen in one Autumnal face.”

“Fate seem'd to wind him up for fourscore years;The wheels of weary life at last stood still.”

“His hair just grizzledAs in a green old age.”

“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.”

“Nature abhors the old.”

“We do not count a man's years, until he has nothing else to count.”

“Remote from cities liv'd a Swain,And long experience made him sage.”

“In a good old age.”

“Old and well stricken in age.”

“She may very well pass for forty-three,In the dusk with a light behind her.”

“One often says to oneself … that one ought to avoid having too many different businesses, to avoid becoming a jack-of-all-trades, and that the older one gets, the more one ought to avoid entering into new business. But … the very fact of growing older means taking up a new business; all our circumstances change, and we must either stop doing anything at all or else willing and consciously take on the new role we have to play on life’s stage.”

“Old age is courteous—no one more:And then they cry, "A cool one, indeed."”

“O blest retirement! friend to life's decline—A youth of labour with an age of ease!”

“I love everything that's old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wine.”

“They say women and music should never be dated.”

“Alike all ages: dames of ancient daysHas frisk'd beneath the burthen of threescore.”

“Slow-consuming age.”

“Struggle and turmoil, revel and brawl—These are a type of the world of Age.”

“To be seventy years young is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful than to be forty years old.”

“You hear that boy laughing? You think he's all fun;And the poor man that knows him laughs loudest of all!”

“A green old age, unconscious of decays,That proves the hero born in better days.”

“When he's forsaken,What can an old man do but die?”

“Boys must not have th' ambitious care of men,Nor men the weak anxieties of age.”

“Ladies, stock and tend your hive,Must begin by thirty-five.”

“Superfluous lags the veteran on the stage,And bids afflicted worth retire to peace.”

“The sunshine fails, the shadows grow more dreary,And I am near to fall, infirm and weary.”

“How far the gulf-stream of our youth may flowWhere little else than life itself survives.”

“Whatever poet, orator, or sageMay say of it, old age is still old age.”

“For age is opportunity no lessThe sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.”

“And the bright faces of my young companionsAre wrinkled like my own, or are no more.”

“The course of my long life hath reached at last,Account of all the actions of the past.”

“Age is not all decay; it is the ripening, the swelling, of the fresh life within, that withers and bursts the husk.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Set is the sun of my years;I sit in my darkness and tears.”

“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.”

“The ages rollBut to have done, and to have been, before I cease to do and be.”