The only time you really live fully is from thirty to sixty. The young are slaves to dreams; the old servants of regrets. Only the middle-aged have all their five senses in the keeping of their wits.
—Hervey Allen (1889–1949) American Writer
They are all gone into the world of light, and I alone sit lingering here.
—Henry Vaughan (1621–95) Anglo-Welsh Metaphysical Poet
When you retire you go from Who’s Who to Who’s That?
—Walter Wriston (1919–2005) American Banker
A graceful and honorable old age is the childhood of immortality.
—Pindar (c.518–c.438 BCE) Greek Lyric Poet
You know you’re getting old when all the names in your black book have M. D. after them.
—Arnold Palmer (b.1929) American Sportsperson
The mind that is wise mourns less for what age takes away; than what it leaves behind.
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Poet
Last spring I stopped frolicking with the mince pie after midnight. Up to then I had always believed it wasn’t loaded.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
How confusing the beams from memory’s lamp are;
One day a bachelor, the next a grampa.
What is the secret of the trick?
How did I get so old so quick?
—Ogden Nash (1902–71) American Writer of Sophisticated Light Verse
I suppose real old age begins when one looks backward rather than forward.
—May Sarton (1912–95) American Children’s Books Writer, Poet, Novelist
Growing old isn’t so bad when you consider the alternative.
—Maurice Chevalier (1888–1972) French Actor, Singer
Talking is the disease of age.
—Ben Jonson (1572–1637) English Dramatist, Poet, Actor
A man is as old as he feels and a woman as old as she looks.
—Common Proverb
With care, and skill, and cunning art, She parried Time’s malicious dart, And kept the years at bay, Till passion entered in her heart and aged her in a day!
—Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850–1919) American Poet, Journalist
That old man dies prematurely whose memory records no benefits conferred. They only have lived long who have lived virtuously.
—Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) Irish-born British Playwright, Poet, Elected Rep
While one finds company in himself and his pursuits, he cannot feel old, no matter what his years may be.
—Amos Bronson Alcott (1799–1888) American Teacher, Writer, Philosopher
Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made:
Our times are in His hand
Who saith ‘A whole I planned,
Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!’
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Age withers only the outside.
—Unknown
I guess I don’t so much mind being old, as I mind being fat and old.
—Peter Gabriel (b.1950) English Singer-Songwriter
People don’t grow old. When they stop growing, they become old.
—Anonymous
I married an archaeologist because the older I grow, the more he appreciates me.
—Agatha Christie (1890–1976) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
As you get older there shouldn’t be anything you won’t try. The payoff is that you open up whole new avenues that are fun. It’s a misinterpretation of life to live it only in preparation for the next one. To subordinate the one you’ve got to an indefinite next round is foolish. It’s a waste of this life not to live this life. What’s next is anybody’s guess.
—Malcolm S. Forbes (1919–1990) American Publisher, Businessperson
You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear, as young as your hope, as old as your despair.
—Douglas MacArthur (1880–1964) American Military Leader
Few women, I fear, have had such reason as I have to think the long sad years of youth were worth living for the sake of middle age.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are.
—Satchel Paige (1906–82) American Baseball Player
Like a morning dream, life becomes more and more bright the longer we live, and the reason of everything appears more clear. What has puzzled us before seems less mysterious, and the crooked paths look straighter as we approach the end.
—Jean Paul (1763–1825) German Novelist, Humorist
It is not how old you are, but how you are old.
—Marie Dressler (1868–1934) American-Canadian Actress
I would not say that old men grow wise, for men never grow wise; and many old men retain a very attractive childishness and cheerful innocence. Elderly people are often much more romantic than younger people, and sometimes even more adventurous, having begun to realize how many things they do not know.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
Old age is a shipwreck.
—Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) French General, Statesman
The war years count double. Things and people not actively in use age twice as fast.
—Arnold Bennett (1867–1931) British Novelist, Playwright, Critic
I’m not interested in age. People who tell me their age are silly. You’re as old as you feel.
—Henri Frederic Amiel (1821–81) Swiss Moral Philosopher, Poet, Critic
As I approve of a youth that has something of the old man in him, so I am no less pleased with an old man that has something of the youth. He that follows this rule may be old in body, but can never be so in mind.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
Here, with whitened hair, desires failing, strength ebbing out of him, with the sun gone down and with only the serenity and the calm warning of the evening star left to him, he drank to Life, to all it had been, to what it was, to what it would be. Hurrah!
—Sean O’Casey (1880–1964) Irish Dramatist, Memoirist
How can I die? I’m booked.
—George Burns (1896–1996) American Comedian
At twenty a man is full of fight and hope. He wants to reform the world. When he is seventy he still wants to reform the world, but he know he can’t.
—Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) American Civil Liberties Lawyer
With maturity comes the wish to economize—to be more simple. Maturity is the period when one finds the just measure.
—Bela Bartok (1881–1945) Hungarian Composer, Ethnomusicologist
Age does not matter if the matter does not age.
—Carlos P. Romulo (1899–1985) Philippine Diplomat, Politician, Journalist, Author
Wisdom doesn’t necessarily come with age. Sometimes age just shows up all by itself.
—Tom Wilson (1931–2011) American Cartoonist
Growing old is like being increasingly penalized for a crime you haven’t committed.
—Anthony Powell (1905–2000) English Novelist, Memoirist
The really frightening thing about middle age is the knowledge that you’ll grow out of it.
—Doris Day (1924–2019) American Actor, Singer, Animal Rights Activist
Women over fifty already form one of the largest groups in the population structure of the western world. As long as they like themselves, they will not be an oppressed minority. In order to like themselves they must reject trivialization by others of who and what they are. A grown woman should not have to masquerade as a girl in order to remain in the land of the living.
—Germaine Greer (b.1939) Australia Academic, Journalist, Scholar, Writer
One pleasure attached to growing older is that many things seem to be growing younger; growing fresher and more lively than we once supposed them to be.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
The first half of life consists of the capacity to enjoy without the chance; the last half consists of the chance without the capacity.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
The aging process has you firmly in its grasp if you never get the urge to throw a snowball.
—Doug Larson (1926–2017) American Columnist
If you wait, all that happens is that you get older.
—Larry McMurtry (b.1936) American Novelist, Screenwriter
How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth, stolen on his wing my three-and-twentieth year!
—John Milton (1608–74) English Poet, Civil Servant, Scholar, Debater
Youth is a blunder, manhood is a struggle and old age a regret.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
O what a thing is age! Death without death’s quiet.
—Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864) English Writer, Poet
Old age has deformities enough of its own. It should never add to them the deformity of vice.
—Cato the Elder (Marcus Porcius Cato) (234–149 BCE) Roman Statesman
I will never be an old man. To me, old age is always 15 years older than I am.
—Bernard M. Baruch (1870–1965) American Financier, Economic Consultant
How beautifully leaves grow old. How full of light and color are their last days.
—John Burroughs (1837–1921) American Naturalist, Writer