You can drop an awful lot of excess baggage if you learn to play with life instead of fight it.
—Susan Jeffers (1938–2012) American Psychologist, Self-Help Author
Age, like distance lends a double charm.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
A comfortable old age is the reward of a well-spent youth. Instead of its bringing sad and melancholy prospects of decay, it would give us hopes of eternal youth in a better world.
—Lydia Maria Child (1802–80) American Abolitionist, Writer
We grow gray in our spirit long before we grow gray in our hair.
—Charles Lamb (1775–1834) British Essayist, Poet
Youth is a blunder, manhood is a struggle and old age a regret.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Age seldom arrives smoothly or quickly. It’s more often a succession of jerks.
—Jean Rhys (1890–1979) British Novelist, Short-story Writer
Perfection of means and confusion of goals seem, in my opinion, to characterize our age.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
There is always some specific moment when we realize our youth is gone; but years after, we know it was much later.
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author
As we advance in life the circle of our pains enlarges, while that of our pleasures contracts.
—Sophie Swetchine (1782–1857) Russian Mystic, Writer
Morale is the state of mind. It is steadfastness and courage and hope. It is confidence and zeal and loyalty. It is elan, esprit de corps and determination.
—George Marshall (1880–1959) American Military Leader
I have made a plan for my life, as I am in my teens, and no more a child. I am old for my age and don’t care much for girls’ things. People think I’m wild and queer; but mother understands and helps me. I have not told anyone about my plans but I am going to be good… . Now I’m going to work really, for I feel a desire to improve and be a help and comfort, not a care and sorrow to my dear mother.
—Louisa May Alcott (1832–88) American Novelist
You must become an old man in good time if you wish to be an old man long.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
How do you live a long life? “Take a two-mile walk every morning before breakfast.”
—Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) American Head of State
Old age comes on suddenly, and not gradually as is thought.
—Emily Dickinson (1830–86) American Poet
It takes a long time to become young.
—Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish Painter, Sculptor, Artist
You can free yourself from aging by reinterpreting your body and by grasping the link between belief and biology.
—Deepak Chopra (b.1946) Indian-born American Physician, Public Speaker, Writer
I don’t know about you, but where I went to school, Money Management 101 wasn’t offered. Instead we learned about the War of 1812, which of course is something I use every single day.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
In youth one has tears without grief; in age, griefs without tears.
—Philibert Joseph Roux (1780–1854) French Surgeon
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
Poor people either mismanage their money or they avoid the subject of money altogether.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
A man is as old as he feels and a woman as old as she looks.
—Common Proverb
Every man who has lived for fifty years has buried a whole world or even two; he has grown used to its disappearance and accustomed to the new scenery of another act: but suddenly the names and faces of a time long dead appear more and more often on his way, calling up series of shades and pictures kept somewhere, “just in case,” in the endless catacombs of the memory, making him smile or sigh, and sometimes almost weep.
—Alexander Herzen (1812–70) Russian Revolutionary, Writer
I think in twenty years I’ll be looked at like Bob Hope. Doing those president jokes and golf shit. It scares me.
—Eddie Murphy (b.1961) American Actor
Thirty—the promise of a decade of loneliness, a thinning list of single men to know, a thinning brief-case of enthusiasm, thinning hair.
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American Novelist
An important antidote to American democracy is American gerontocracy. The positions of eminence and authority in Congress are allotted in accordance with length of service, regardless of quality. Superficial observers have long criticized the United States for making a fetish of youth. This is unfair. Uniquely among modern organs of public and private administration, its national legislature rewards senility.
—John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) Canadian-Born American Economist
One of the delights known to age, and beyond the grasp of youth, is that of Not Going.
—J. B. Priestley (1894–1984) English Novelist, Playwright, Critic
After thirty, a body has a mind of its own.
—Bette Midler (b.1945) American Actress, Singer
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
I have enjoyed greatly the second blooming that comes when you finish the life of the emotions and of personal relations; and suddenly find—at the age of fifty, say—that a whole new life has opened before you, filled with things you can think about, study, or read about…It is as if a fresh sap of ideas and thoughts was rising in you.
—Agatha Christie (1890–1976) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
He who is of a calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age, but to him who is of an opposite disposition youth and age are equally a burden.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
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