Whenever a man’s friends begin to compliment him about looking young, he may be sure that they think he is growing old.
—Washington Irving (1783–1859) American Essayist, Biographer, Historian
When men grow virtuous in their old age, they only make a sacrifice to God of the devil’s leavings.
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Irish Satirist
Middle age is the time when a man is always thinking that in a week or two he will feel as good as ever.
—Don Marquis (1878–1937) American Humorist, Journalist, Author
He was then in his fifty-fourth year, when even in the case of poets reason and passion begin to discuss a peace treaty and usually conclude it not very long afterwards.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
Age is not important unless you’re a cheese.
—Helen Hayes (1900–93) American Actor, Philanthropist
Someday you will read in the papers that Moody is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it. At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now. I was born of the flesh in 1837, I was born of the spirit in 1855. That which is born of the flesh may die. That which is born of the Spirit shall live forever.
—Dwight L. Moody (1837–99) Christian Religious Leader, Publisher
In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it. The last is much the worst; the last is a real tragedy!
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Our youth and manhood are due to our country, but our declining years are due to ourselves.
—Pliny the Elder (23–79) Roman Statesman, Scholar
Old age is fifteen years older than I am.
—Bernard M. Baruch (1870–1965) American Financier, Economic Consultant
As we advance in life the circle of our pains enlarges, while that of our pleasures contracts.
—Sophie Swetchine (1782–1857) Russian Mystic, Writer
Seeing God without seeing the Self, one sees only mental image. Only he who has seen Himself has seen God, since he has lost individuality, and now sees nothing but God.
—Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950) Indian Hindu Mystic
You know you’re getting old when you stop to tie your shoes and wonder what else you can do while you’re down there.
—George Burns (1896–1996) American Comedian
The average man is a conformist, accepting miseries and disasters with the stoicism of a cow standing in the rain.
—Colin Wilson (b.1931) British Philosopher, Novelist
You can judge your age by the amount of pain you feel when you come in contact with a new idea.
—John Nuveen
Now everything changed. My childhood world was breaking apart around me. My parents eyed me with a certain embarrassment. My sisters had become strangers to me. A disenchantment falsified and blunted my usual feelings and joys: the garden lacked fragrance, the woods held no attraction for me, the world stood around me like a clearance sale of last year’s secondhand goods, insipid, all its charm gone. Books were so much paper, music a grating noise. That is the way leaves fall around a tree in autumn, a tree unaware of the rain running down its sides, of the sun or the frost, and of life gradually retreating inward. The tree does not die. It waits.
—Hermann Hesse (1877–1962) German-born Swiss Novelist, Poet
If you associate enough with older people who do enjoy their lives, who are not stored away in any golden ghettos, you will gain a sense of continuity and of the possibility for a full life.
—Margaret Mead (1901–78) American Anthropologist, Social Psychologist
Time and trouble will tame an advanced young woman, but an advanced old woman is uncontrollable by any earthly force.
—Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957) British Crime Writer
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
To have courage, one must first be afraid. The deeper the fear, the more difficult the climb toward courage.
—Jim Bishop (1907–87) American Journalist, Author
We do not stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.
—Unknown
Age does not make us childish, as some say; it finds us true children.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
The mind that is wise mourns less for what age takes away; than what it leaves behind.
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Poet
How beautiful can time with goodness make an old man look.
—Douglas William Jerrold (1803–57) English Writer, Dramatist, Wit
One’s mind suffers only when one is young and while one is ignorant of the world. When one has lived for some time, one learns that the young think too little and the old too much, and one grows careless about both.
—Hugh Walpole (1884–1941) English Novelist, Short Story Writer, Dramatist
Old age is like climbing a mountain. The higher you get, the more tired and breathless you become, but your view becomes much more extensive.
—Ingmar Bergman (1918–2007) Swedish Film and Stage Director
I venerate old age; and I love not the man who can look without emotion upon the sunset of life, when the dusk of evening begins to gather over the watery eye, and the shadows of twilight grow broader and deeper upon the understanding.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
Middle Age is that perplexing time of life when we hear two voices calling us, one saying, “Why not?” and the other, “Why bother?”
—Sydney J. Harris (1917–86) American Essayist, Drama Critic
An old man is a trouble in the house; an old woman is a treasure in the house.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
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
A man is as old as he feels and a woman as old as she looks.
—Common Proverb
At eighty-eight how do you feel when getting up in the morning? … Amazed!
—Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973) Austrian Economist, Philosopher, Author
An aged Christian, with the snow of time upon his head, may remind us that those points of earth are whitest which are nearest to heaven.
—Edwin Hubbell Chapin (1814–80) American Preacher, Poet
Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.
—Ambrose Hollingworth Redmoon (James Neil Hollingworth)
Men who have reached and passed forty-five, have a look as if waiting for the secret of the other world, and as if they were perfectly sure of having found out the secret of this.
—Benjamin Haydon (1786–1846) English Painter, Writer
The older you get the stronger the wind gets — and it’s always in your face.
—Jack Nicklaus (b.1940) American Sportsperson
What makes old age hard to bear is not the failing of one’s faculties, mental and physical, but the burden of one’s memories.
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
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
If someone wants a piece of you, never let them pay. What you do not give to them time takes anyway.
—Jimmy Buffett (b.1946) American Musician, Author
Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
Old age is an excellent time for outrage. My goal is to say or do at least one outrageous thing every week.
—Louis Kronenberger (1904–80) American Drama, Literary Critic
Old age is like a plane flying through a storm. Once you’re aboard, there’s nothing you can do. You can’t stop the plane, you can’t stop the storm, you can’t stop time. So one might as well accept it calmly, wisely.
—Golda Meir (1898–1978) Israeli Head of State
Age is not a particularly interesting subject. Anyone can get old. All you have to do is live long enough.
—Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American Actor, Comedian, Singer
I don’t believe one grows older. I think that what happens early on in life is that at a certain age one stands still and stagnates.
—T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) American-born British Poet, Dramatist, Literary Critic
Forty is the old age of youth; fifty the youth of old age.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
Age seldom arrives smoothly or quickly. It’s more often a succession of jerks.
—Jean Rhys (1890–1979) British Novelist, Short-story Writer
When we are out of sympathy with the young, then I think our work in this world is over.
—George MacDonald (1824–1905) Scottish Novelist, Lecturer, Poet
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
There are compensations for growing older. One is the realization that to be sporting isn’t at all necessary. It is a great relief to reach this stage of wisdom.
—Cornelia Otis Skinner (1899–1979) American Actress, Playwright
Being over seventy is like being engaged in a war. All our friends are going or gone and we survive amongst the dead and the dying as on a battlefield.
—Muriel Spark (1918–2006) Scottish Novelist, Short-story Writer, Poet
A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman’s birthday but never remembers her age.
—Robert Frost (1874–1963) American Poet
Some old men, by continually praising the time of their youth, would almost persuade us that there were no fools in those days; but unluckily they are left themselves for examples.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
Middle age: The time when you’ll do anything to feel better, except give up what is hurting you.
—Robert Quillen (1887–1948) American Journalist, Humorist
Getting old is a fascination thing. The older you get, the older you want to get.
—Keith Richards (b.1943) English Singer, Songwriter, Musician, Actor
Except ye become as little children, except you can wake on your fiftieth birthday with the same forward-looking excitement and interest in life that you enjoyed when you were five, “ye cannot enter the kingdom of God.” One must not only die daily, but every day we must be born again.
—Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957) British Crime Writer
We are happier in many ways when we are old than when we were young. The young sow wild oats. The old grow sage.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
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
The idea is to die young as late as possible.
—Ashley Montagu (1905–1999) British-American Anthropologist
A man of eighty has outlived probably three new schools of painting, two of architecture and poetry and a hundred in dress.
—Joyce Cary (1888–1957) English Novelist, Artist
I think middle-age is the best time, if we can escape the fatty degeneration of the conscience which often sets in at about fifty.
—William Motter Inge (1913–73) American Playwright, Novelist
God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.
—Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971) American Christian Theologian
A woman has the age she deserves.
—Coco Chanel (1883–1971) French Fashion Designer
When we are young, we are slavishly employed in procuring something whereby we may live comfortably when we grow old; and when we are old, we I perceive it is too late to live as we proposed.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
I’m very pleased with each advancing year. It stems back to when I was forty. I was a bit upset about reaching that milestone, but an older friend consoled me. ‘Don’t complain about growing old – many, many people do not have that privilege’.
—Earl Warren (1891–1974) American Judge, Politician
I married an archaeologist because the older I grow, the more he appreciates me.
—Agatha Christie (1890–1976) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
You don’t develop courage by being happy in your relationships everyday. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.
—Barbara De Angelis (b.1951) American Lecturer, Author, TV Personality, Motivational Speaker
The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes, in seeing the universe with the eyes of another, of hundreds of others, in seeing the hundreds of universes that each of them sees.
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922) French Novelist
Old times never come back and I suppose it’s just as well. What comes back is a new morning every day in the year, and that’s better.
—George Edward Woodberry (1855–1930) American Literary Critic, Poet
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
The results of life are uncalculated and uncalculable. The years teach much which the days never know. The persons who compose our company, converse, and come and go, and design and execute many things, and somewhat comes of it all, but an unlooked for result. The individual is always mistaken. He designed many things, and drew in other persons as coadjutors, quarrelled with some or all, blundered much, and something is done; all are a little advanced, but the individual is always mistaken. It turns out somewhat new, and very unlike what he promised himself.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The last birthday that’s any good is 23.
—Andy Rooney (b.1919) American Writer, Humorist, TV Personality
Few people know how to be old.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the judgment that something is more important than fear. The brave may not live forever but the cautious do not live at all.
—Unknown
There cannot live a more unhappy creature than an ill-natured old man, who is neither capable of receiving pleasures, nor sensible of conferring them on others.
—William Temple (1881–1944) British Clergyman, Theologian
One need only grow old to become gentler in one’s judgments. I see no fault committed which I could not have committed myself.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
For in all the world there are no people so piteous and forlorn as those who are forced to eat the bitter bread of dependency in their old age, and find how steep are the stairs of another man’s house. Wherever they go they know themselves unwelcome. Wherever they are, they feel themselves a burden. There is no humiliation of the spirit they are not forced to endure. Their hearts are scarred all over with the stabs from cruel and callous speeches.
—Dorothy Dix (1861–1951) American Journalist, Columnist
To think, when one is no longer young, when one is not yet old, that one is no longer young, that one is not yet old, that is perhaps something.
—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989) Irish Novelist, Playwright
One of the aged greatest miseries is that they cannot easily find a companion able to share the memories of the past.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
There are people who, like houses, are beautiful in dilapidation.
—Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946) American-British Essayist, Bibliophile
Wisdom doesn’t necessarily come with age. Sometimes age just shows up all by itself.
—Tom Wilson (1931–2011) American Cartoonist
All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
To be 70 years young is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful than to be 40 years old.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
What a man knows at fifty that he did not know at twenty is for the most part incommunicable.
—Adlai Stevenson (1900–65) American Diplomat, Politician, Orator
A good marriage is one which allows for change and growth in the individuals and in the way they express their love.
—Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American Novelist, Human Rights Activist
The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
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
Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you’ve got to start young.
—Fred Astaire (1899–1987) American Actor, Dancer, Singer
How incessant and great are the ills with which a prolonged old age is replete.
—Juvenal (c.60–c.136 CE) Roman Poet
When one becomes indifferent to women, to children, and to young people, he may know that he is superannuated, and has withdrawn from what is sweetest and purest in human existence.
—Amos Bronson Alcott (1799–1888) American Teacher, Writer, Philosopher
When we are old and these rejoicing veins
Are frosty channels to a muted stream,
And out of all our burning there remains
No feeblest spark to fire us, even in dream,
This be our solace: that it was not said
When we were young and warm and in our prime,
Upon our couch we lay as lie the dead,
Sleeping away the unreturning time.
—Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950) American Poet, Playwright, Feminist
What’s a man’s age? He must hurry more, that’s all; Cram in a day, what his youth took a year to hold.
—Robert Browning (1812–89) English Poet
Perhaps being old is having lighted rooms inside your head, and people in them, acting. People you know, yet can’t quite name.
—Philip Larkin (1922–85) English Poet, Librarian, Novelist
They are all gone into the world of light, and I alone sit lingering here.
—Henry Vaughan (1621–95) Anglo-Welsh Metaphysical Poet
When grace is joined with wrinkles, it is adorable. There is an unspeakable dawn in happy old age.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
Years do not make sages; they only make old men.
—Sophie Swetchine (1782–1857) Russian Mystic, Writer
Growing old is like being increasingly penalized for a crime you haven’t committed.
—Anthony Powell (1905–2000) English Novelist, Memoirist
Getting older is no problem. You just have to live long enough.
—Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American Actor, Comedian, Singer
Thirst of power and of riches now bear sway, the passion and infirmity of age.
—James Anthony Froude (1818–94) British Historian, Novelist, Biographer, Editor
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
Growing old isn’t so bad when you consider the alternative.
—Maurice Chevalier (1888–1972) French Actor, Singer
No man was ever so completely skilled in the conduct of life, as not to receive new information from age and experience.
—Terence (c.195–159 BCE) Roman Comic Dramatist
It is reported that more than 90% of what we worry about never happens. That means that our negative worries have less than a 10% chance of being correct. If this is so, isn’t being positive more realistic than being negative? Think about your own life. I’ll wager that most of what you worry about never happens. So are you being realistic when you worry all the time? No!
—Susan Jeffers (1938–2012) American Psychologist, Self-Help Author
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
By the time we hit fifty, we have learned our hardest lessons. We have found out that only a few things are really important. We have learned to take life seriously, but never ourselves.
—Marie Dressler (1868–1934) American-Canadian Actress
To keep the heart unwrinkled, to be hopeful, kindly, cheerful, reverent that is to triumph over old age.
—Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836-1907) American Writer, Poet, Critic, Editor.
Age is a matter of feeling, not of years.
—George William Curtis (1824–92) American Essayist, Public Speaker, Editor, Author
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
Perhaps one has to be very old before one learns how to be amused rather than shocked.
—Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American Novelist, Human Rights Activist
One should never trust a woman who tells one her real age. A woman who would tell that would tell anything.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Age is not all decay; it is the ripening, the swelling, of the fresh life within, that withers and bursts the husk.
—George MacDonald (1824–1905) Scottish Novelist, Lecturer, Poet
I hope I never get so old I get religious.
—Ingmar Bergman (1918–2007) Swedish Film and Stage Director
Age is only a number, a cipher for the records. A man can’t retire his experience. He must use it. Experience achieves more with less energy and time.
—Bernard M. Baruch (1870–1965) American Financier, Economic Consultant
Begin to act from your dominion. Declare the truth by telling yourself that there is nothing to be afraid of, that you no longer entertain any images of fear.
—Ernest Holmes (1887–1960) American New Thought Writer, Teacher
I promise to keep on living as though I expected to live forever. Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years. People grow old only by deserting their ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up interest wrinkles the soul.
—Douglas MacArthur (1880–1964) American Military Leader
A person is always startled when he hears himself seriously called an old man for the first time.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
Nature gives you the face you have at twenty. Life shapes the face you have at thirty. But at fifty you get the face you deserve.
—Coco Chanel (1883–1971) French Fashion Designer
Just remember, once you’re over the hill you begin to pick up speed.
—Charles M. Schulz (1922–2000) American Cartoonist, Writer, Artist
The trouble with our age is that it is all signpost and no destination.
—Louis Kronenberger (1904–80) American Drama, Literary Critic
You must not pity me because my sixtieth year finds me still astonished. To be astonished is one of the surest ways of not growing old too quickly.
—Colette (1873–1954) French Novelist, Performer
You can’t help getting older, but you don’t have to get old.
—George Burns (1896–1996) American Comedian
A woman’s always younger than a man of equal years.
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–61) English Poet
None may be called venerable save the wise.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
After thirty, a body has a mind of its own.
—Bette Midler (b.1945) American Actress, Singer
One keeps forgetting old age up to the very brink of the grave.
—Colette (1873–1954) French Novelist, Performer
Let us repect gray hairs, especially our own.
—Jean Antoine Petit-Senn (1792–1870) Swiss Poet
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
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
Happy is the old age that atones for the follies of youth; but happier still the youth for which old age needs not to blush.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
The nearer people approach old age the closer they return to a semblance of childhood, until the time comes for them to depart this life, again like children, neither tired of living nor aware of death.
—Desiderius Erasmus (c.1469–1536) Dutch Humanist, Scholar
Nobody expects to trust his body overmuch after the age of fifty.
—Edward Hoagland (b.1932) American Essayist, Novelist
The misery of the middle-aged woman is a gray and hopeless thing, born of having nothing to live for, of disappointment and resentment at having been gypped by consumer society, and surviving merely to be the butt of its unthinking scorn.
—Germaine Greer (b.1939) Australia Academic, Journalist, Scholar, Writer
Old age is an insult. It’s like being smacked.
—Lawrence Durrell (1912–90) British Biographer, Poet, Playwright, Novelist
Old things are always in good repute, present things in disfavor.
—Tacitus (56–117) Roman Orator, Historian
At 46 one must be a miser; only have time for essentials.
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English Novelist
The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.
—Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–80) French Philosopher, Playwright, Novelist, Screenwriter, Political Activist
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
When a noble life has prepared old age, it is not decline that it reveals, but the first days of immortality.
—Anne Louise Germaine de Stael (1766–1817) French Woman of Letters
There are two things which grow stronger in the breast of man, in proportion as he advances in years: the love of country and religion. Let them be never so much forgotten in youth, they sooner or later present themselves to us arrayed in all their charms, and excite in the recesses of our hearts an attachment justly due to their beauty.
—Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand (1768–1848) French Writer, Academician, Statesman
Old age is a shipwreck.
—Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) French General, Statesman
Aging is not ‘lost youth’ but a new stage of opportunity and strength.
—Betty Friedan (1921–2006) American Feminist Author, Lecturer
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
If the people around you are spiteful and callous and will not hear you, fall down before them and beg their forgiveness; for in truth you are to blame for their not wanting to hear you.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821–81) Russian Novelist, Essayist, Writer
The vices of old age have the stiffness of it too; and as it is the unfittest time to learn in, so the unfitness of it to unlearn will be found much greater.
—Robert South (1634–1716) English Theologian
Old age is the most unexpected of all the things that can happen to a man.
—Leon Trotsky (1879–1940) Russian Marxist Revolutionary
When I was young I was amazed at Plutarch’s statement that the elder Cato began at the age of eighty to learn Greek. I am amazed no longer. Old age is ready to undertake tasks that youth shirked because they would take too long.
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
The older we get the more we must limit ourselves if we wish to be active.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Among the virtues and vices that make up the British character, we have one vice, at least, that Americans ought to view with sympathy. For they appear to be the only people who share it with us. I mean our worship of the antique. I do not refer to beauty or even historical association. I refer to age, to a quantity of years.
—William Golding (1911–93) English Novelist
We grow with years more fragile in body, but morally stouter, and can throw off the chill of a bad conscience almost at once.
—Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946) American-British Essayist, Bibliophile
I don’t generally feel anything until noon, then it’s time for my nap.
—Bob Hope (1903–2003) British-born American Comedian