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
If I would be a young man again and had to decide how to make my living, I would not try to become a scientist or scholar or teacher. I would rather choose to be a plumber or a peddler in the hope to find that modest degree if independence still available under present circumstances.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
A man is as old as he feels and a woman as old as she looks.
—Common Proverb
Probably the happiest period in life most frequently is in middle age, when the eager passions of youth are cooled, and the infirmities of age not yet begun; as we see that the shadows, which are at morning and evening so large, almost entirely disappear at mid-day.
—Thomas Arnold (1795–1842) English Educationalist
Be wise with speed; a fool at forty is a fool indeed.
—Edward Young (1683–1765) English Poet
These are the effects of doting age: vain doubts, idle cares and overcaution.
—John Dryden (1631–1700) English Poet, Literary Critic, Playwright
One’s age should be tranquil, as childhood should be playful. Hard work at either extremity of life seems out of place. At midday the sun may burn, and men labor under it; but the morning and evening should be alike calm and cheerful.
—Thomas Arnold (1795–1842) English Educationalist
The short bloom of our brief and narrow life flies far away. While we are calling for flowers and wine and woman, old age is upon us.
—Juvenal (c.60–c.136 CE) Roman Poet
A lady of a “certain age,” which means certainly aged.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
Wisdom doesn’t necessarily come with age. Sometimes age just shows up all by itself.
—Tom Wilson (1931–2011) American Cartoonist
Middle age is youth without its levity, and age without decay.
—Daniel Defoe (1659–1731) English Writer, Journalist, Pamphleteer
Youth is the gift of nature, but age is a work of art.
—Garson Kanin (1912–99) American Novelist, Director, Playwright
Live your life and forget your age.
—Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American Clergyman, Self-Help Author
Youth is happy because it has the ability to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.
—Franz Kafka (1883–1924) Austrian Novelist, Short Story Writer
In middle life, the human back is spoiling for a technical knockout and will use the flimsiest excuse, even a sneeze, to fall apart.
—E. B. White (1985–99) American Essayist, Humorist
Youth is a blunder, manhood is a struggle and old age a regret.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Give me a young man in whom there is something of the old,
and an old man in whom there is something of the young.
Guided so, a man may grow old in body, but never in mind.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
I really think it’s better to retire when you still have some snap in your garters.
—Russell B. Long (1918–2003) American Representative, Politician, Attorney
When I grow up, I want to be a little boy.
—Joseph Heller (1923–99) American Novelist
Old age is always wakeful; as if, the longer linked with life, the less man has to do with aught that looks like death.
—Herman Melville (1819–91) American Novelist, Short Story Writer, Essayist, Poet
How incessant and great are the ills with which a prolonged old age is replete.
—Juvenal (c.60–c.136 CE) Roman Poet
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
Age, like distance lends a double charm.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
I’m not aging. I’m ripening to perfection.
—Unknown
At twenty you have many desires which hide the truth, but beyond forty there are only real and fragile truths—your abilities and your failings.
—Gerard Depardieu (b.1948) French Actor, Filmmaker
Age does not matter if the matter does not age.
—Carlos P. Romulo (1899–1985) Filipino Diplomat, Statesman, Writer
From the earliest times the old have rubbed it into the young that they are wiser than they, and before the young had discovered what nonsense this was they were old too, and it profited them to carry on the imposture.
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
At twenty a man is a peacock, at thirty a lion, at forty a camel, at fifty a serpent, at sixty a dog, at seventy an ape, at eighty a nothing at all.
—Baltasar Gracian (1601–58) Spanish Scholar, Prose Writer
Middle age is when your age starts to show around your middle.
—Bob Hope (1903–2003) British-born American Comedian
The greatest comfort of my old age, and that which gives me the highest satisfaction, is the pleasing remembrance of the many benefits and friendly offices I have done to others.
—Cato the Elder (Marcus Porcius Cato) (234–149 BCE) Roman Statesman
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