OLD AGE QUOTES III

quotations about old age

Old Age quote

And now the end is near
And so I face the final curtain,
I'll state my case of which I'm certain.
I've lived a life that's full, I traveled each and ev'ry highway,
And more, much more than this. I did it my way.

FRANK SINATRA

My Way

Tags: Frank Sinatra


I've finally reached the age where my Wild Oats have turned into All-Bran!

TOM WILSON

Ziggy, November 19, 1999

Tags: Tom Wilson


No man loves life like him that's growing old.

SOPHOCLES

fragment, Acrisius

Tags: Sophocles


We have confidence in an old man when holding a position, but lack confidence in him when he is applying for one.

LEWIS F. KORNS

Thoughts

Tags: Lewis F. Korns


It would be a good appendix to the Art of Living and Dying, if any one would write the Art of Growing Old, and teach men to resign their pretensions to the pleasures and gallantries of youth, in proportion to the alteration they find in themselves by the approach of age and infirmities. The infirmities of this stage of life would be much fewer, if we did not affect those which attend the more vigorous and active part of our days; but, instead of studying to be wiser, or being contented with our present follies, the ambition of many of us is also to be the same sort of fools we formerly have been.

JOSEPH ADDISON

The Tatler, December 21, 1710

Tags: Joseph Addison


The real affliction of old age is remorse.

CESARE PAVESE

The Moon and the Bonfire

Tags: Cesare Pavese


What Youth deemed crystal,
Age finds out was dew.

ROBERT BROWNING

"Jochanan Hakkadosh"

Tags: Robert Browning


Youth cannot know how age thinks and feels. But old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young.

J. K. ROWLING

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Tags: J. K. Rowling


As life runs on, the road grows strange
With faces new, and near the end
The milestones into headstones change,
'Neath every one a friend.

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL

Sixty-eighth Birthday

Tags: James Russell Lowell


How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on, when in your heart, you begin to understand, there is no going back? There are some things that time cannot mend. Some hurts that go too deep ... that have taken hold.

J. R. R. TOLKIEN

The Return of the King

Tags: J. R. R. Tolkien


Mostly getting old is boring. I hate the stiffness in the bones. I was physically arrogant for years. I don't like it now that I have difficulty getting around. But a certain equanimity sets in, a certain detachment. Things seem less desperately important than they once did, and that's a pleasure.

DORIS LESSING

interview, The Progressive, June 1999

Tags: Doris Lessing


Old age is gentle as an autumn morn;
The harvest over, you will put the plough
Into another, stronger hand, and watch
The sowing you were wont to do.

CARMEN SYLVA

"A Friend"

Tags: Carmen Sylva


Old age is perplexing to imagine in part because the definition of it is notoriously unstable. As people age, they tend to move the goalposts that mark out major life stages.

CERIDWEN DOVEY

"What Old Age Is Really Like", The New Yorker, October 1, 2015


This week, a 95-year-old woman married a 98-year-old man to become the world's oldest newlyweds. They're registered at Bed, Sponge Bath and Beyond.

JIMMY FALLON

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, March 2, 2012

Tags: Jimmy Fallon


Getting older was definitely preferable to an up close and personal meeting with the Grim Reaper.

JOANN ROSS

No Safe Place

Tags: Joann Ross


I always liked people who are older. Of course, every year it gets harder to find them.

FRAN LEBOWITZ

The Paris Review, summer 1993

Tags: Fran Lebowitz


I grow old ... I grow old ...
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.

T. S. ELIOT

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Tags: T. S. Eliot


In old age our bodies are worn-out instruments, on which the soul tries in vain to play the melodies of youth. But because the instrument has lost its strings, or is out of tune, it does not follow that the musician has lost his skill.

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

Table-Talk

Tags: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


Old age ought to be, and essentially is a manifestation of what is hidden in the depths of man's nature. It might be, it should be, not an exhibition of crackling impotence and gloomy decay, but the very crown and ripening of life--the symbol of maturity, not of dissolution.

E. H. CHAPIN

Living Words

Tags: E. H. Chapin


The art of growing old is the art of being regarded by the oncoming generations as a support and not as a stumbling-block.

ANDRÉ MAUROIS

An Art of Living

Tags: André Maurois