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Quotes about Age

As we grow old…the beauty steals inward.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, US essayist & poet (1803 - 1882)

He who is of 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, Greek author & philosopher in Athens (427 BC - 347 BC)

Age to me means nothing. I can't get old; I'm working. I was old when I was twenty-one and out of work. As long as you're working, you stay young. When I'm in front of an audience, all that love and vitality sweeps over me and I forget my age.
- George Burns, US actor & comedian (1896 - 1996)

I was always taught to respect my elders and I've now reached the age when I don't have anybody to respect.
- George Burns, US actor & comedian (1896 - 1996)

Young people are in a condition like permanent intoxication, because youth is sweet and they are growing.
- Aristotle, Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, & zoologist (384 BC - 322 BC)

The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.
- H. L. Mencken, US editor (1880 - 1956)

The best part about being my age is in knowing how my life worked out. Sure, there's a lot more living to go, but there isn't much doubt that I'll always be the 'Dilbert guy.' Unless I go on a crime spree, in which case I'll be 'that stabbin' Dilbert guy.'
- Scott Adams, US cartoonist (1957 - )

When you have loved as she has loved, you grow old beautifully.
- W. Somerset Maugham, English dramatist & novelist (1874 - 1965)

CP I have enjoyed greatly the second blooming... suddenly you find - at the age of 50, say - that a whole new life has opened before you.
- Agatha Christie, English mystery author (1890 - 1976)

Age is not a particularly interesting subject. Anyone can get old. All you have to do is live long enough.
- Groucho Marx, US comedian with Marx Brothers (1890 - 1977)

The surprising thing about young fools is how many survive to become old fools.
- Doug Larson

Before you contradict an old man, my fair friend, you should endeavor to understand him.
- George Santayana, US (Spanish-born) philosopher (1863 - 1952)

The longer I live the more beautiful life becomes.
- Frank Lloyd Wright, US architect (1869 - 1959)

You're never too old to become younger.
- Mae West, US movie actress (1892 - 1980)

The great secret that all old people share is that you really haven't changed in 70 or 80 years. Your body changes, but you don't change at all.
- Doris Lessing

To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.
- Oscar Wilde, Irish dramatist, novelist, & poet (1854 - 1900)

Aging is not 'lost youth' but a new stage of opportunity and strength.
- Betty Friedan, US feminist (1921 - 2006)

In spite of illness, in spite even of the archenemy sorrow, one can remain alive long past the usual date of disintegration if one is unafraid of change, insatiable in intellectual curiosity, interested in big things, and happy in small ways.
- Edith Wharton, US novelist (1862 - 1937)

Old age, calm, expanded, broad with the haughty breadth of the universe, old age flowing free with the delicious near-by freedom of death.
- Edith Wharton, US novelist (1862 - 1937)

About the only thing that comes to us without effort is old age.
- Gloria Pitzer

Beware of the young doctor and the old barber.
- Benjamin Franklin, US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, & printer (1706 - 1790)

I think age is a very high price to pay for maturity.
- Tom Stoppard, British dramatist & screenwriter (1937 - )

As for me, except for an occasional heart attack, I feel as young as I ever did.
- Robert Benchley, US actor, author, & humorist (1889 - 1945)

The young have aspirations that never come to pass, the old have reminiscences of what never happened.
- Saki, British (Burman-born) short story author (1870 - 1916)

CP Always be nice to those younger than you, because they are the ones who will be writing about you.
- Cyril Connolly, (1903 - 1974)

The deepest definition of youth is life as yet untouched by tragedy.
- Alfred North Whitehead, English mathematician & philosopher (1861 - 1947)

Of all the self-fulfilling prophecies in our culture, the assumption that aging means decline and poor health is probably the deadliest.
- Marilyn Ferguson

It is a mistake to regard age as a downhill grade toward dissolution. The reverse is true. As one grows older, one climbs with surprising strides.
- George Sand, French author (1804 - 1876)

A person is always startled when he hears himself seriously called an old man for the first time.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, US author & physician (1809 - 1894)

To be 70 years young is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful than to be 40 years old.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, US author & physician (1809 - 1894)

With age come the inner, the higher life. Who would be forever young, to dwell always in externals?
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton, US suffragist (1815 - 1902)

CP Wisdom doesn't automatically come with old age. Nothing does - except wrinkles. It's true, some wines improve with age. But only if the grapes were good in the first place.
- Abigail Van Buren, US advice columnist (1918 - )

Though it sounds absurd, it is true to say I felt younger at sixty than I felt at twenty.
- Ellen Glasgow, US novelist (1873 - 1945)

I never feel age...If you have creative work, you don't have age or time.
- Louise Nevelson, US (Russian-born) sculptor (1900 - 1988)

You don't stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing.
- Michael Pritchard

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, US jurist & politician (1891 - 1974)

To me, old age is always 15 years older than I am.
- Bernard M. Baruch, US businessman & politician (1870 - 1965)

An old doting fool, with one foot already in the grave.
- Plutarch, Greek biographer & moralist (46 AD - 120 AD)

The denunciation of the young is a necessary part of the hygiene of older people, and greatly assists in the circulation of their blood.
- Logan Pearsall Smith, (1865 - 1946)

Sure i'm for helping the elderly. I'm going to be old myself some day.
- Lillian Carter

CP Old age is not so bad when you consider the alternatives.
- Maurice Chevalier, French entertainer (1888 - 1972)

Young men's minds are always changeable, but when an old man is concerned in a matter, he looks both before and after.
- Homer, Greek epic poet (800 BC - 700 BC)

A young man is embarrassed to question an older one.
- Homer, Greek epic poet (800 BC - 700 BC)

I grow more intense as I age.
- Florida Scott-Maxwell

I am an old man, but in many senses a very young man. And this is what I want you to be, young, young all your life.
- Pablo Casals, Spanish Catalan cellist, composer, & conductor (1876 - 1973)

In case you're worried about what's going to become of the younger generation, it's going to grow up and start worrying about the younger generation.
- Roger Allen

CP The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age.
- Lucille Ball, US television actress (1911 - 1989)

To resist the frigidity of old age one must combine the body, the mind and the heart - and to keep them in parallel vigor one must exercise, study and love.
- Karl von Bonstetten

Young people have an almost biological destiny to be hopeful.
- Marshall Ganz

No matter how old you are, there's always something good to look forward to.
- Lynn Johnston, Canadian cartoonist (1947 - )

The older I get, the more I feel almost beautiful...
- Sharon Olds

There is no old age. There is, as there always was, just you.
- Carol Matthau

You can only perceive real beauty in a person as they get older.
- Anouk Aimee

Age is…wisdom, if one has lived one's life properly.
- Miriam Makeba

The heads of strong old age are beautiful beyond all grace of youth.
- Robinson Jeffers

To keep the heart unwrinkled, to be hopeful, kindly, cheerful, reverent - that is to triumph over old age.
- Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Where is the path to Grown-Up Land? How do I get there? Or will I just get old, not understanding that I'm no longer young?
- Tish Grier