OLD AGE QUOTES VII

quotations about old age

Old Age quote

Youth is the season of receptivity, and should be devoted to acquirement; and manhood of power--that demands an earnest application. Old age is for revision.

CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE

Intuitions and Summaries of Thought

Tags: Christian Nestell Bovee


Science as culture misdirects the way in which old age is understood. Rather than valuing life in all its diversity, including its final phase, it leads to misguided devotion of resources to solving the problem of death. The focus on biological failure sets up a cultural construction of old age which leads to the low esteem in which it is currently held.

JOHN A. VINCENT

"Marketing Immortality", JSTOR Daily, February 2, 2017


A graceful and blessed old age must have three elements in it: a happy retrospect, a peaceful present, and an inspiring future. And old age cannot have either one of these three if the youth has been wasted and manhood has been misspent.

LYMAN ABBOTT

Problems of Life: Selections from the Writings of Rev. Lyman Abbott

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Nobody tells you that old age is going to be s****y. It's a kind of conspiracy.

MIRIAM MARGOLYES

The Guardian, January 28, 2017


I recently turned fifty, which is young for a tree, mid-life for an elephant, and ancient for a quarter-miler, whose son now says, "Dad I just can't run the quarter with you anymore unless I bring something to read."

BILL COSBY

Time Flies

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When we're young we have faith in what is seen, but when we're old we know that what is seen is traced in air and built on water.

MAXWELL ANDERSON

Winterset

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Old age isn't a battle; old age is a massacre.

PHILIP ROTH

Everyman

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Old men's eyes are like old men's memories; they are strongest for things a long way off.

GEORGE ELIOT

Romola

Tags: George Eliot


You can't be as old as I am without waking up with a surprised look on your face every morning: "Holy Christ, whaddya know -- I'm still around!"

PAUL NEWMAN

The Independent, June 17, 2006

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As we reach the crest of life and look at the path before us, we apprehend that the path no longer ascends but slopes downward toward decline and diminishment. From that point on, concerns about death are never far from mind.

IRVIN D. YALOM

Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death

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Young he was not, so that one had to call him old, but the word did not suit him.

URSULA K. LE GUIN

The Farthest Shore

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White hair often covers the head, but the heart that holds it is ever young.

HONORE DE BALZAC

The Lily of the Valley

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As we grow old, we become aware that death is drawing near; his shadow falls across our path; the realities of life seem less crude than of yore, they touch our senses less intimately, and they lose much of their poignancy.

STEFAN ZWEIG

Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman

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Amidst all the wonders recorded in holy writ no instance can be produced where a young woman from real inclination has preferred an old man.

GEORGE WASHINGTON

letter to the Marquis de Lafayette, September 30, 1779

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If I ever get to 100, I'd want to be filled with wonder and wild, adolescent, wide-eyed interest in newness. So let's keep the flame burning. Let's stop thinking everyone over 29, or 49, has to be reinforced by concrete.

TANITH LEE

interview, Intergalactic Medicine Show

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The habits of a young man are, like his coat, removable; the habits of an old man are like the drapery of a statue.

AUSTIN O'MALLEY

Keystones of Thought

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A man in old age is like a sword in a shop window. Men that look upon the perfect blade do not imagine the process by which it was completed.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Life Thoughts

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Old age is far more than white hair, wrinkles, the feeling that it is too late and the game finished, that the stage belongs to the rising generations. The true evil is not the weakening of the body, but the indifference of the soul. Upon crossing the shadow line, it is more the desire to act than the power to do so that is lost. Is it possible, after 50 years of experiences and disappointments, to retain the ardent curiosity of youth, the desire to know and understand, the power to love wholeheartedly, the certainty that beauty, intelligence and kindness unite naturally, and to preserve faith in the efficacy of reason?

ANDRÉ MAUROIS

An Art of Living

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The greatest tragedy of old age is the tendency for the old to feel unneeded, unwanted, and of no use to anyone; the secret of happiness in the declining years is to remain interested in life, as active as possible, useful to others, busy, and forward looking.

ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

Book of Common Sense Etiquette

Tags: Eleanor Roosevelt


Old age is like a plane flying through a storm. Once you're aboard, there's nothing you can do.

GOLDA MEIR

attributed, The Ultimate Book of Quotations