OLD AGE QUOTES VI

quotations about old age

Old Age quote

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


Growing old is no more than a bad habit a busy man has no time to form.

ANDRÉ MAUROIS

An Art of Living

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You know you're getting older when you notice that more and more history questions happened in your lifetime!

TOM WILSON

Ziggy, July 3, 1999

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Old age diminishes our strength; it takes away our pleasures one after the other; it withers the soul as well as the body; it renders adventure and friendship difficult; and finally it is shadowed by thoughts of death.

ANDRÉ MAUROIS

An Art of Living

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The only real change in life comes with the consciousness of old age.

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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If I am to tell you how to grow old gracefully, I must tell you at the beginning of life; for no man can grow old gracefully unless he begins early.

LYMAN ABBOTT

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

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Just like those who are incurably ill, the aged know everything about their dying except exactly when.

PHILIP ROTH

The Facts: A Novelist's Autobiography

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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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All would live long, but none would be old.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Poor Richard's Almanack, 1749

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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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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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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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Nothing makes you look older than attempting to look young.

KARL LAGERFELD

The Telegraph, May 12, 2014

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The counsels of the old, like the winter sun, shine, but give no heat.

LUC DE CLAPIERS, MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES

Reflections and Maxims


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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The smile upon the old man's lips, like the last rays of the setting sun, pierces the heart with a sweet and sad emotion. There is still a ray, there is still a smile; but they may be the last.

MADAME SWETCHINE

"Airelles", The Writings of Madame Swetchine

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

PHILIP ROTH

Everyman

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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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Age overtakes us all;
Our temples first; then on o'er cheek and chin,
Slowly and surely, creep the frosts of Time.
Up and do somewhat, ere thy limbs are sere.

THEOCRITUS

"The Love of Thyonichus"

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