#Aging Quotes

“I am declinedInto the vale of years.”

“What should we speak of When we are old as you? when we shall hear The rain and wind beat dark December? how, In this our pinching cave, shall we discourse The freezing hours away?”

“My way of lifeIs fall'n into the sear and yellow leaf.”

“In me thou see'st the twilight of such day As after sunset fadeth in the west, Which by and by black night doth take away Death's second self, that seals up all in rest. -Sonnet 73”

“A good old man, sir. He will be talking. As they say, when the age is in, the wit is out.”

“Is it not strange that desire should so many years outlive performance?”

“And so, from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe.And then, from hour to hour, we rot and rot;And thereby hangs a tale.”

“Though now this grained face of mine be hidIn sap-consuming winter's drizzled snow,And all the conduits of my blood froze up,Yet hath my night of life some memory,My wasting lamps some fading glimmer left,My dull deaf ears a little use to hear.”

“Tis our fast intent To shake all cares and business from our age, Conferring them on younger strengths, while we Unburdened crawl toward death.”

“What Time hath scanted men in hair, he hath given them in wit.”

“Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty; for in my youth I never did apply hot and rebellious liquors in my blood; and did not, with unbashful forehead, woo the means of weakness and debility: therefore my age is as a lusty winter, frosty but kindly.”

“That time of year thou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. In me thou seest the twilight of such day, As after sunset fadeth in the west, Which by-and-by black night doth take away.”

“Your date is better in your pie and your porridge than in your cheek.”

“Time doth transfix the flourish set on youthAnd delves the parallels in beauty's brow.”

“How ill white hairs become a fool and jester!”

“With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.”

“It is time to be oldTo take in sail.”

“Shall I never see a bachelor of three score again?”

“Getting old is a fascination thing. The older you get, the older you want to get.”

“As we grow old, the beauty steals inward.”

“I am weary of a task which is done and I hope I shall not shrink when the aftermath ends. My only wish is to live peacefully out the remaining years - if years they be.”

“Your lordship, though not clean past your youth, have yet some smack of age in you, some relish of the saltiness of time.”

“My evening visitors, if they cannot see the clock should find the time in my face.”

“Nature, as it grows again toward earth, is fashioned for the journey, dull and heavy.”

“If I stay on for the time being, bearing the burden at my age, it is not because of love for power or office. I have had an ample share of both. If I stay it is because I have a feeling that I may, through things that have happened, have an influence about what I care about above all else, the building of a sure and lasting peace.”

“Therefore was I created with a stubborn outside, with an aspect of iron, that when I come to woo ladies, I fright them. But, in faith, Kate, the elder I wax, the better I shall appear. My comfort is that old age, that ill layer-up of beauty, can do no more spoil upon my face. Thou hast me, if thou hast me, at the worst, and thou shalt wear me, if thou wear me, better and better.”

“The affections cannot keep their youth any more than men.”

“Flowers so strictly belong to youth, that we adult men soon come to feel, that their beautiful generations concern not us: we havehad our day; now let the children have theirs. The flowers jilt us, and we are old bachelors with our ridiculous tenderness.”

“When you're 20 you care what everyone thinks, when you're 40 you stop caring what everyone thinks, when you're 60 you realize no one was ever thinking about you in the first place. You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.”

“You can get old pretty young if you don'ttake care of yourself.”

“...an old man is twice a child.”

“My only fear is that I may live too long. This would be a subject of dread to me.”

“Well, I used to look like this when I was young and now I still do.”

“Being young is beautiful, but being old is comfortable.”

“Endure what life God gives and ask no longer span;Cease to remember the delights of youth, travel-wearied aged man;Delight becomes death-longing if all longing else be vain.”

“Though leaves are many, the root is one; Through all the lying days of my youth I swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun Now I may wither into the truth.”

“I thought no more was neededYouth to prolongThan dumb-bell and foilTo keep the body young.O who could have foretoldThat the heart grows old?”

“How pleasant is the day when we give up striving to be young-or slender.”

“I am already sensible of decay in the power of walking, and find my memory not so faithful as it used to be. This may be partly owing to the incessant current of new matter flowing constantly through it; but I ascribe to years their share in it also.”

“It is wonderful to me that old men should not be sensible that their minds keep pace with their bodies in the progress of decay.”

“I heard the old, old, men say 'all that's beautiful drifts away, like the waters.'”

“We are happier in many ways when we are old than when we were young. The young sow wild oats. The old grow sage.”

“When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened”

“I don't know how I got over the hill without getting to the top.”

“In youth we may have an absolutely new experience, subjective or objective, every hour of the day. Apprehension is vivid, retentiveness strong, and our recollections of that time, like those in a time spent in rapid and interesting travel, are of something intricate, multitudinous, and long-drawn-out. But as each passing year converts some of this experience into automatic routine which we hardly note at all, the days and the weeks smooth themselves out in recollection to a contentless unit, and the years grow hollow and collapse.”

“Slanders, sir, for the satirical rogue says here that old men have grey beards, that their faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging think amber and plum-tree gum, and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams.”

“The hare grows old as she plays in the sunAnd gazes around her with eyes of brightness;Before the swift things that she dreamed of were doneShe limps along in an aged whiteness.”

“Grant me an old man's frenzy, Myself must I remake Till I am Timon and Lear Or that William Blake Who beat upon the wall Till Truth obeyed his call.”

“Though I have many words,What woman's satisfied,I am no longer faintBecause at her side?O who could have foretoldThat the heart grows old?”

“The minute a man ceases to grow, no matter what his years, that minute he begins to be old.”