Quotes About Aging

He was not young any longer. Life no longer stretched before him as a vast uncharted field, its horizon lost in the distance.

No puede esperarse que el Universo respete las emociones humanas. Envejecerá y morirá sin consideración alguna para con los lamentos del hombre, y sus componentes seguirán alejándose unos de otros en un proceso de eterna expansión incluso después de que las galaxias se hayan consumido hasta convertirse en cenizas de enanas blancas.

The years separated them as effectively as a partition.

Nu suntem b?trâni pentru c? am împlinit È™aptezeci. Începem s? îmb?trânim din clipa naÈ™terii, ne schimb?m zi dup? zi, viaÈ›a e o curgere continu?. Evolu?m. Singura deosebire este c? acum suntem ceva mai aproape de moarte. ?i ce e r?u în asta? Dragostea È™i prietenia nu îmb?trânesc.

Los años transcurren sigilosos, de puntillas, burlándose en susurros, y de pronto nos asustan en el espejo, nos golpean a mansalva las rodillas o nos clavan una daga en la espalda.

Very few old folk are happy, Irina. Most of them are poor, aren't healthy, and have no family. It's the most fragile and difficult stage of life, more so than childhood, because it grows worse day by day, and there is no future other than death.

La Lowell wanted nothing; she lived for the day, unfettered, free, fearless; she wasn't afraid of poverty, loneliness, or infirmity. She accepted everything with good grace; for her, life was an entertaining voyage that inevitably led to old age and death. There was no point in accumulating wealth since in the end, she maintained, we all go to the grave in our birthday suit.

Una vez me dijiste que los viejos hacen el amor sin prisa. No es mala idea. Vamos a querernos como un par de abuelitos, ¿qué te parece?

We're not old because we are seventy. We start to grow old as soon as we are born, we change every day, life is a continuous state of flux. We evolve. The only difference is that now we are a little closer to death. What's so bad about that? Love and friendship do not age.

La bondad desgasta mucho, te lo he advertido. Los malos se divierten más y llegan a viejos en mejores condiciones que los santos como tú.

El que es un miserable no se vuelve generoso con los años...se vuelve más miserable.

Her body was growing old, but inside she still kept intact the adolescent she once was.

Tal vez la vejez es otro comienzo, tal vez se pueda volver al tiempo mágico de la infancia, ese tiempo anterior al pensamiento lineal y a los prejuicios, cuando percibía el universo con los sentidos exaltados de un demente y era libre para creer lo increíble y explorar mundos que después, en la época de la razón, desaparecieron.

As well as walking erect and disguising his tiredness, he also tried to avoid other symptoms of old age: meanness, mistrust, ill temper, resentment, and bad habits such as no longer shaving every day, repeating the same stories over and over, talking about himself, his ailments, or money.

no podía imaginar el coraje que se requiere para envejecer sin asustarse demasiado;

I stroke them, and they always like that, because old people don't have anyone who touches them, and I get them hooked on a TV series, because nobody wants to die before the final episode. Some of them find comfort in prayer, but there are lots of atheists here, and they don't pray. What's most important is not to leave them on their own.

The elderly are the most entertaining people in the world," she eventually told Irina. "They have lived a lot, say whatever they like, and couldn't care less about other people's opinion. You'll never get bored here. Our residents are well educated, and if they're in good health they keep on learning and experimenting. This community stimulates them and they can avoid the worst scourge of old age: loneliness." Irina

My old age is a precious gift. My brain still works. I like my brain. I feel lighter. I am free of self-doubt, irrational desires, useless complexes, and other deadly sins that are not worth the trouble. I am letting go…letting go. I should have started earlier.

I'm so old that I don't recognize myself when I look in the mirror.

in the end they grew tired of making all these efforts to stay young and active, and gave in to the temptation of simply resting. I

What's the worst thing about growing old?" she would ask them. They never thought about their age, was a common reply; they had once been adolescents, then they were thirty, fifty, sixty, and never gave it a thought, so why should they do so now?

Under their wings they harbor their own and others' children, friends, relatives, and hangers-on. They are always bone tired, weary from serving others, always putting off what they should do for themselves; the last among the last, they work tirelessly and age prematurely, but they never lose their capacity to laugh at themselves, their romantic hope that their partners will change, or the small flame of rebelliousness that burns in their hearts.

Weinig oude mensen zijn tevreden, Irina. De meesten leven in armoede, met een gebrekkige gezondheid en zonder familie. Dit is de moeilijkste en kwetsbaarste fase van ons leven, erger nog dan je kinderjaren, want met de dag ga je verder achteruit en er wacht je geen andere toekomst dan de dood.

to enjoy her remaining years of good health before she was defeated by decrepitude. She wanted to live abroad, where the daily challenges kept her mind occupied and her heart in relative calm, because in Chile she was crushed by the weight of the familiar, its routines and limitations. Back there she felt she was condemned to be a lonely old woman besieged by pointless memories; in another country, there could be surprises and opportunities.