Quotes About Aging

The swift years slip and slide adown the steep; The slow years pass; neither will come again.

It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it.

Craig Karpel to his fellow Boomers. In The Retirement Myth,

The mind that is wise mourns less for what age takes away than what it leaves behind.

The unimaginable touch of Time.

And yet the wiser mind Mourns less for what age takes away Than what it leaves behind.

This son of his old age was yet more dear— Less from instinctive tenderness, the same Fond spirit that blindly works in the blood of all— 145 Than that a child, more than all other gifts That earth can offer to declining man, Brings hope with it, and forward-looking thoughts, And stirrings of inquietude, when they By tendency of nature needs must fail.

could have laugh'd myself to scorn, to find   In that decrepit Man so firm a mind.

There are more old drunks than there are old doctors.

Instead, the room, which had seen her grow to maturity, would see her dry up and fade. The gilt mirror in the corner would bear its dispassionate testimony. All the ornaments and furnishings would be her companions through the years to come. And she realized that she would come to hate them, if she didn't already hate them, as one hates the witnesses of one's humiliation and futility.

But let me tell you this: sometimes at night, when I look up at the stars, an see the whole sky jus laid out there, don't you think I ain't rememberin it all. I still got dreams like anybody else, an ever so often, I am thinkin about how things might of been. An then, all of a sudden, I'm forty, fifty, sixty years ole, you know?

There is only one cure for grey hair. It was invented by a Frenchman. It is called the guillotine.

I think [aging] has nothing to recommend it. You don't gain any wisdom as the years go by. You fall apart, is what happens. People try and put a nice varnish on it, and say, well, you mellow. You come to understand life and accept things. But you'd trade all of that for being 35 again.

As a race, we have allowed ourselves to become accustomed to the idea that the proper way to die is in bed, at a ripe age. It is a delusion. The normal end for all creatures comes suddenly.

It shocked me to realize that he suddenly seemed old -- so frail that the slightest push would have sent him tumbling. The body I had felt when I'd gone searching for my hidden presents had been sturdier; and though I had always thought of him as tall, e was now much shorter than me. I realized I had no idea how old he was -- I suppose I'd thought that something as mundane as age could never apply to him.

The white clippings of hair fell in clumps on the cape and then scattered to the floor.

She's always hated good-byes and as she got older she hated them even more.

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.

On ne retombe pas en enfance, on n'en sort jamais. Vieux, moi? Qu'est-ce qu'un vieillard sinon un enfant qui a pris de l'âge ou du vendre ?...

You're gorgeous, you old hag, and if I could give you just one gift ever for the rest of your life it would be this. Confidence. It would be the gift of confidence. Either that or a scented candle

I was looking forward to us growing old together. Me and you, growing old and dying together. Douglas, who in their right mind would look forward to that?

I'd always been under the impression that we were together because we wanted to be together, and because we were happy most of the time. I'd thought that we loved each other. I'd thought … clearly I was mistaken, but I was looking forward to us growing old together. Me and you, growing old and dying together.' Connie turned to me, her head on the pillow, and said, 'Douglas, why would anyone in their right mind look forward to that?

You're gorgeous, you old hag, and if I could give you just one gift ever for the rest of your life it would be this. Confidence. It would be the girl of confidence. Either that or a scented candle.

You're gorgeous, you old hag. If I would give you anything in this world it would be this. Confidence. Either that or a scented candle.