"Pray, do not mock me: I am a very foolish fond old man, Fourscore and upward; not an hour more nor less, And, to deal plainly, I fear I am not in my perfect mind."

"My way of life Is fallen into the sear, the yellow leaf, And that which should accompany old age, As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends, I must not look to have; but, in their stead, Curses not loud, but deep, mouth-honor breath, Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not."

"Superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency lives longer."

"Nor age so eat up my invention."

"From now on, everything in life will appear blurry to me. What’s the point of wiping my glasses when my vision has already left me?"

"You are old, Father William," the young man cried, "The few locks which are left you are gray; You are hale, Father William,—a hearty old man: Now tell me the reason, I pray."

"When an old gentleman waggles his head and says: "Ah, so I thought when I was your age," it is not thought an answer at all, if the young man retorts: "My venerable sir, so I shall most probably think when I am yours." And yet the one is as good as the other."

"Every man desires to live long; but no man would be old."

"I swear she's no chicken; she's on the wrong side of thirty, if she be a day."

"Vetera extollimus recentium incuriosi."

": We extol ancient things, regardless of our own times."

"Vetera semper in laude, præsentia in fastidio."

": Old things are always in good repute, present things in disfavour."

"O good gray head which all men knew."

"Age too shines out: and, garrulous, recounts the feats of youth."

"Annus enim octogesimus admonet me, ut sarcinas colligam, antequam proficiscare vita."

":For my eightieth year warns me to pack up my baggage before I leave life."

"For Age with stealing steps Hath clawed me with his crutch."

"Omnia fert ætas, animum quoque."

": Age carries all things away, even the mind."

"Venerable men! you have come down to us from a former generation. Heaven has bounteously lengthened out your lives, that you might behold this joyous day."

"Is not old wine wholesomest, old pippins toothsomest, old wood burn brightest, old linen wash whitest? Old soldiers, sweetheart, are surest, and old lovers are soundest."

"Thus fares it still in our decay, And yet the wiser mind Mourns less for what age takes away Than what it leaves behind."

"But an old age serene and bright, And lovely as a Lapland night, Shall lead thee to thy grave."

"The monumental pomp of age Was with this goodly Personage; A stature undepressed in size, Unbent, which rather seemed to rise In open victory o'er the weight Of seventy years, to loftier height."

"An aged Christian with the snow of time on his head may remind us that those points of earth are whitest that are nearest heaven."

"Thanks to that regular and temperate course of life I have ever lived, I am still capable of taking an active part in these public scenes of business. In fine, he who fills up every hour of his life in such kind of labors as those I have mentioned, will insensibly slide into old age without perceiving its arrival; and his powers, instead of being suddenly and prematurely extinguished, will gradually decline by the gentle and natural effect of accumulated years."

"The day of life spent in honest and benevolent labor comes in hope to an evening calm and lovely; and though the sun declines, the shadows that he leaves behind are only to curtain the spirit unto rest."

"It is not so bad a thing to grow old; it is only getting a little nearer home; a little nearer to immortal youth."

"The second childhood of a saint is the early infancy of a happy immortality, as we believe."

"The years of old age are stalls in the cathedral of life in which for aged men to sit and listen and meditate and be patient till the service is over, and in which they may get themselves ready to say "Amen" at the last, with all their hearts and souls and strength."

"Give me a staff of honor for mine age, But not a sceptre to control the world."

"When an untaught, run-of-the-mill person, himself subject to aging, not beyond aging, sees another who is aged, he is horrified, humiliated, & disgusted, oblivious to himself that he too is subject to aging, not beyond aging. If I – who am subject to aging, not beyond aging – were to be horrified, humiliated, & disgusted on seeing another person who is aged, that would not be fitting for me."

"As I give thought to the matter, I find four causes for the apparent misery of old age; first, it withdraws us from active accomplishments; second, it renders the body less powerful; third, it deprives us of almost all forms of enjoyment; fourth, it stands not far from death."

"No one is so old that he does not think he could live another year."

"Let no one be slow to seek wisdom when he is young nor weary in search thereof when he is grown old. For no age is too early or too late for the health of the soul. And to say that the season for studying philosophy has not yet come, or that it is past and gone, is like saying that the season for happiness is not yet or that it is now no more."

""I said, Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom."

"Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man"

"εἰ καὶ ὁ ἔξω ἡμῶν ἄνθρωπος διαφθείρεται, ἀλλ’ ὁ ἔσω ἡμῶν ἀνακαινοῦται ἡμέρᾳ καὶ ἡμέρᾳ."

"‘Once when the Blessed One was living at Savathi in the Eastern Monastery, the Palace of Migara’s Mother, he had risen from retreat in the evening and was sitting warming his back in the rays of the setting sun,’ we learn. As Ananda was massaging his limbs, he noticed the changes that had overtaken the Buddha, and mentioned them. ‘So it is, Ananda, so it is,’ the Buddha replied. ‘Youth has to age, health has to sicken, life has to die. Now the colour of my skin is no more clear and bright; all my limbs are flaccid and wrinkled, my body is bent forward, and there seems a change in the sense faculties of my eyes, ears, nose, tongue and bodily sensation,’ so the Blessed One said. When the Sublime One had said this, the Master said further: ‘Shame on you, sordid Age! Maker of ugliness. Age has now trampled down The form that once had grace. To live a hundred years Is not to cheat Decay, That gives quarter to none And tramples down all things.’"

"Ananda, I am now old, worn out, venerable, one who has traversed life’s path, I have reached the term of life, which is eighty. Just as an old cart is made to go by being held together with straps, so the Tathagata’s body is kept going by being strapped up. It is only when the Tathagata withdraws his attention from outside signs, and by the cessation of certain feelings, enters into the signless concentration of mind, that his body knows comfort."

"One should pay attention to an old man's words. One should submit oneself to his protection."

"The instructions of an old man are precious."

"Age is deformed, youth unkind, We scorn their bodies, they our mind."

"If youth only knew; if only age could."

"I wasted time, and now doth time waste me."

"An old goat is never the more reverend for his beard."