Ageing

"You are old; As you are old and reverend, you should be wise."

"Nature in you stands on the very verge Of her confine."

"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."

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

"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."