Quotes About Aging: G through N

Photo by Raymond Zoller.

I have a treasury of quotes about aging that I have been sharing via Twitter since 2012.

Why not share these quotes here?

This is the second part in a series.

Note: I do not agree with all of these.

I do think that if a quote gets passed around, it contains elements that people should examine and discuss.

Which quotes should be promoted? Which contain assumptions about aging that should be challenged? Share your views in the comments.

G

I like to describe myself as a proudly visible member of the most invisible segments of our society -- older women. Cindy Gallop

There is still no cure for the common birthday. John Glenn

Old enough to know better and young enough to want to do it anyway. Stormy Glenn

I feel the tomb is just around the corner. And there are all these books I haven't read yet. Edward Gorey



H

The best mirror is an old friend. George Herbert.

No, that is the great fallacy: the wisdom of old men. They do not grow wise. They grow careful. Earnest Hemingway

Jewelry takes people's minds off your wrinkles. Sonja Henie

Elegance is the only beauty that never fades. Audrey Hepburn.

Happiness is health and a short memory! I wish I'd invented it, because it's very true. Audrey Hepburn

I am not afraid of aging, but more afraid of people's reactions to my aging. Barbara Hershey

That's the time of your life when even your birthday suit needs pressing. Bob Hope, on turning 80.

Memory is a poet, not a historian -- Maria Howe b. 1950 / Paul Geraldy b. 1885

Our wrinkles are our medals of the passage of life. Lauren Hutton.

The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions. Oliver Wendell Holmes

Fun is like life insurance: the older you get, the more it costs. Kin Hubbard

I

The older I get the less I care what other peole think of me. Therefore, the older I get the more I enjoy life. ~ Auliq Ice


J

Aging is...a chance to see ourselves from a new & heightened perspective: fuller, kinder, & deeper. RP Johnson

K

Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old. Franz Kafka

I ain't as good as I once was, but I'm as good once as I ever was. Toby Keith

I think you have to relax about aging. What else can you do? Felicity Kendal

The quality, not the longevity, of one's life is what is important. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I'm willing to die for the woman I love. I just want to take 75 years to do it. Jarod Kintz

I'm learning all the time. The tombstone will be my diploma. Eartha Kitt

Old age is an excellent time for outrage. My goal is to say or do at least one outrageous thing every week. Louis Kronenberger

Wisdom says we are nothing. Love says we are everything. Between these two our life flows. Jack Kornfeld

L

If you wonder what you were doing in the past, look at your body; to know what will happen to you in the future, look at your mind. Dalai Lama

Aging bodies are fiscal black holes into which you can pour endless amounts of money. Richard Lamm

Inside every 70 year old is a 35 year old asking, "What happened?" Ann Landers. Agree or no?

At age 20, we worry about what others think of us....At age 60, we discover they haven't been thinking of us at all. Ann Landers.

The surprising thing about young fools is how many survive to become old fools. Doug Larson

Count your age by friends, not years. John Lennon

If any of you cry at my funeral, I'll never speak to you again! Stan Laurel

I went from adolescence to senility, trying to bypass maturity. Tom Lehrer

Whatever poet, orator or sage may say of it, old age is still old age. Sinclair Lewis

Die when I may, I want it said that I plucked a weed and planted a flower wherever a flower would grow. A. Lincoln

Maturity is achieved when a person accepts life as full of tension. Joshua Loth Liebman

One of the stereotypes I see breaking is the idea of aging and older women not being beautiful. Annie Leibovitz

Age is never so old as youth would measure it. Jack London

With old friends, you've got your whole life in common. Lyle Lovett

M

Every moment of one's existence one is growing into more or retreating into less. Norman Mailer

If you get old and you're not full of objectivity you are in trouble. Norman Mailer

Getting older is no problem. You just have to live long enough. Groucho Marx

The tragedy in life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach. Benjamin Mays

Old age and treachery will always beat youth and exuberance. David Mamet

Growing old is no more than a bad habit which a busy person has no time to form. ~ Andre Maurois

The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom. H.L. Mencken

You can't do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth. H.L. Mencken

The goal of life is to die young -- as late as possible. ~ Ashley Montagu

Any fear of aging, I think, is simply vanity. Leighton Meester

Middle school is for being like everyone else; middle age is for being like yourself. Victoria Moran

Juan Montalvo claims that "Old age is an island surrounded by death," but is he grossly limiting this life stage?  (OK, I embedded Montalvo's quote in my own commentary. It's a dramatically reductive view of late life.)

The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it. Niccolo Machiavelli

Please don't retouch my wrinkles. It took me so long time to earn them. Anna Magnani

If I knew I was going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself. Mickey Mantle

Old age has its pleasures, which, though different are not less than the pleasures of youth. W. Somerset Maugham

I think older women are marginalized, but I think that has changed so much in the last twenty years. Melinda McGraw (in a 2010 interview)

N

Age does not protect you from love. But love, to some extent, protects you from age. Anais Nin

I'm most proud of the longevity of my marriage, my kids, and my grandchildren.  Bob Newhart



Related:

Quotes about Aging: A through F
Quotes about Aging: O through Z