Quotes about Aging: O through Z

Photo: Quinn Dombrowski.

Here for your review is the last list of quotes about aging from my treasury.

You can find the first two lists from this series here and here.

This caution bears repeating: I do not agree with every quote. Some depict aging in a negative or trivializing way.

However, I believe it's vital to respond to broadly circulated quotes in order to evaluate them. If a negative quote is popular, the underlying assumptions about aging should be addressed.

Offer your evaluation in the comments. Which is your favorite? Which rankles you the most? Which is the most ambiguous?

O 

Some people are old at 8 and some are young at 90. Time is a concept that humans created. Yoko Ono

P

An hour with your grandchildren can make you feel young again. Anything longer than that, and you start to age quickly. Gene Perret

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up. Pablo Picasso

It takes a long time to become young. Pablo Picasso

We don't grow older, we grow riper. Pablo Picasso

One lives in the hope of becoming a memory. Antonio Porchia

This is your life and its ending one moment at a time. Chuck Palahniuk

I think it's time we learnd to be as good at dying as we are at living. Sir Terry Pratchett

No one is actually dead  until the ripples they cause in the world die away. Sir Terry  Pratchett (in Reaper Man)



R

Wisdom is the reward for surviving our own stupidity. Brian Rathbone

Maturity is the ability to reap without apology and not complain when things don't go well. Jim Rohn

Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, But beautiful old people are works of art. Eleanor Roosevelt

Some poets are sincere in their youth and irreverent in old age (i.e., Yeats) while others are irreverent in their youth and sincere in old age (i.e., Wordsworth). Mary Ruefle

Happy old age is coming on bare feet, bringing with it grace and gentle words, and ways which grim youth have never known. Mary Ruefle

S

It is more fitting to laugh at life than to lament over it. Seneca

A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool. William Shakespeare

With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.  William Shakespeare (in Merchant of Venice).

I wasted time, and now doth time waste me. William Shakespeare (in Richard II)

With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come. William Shakespeare

But memory / The relentless tide / Suddenly brings alive / A forgotten moment. May Sarton

The past is Now. / The tide rises and falls. / There is no shutting it out. May Sarton

Do not deprive me of my age. I have earned it. May Sarton

You don't stop laughing when you grow old, you grow old when you stop laughing. George Bernard Shaw

Much of the wisdom of one age, is the folly of the next. Charles Simmons

Be on the alert to recognize your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur. Muriel Spark

I'll never make the mistake of being 70 again. NY Yankees Manager Casey Stengel

The trick is growing up without grown old. Casey Stengel

Youth is wasted on the young. Attributed to Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw. Aging blog:

Life's like a play: it's not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters. Seneca

Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory. Albert Schweitzer

Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection. Arthur Shopenhauer

Just remember, when you’re over the hill, you begin to pick up speed. Charles M. Schulz

Adults are obsolete children. Dr. Seuss

Women grow radical with age. One day an army of gray-haired women may quietly take over the earth. Gloria Steinem

Age is a very high price to pay for maturity. Tom Stoppard

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

T

Don't judge me by my past. I don't live there anymore.  Petteri Tarkkonen

It is never to late -- in fiction or in life -- to revise. Nancy Thayer

None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm. Henry David Thoreau

All we have is to decide what to do with the time that is given to us. J.R.R. Tolkien

I'm not going to die, I'm going home like a shooting star. Sojourner Truth.

Let us live so that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry. Mark Twain

Part of the secret of a success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside. Mark Twain

Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been. Mark Twain

The sage keeps her wisdom to herself, while ordinary people flaunt their knowledge. Chuang Tzu

U

Years may wrinkle the skin but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Samuel Ullman

V

Some people are so afraid to die that they never begin to live. Henry Van Dyke

I would rather die of passion than of boredom. Vincent van Gogh

True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country. Kurt Vonnegut

W

It is best as one grows older to strip oneself of possessions, to shed oneself downward like a tree. Sylvia Townsend Warner

You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough. Mae West

I think older women still have a full life. Betty White

The three ages of man: youth, middle age and "my word you do look well." June Whitfield

Memory...is the diary that we all carry about with us. Oscar Wilde

The soul is born old but grows young. That is the comedy of life. And the body is born young and grows old. That is life's tragedy. Oscar Wilde

One should never trust a woman who tells one her real age. A woman who would tell one that would tell one anything. Oscar Wilde

The longer I live the more beautiful life becomes. Frank Lloyd Wright

How young can you die of old age? Steven Wright

Y

One man loved the pilgrim soul in you, And loved the sorrows of your changing face. W.B. Yeats

At the age of 18, all young poets are sure they will die at 21 -- of old age. Marguerite Young

Z

That as long as we are remembered, we remain alive. Carlos Ruiz Zafo'n

She is seventy, and she believes you try new things or you may as well die. Gabrielle Zevin


Related:

Quotes about Aging: A through F
Quotes about Aging: G through N