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Old Age Quotes

Comparing the pleasures of later life with those of youth.

Old age is described here as ready to take on long, slow tasks that youth would avoid out of impatience, and its pleasures are treated as real even though they differ sharply from youth's. This page gathers quotes comparing the two stages. Related reading continues on Age quotes.

To be rejected on account of old age may or may not feel the same as being rejected on the basis of race or sex. But it is clearly unjust and dehumanizing, and the law should take it more seriously...

Quotes by Adam Cohen

The greatest problem about old age is the fear that it may go on too long.

Quotes by A. J. P. Taylor

A hundred things are done today in the divine name of Youth, that if they showed their true colors would be seen by rights to belong rather to old age.

Quotes by Wyndham Lewis

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

Quotes by William Wordsworth

Age Quotes

Just as the blurring between childhood and adulthood has produced the kidult, so the stretching of middle into old age has fostered another peculiar chimera: septuagenarians with apoptosis sporting the depeche mode.

Quotes by Will Self

In my youth I stressed freedom, and in my old age I stress order. I have made the great discovery that liberty is a product of order.

Quotes by Will Durant

Those who have no hope pass their old age shrouded with an inward gloom.

Quotes by Wilfred Owen

Study is the bane of childhood, the oil of youth, the indulgence of adulthood, and a restorative in old age.

Quotes by Walter Savage Landor

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

Quotes by W. Somerset Maugham

Childhood Quotes

Old age is ready to undertake tasks that youth shirked because they would take too long.

Quotes by W. Somerset Maugham

Both my parents developed dementia in their old age. Everyone I know whose parents had dementia feel that they didn't deal with it very well.

Quotes by Tony Robinson

The exhaustion of old age is something people who are younger don't fully appreciate.

Quotes by Tony Benn

The value of old age depends upon the person who reaches it. To some men of early performance it is useless. To others, who are late to develop, it just enables them to finish the job.

Quotes by Thomas Hardy

To keep the heart unwrinkled, to be hopeful, kindly, cheerful, reverent - that is to triumph over old age.

Quotes by Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Die Quotes

How young can you die of old age?

Steven Wright

I tend not to think about living to some grand old age. Then again, I don't think about dying, either.

Quotes by Stella Young

Old age realizes the dreams of youth: look at Dean Swift; in his youth he built an asylum for the insane, in his old age he was himself an inmate.

Quotes by Soren Kierkegaard

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

Quotes by Sinclair Lewis

I think repeating yourself is a sign of old age, telling the same joke again and again. Especially if they're jokes that don't make people laugh.

Quotes by Simon Le Bon

I Am Quotes

Where nothing in a person's earlier years lends itself to an old age devoted to continuing intellectual and physical pursuits, a late-life interest in Tolstoy or even crossword puzzles is unlikely to appear, no matter the urging by well-intentioned social...

Quotes by Sherwin B. Nuland

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the tone of these old age quotes?
Mostly reflective and even-handed rather than gloomy — old age is described as having its own pleasures "not less than" youth's, and as finally ready to tackle tasks that youth avoided because they took too long.
Does this collection compare old age to youth directly?
Yes, repeatedly — one quote calls study "the indulgence of adulthood, and a restorative in old age," and another notes things done "in the divine name of Youth" would, in their true colors, belong more to old age.
What's the quote about tasks and patience?
It observes that old age takes on tasks youth "shirked because they would take too long," framing patience as something gained with age rather than lost.
Why do people search old age quotes?
Usually for perspective that reframes aging positively — this set consistently argues old age has its own compensations rather than only losses.
Where can I read related quotes?
For the stage of life these quotes compare against, see Childhood quotes, or for the broader arc of a lifetime, Life quotes.

One line even argues that plenty of what gets called youthful energy, honestly examined, actually belongs to old age instead. For nearby themes, try Childhood quotes or Die quotes.