Wisdom for the Soul - Age/Ageing

AGE / AGEING

He who is of a calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age, but for someone with the opposite disposition, youth and old age are equally a burden.
Plato
c.427-347 BCE, Greek Philosopher
The Republic , Book 1

Give me a young man in whom there is something of the old, and an old man in whom there is something of the young. Guided so, a man may grow old in body but never in mind.
Cicero
106-43 BCE, Roman Orator, Statesman, Essayist

The harder we work to conceal our age, the more we reveal it.
Tertullian
c. 160-240, Carthaginian Theologian, Writer, Philosopher
The Apparel of Women

It's good to grow old content.
Cold and heat change my appearance;
The pearl of my mind stays safe.
Han-shan 'Cold Mountain'
fl. 730-850, Chinese Taoist Mystic, Poet

The value of life does not lie in the number of years but in the use you make of them � Whether you have lived enough depends on your will, not on the number of your years.
Montaigne
1533-1592, French Essayist, Moralist
Essais , 1580

Old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.
Francis Bacon
1561-1626, English Philosopher, Essayist, Politician

The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.
Johann Richter
1763-1825, German Writer

I have often noticed that a kindly, placid good-humor is the companion of longevity, and, I suspect, frequently the leading cause of it.
Sir Walter Scott
1771-1832, Scottish Writer, Historian
Sir Walter Scott's Journal 1825-1832

When one finds company in himself and his pursuits, he cannot feel old, no matter what his years may be.
Bronson Alcott
1799-1888, American Philosopher, Reformer

It is not length of life, but depth of life.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
1803-1882, American Poet, Essayist, Philosopher

The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected.
Swedish Saying

For age is opportunity no less
Than youth itself, though in another dress
And as the evening twilight fades away
The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
1807-1882, American Poet, Writer

And in the end it's not the years in your life that count. It is the life in your years.
Abraham Lincoln
1809-1865, 16th US President

The oldest trees often bear the sweetest fruit.
German Saying

For him in vain the envious seasons roll
Who bears eternal summer in his soul.
Oliver Wendell Holmes
1809-1894, American Physician, Poet, Writer
The Old Player , 1861

To be seventy years young is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful than to be forty years old.
Holmes

Cheerfulness and contentment are great beautifiers and are famous preservers of youthful looks.
Charles Dickens
1812-1870, English Writer

People don't grow old. When they stop growing, they become old.
Anonymous

None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Thoreau
1817-1862, American Essayist, Writer, Naturalist

Age is a matter of feeling not of years.
George Curtis
1824-1892, American Editor, Writer

In spite of illness, in spite even of the archenemy sorrow, one can remain alive long past the usual date of disintegration if one is unafraid of change, insatiable in intellectual curiosity, interested in big things, and happy in small ways.
Edith Wharton
1862-1937, American Writer

The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes.
Frank Lloyd Wright
1869-1959, American Architect, Writer

It is wonderful to be young, but it is equally desirable to be mature and rich in experience.
Bernard Baruch
1870-1965, American Financier, Writer

We grow neither better nor worse as we get old, but more like ourselves.
May Lamberton Becker
1873-1958, American Editor, Literary Critic, Writer

We cannot live in the afternoon of life according to the program of life's morning. For what was great in the morning will be little at evening, and what in the morning was true, will at evening have become a lie.
Carl Jung
1875-1961, Swiss Psychologist, Theorist

If you continue to work and to absorb the beauty in the world around you, you will find that age does not necessarily mean getting old.
Pablo Casals
1876-1973, Spanish Musician, Composer, Conductor

The man who works and is never bored is never old. Work and interest in worthwhile things are the best remedy for age. Each day I am reborn. Each day I must begin again.
Casals

You grow up the day you have your first real laugh at yourself.
Ethel Barrymore
1879-1959, American Actress

Youth is not entirely a time of life; it is a state of mind. Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years. People grow old only by deserting their ideals. You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair � Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up interest wrinkles the soul.
Douglas MacArthur
1880-1964, American Militarist

In the central place of every heart there is a recording chamber. So long as it receives a message of beauty, hope, cheer, and courage – so long are you young. When the wires are all down and our heart is covered with the snow of pessimism and the ice of cynicism, then, and only then, are you grown old.
MacArthur

Men are like wine – some turn to vinegar, but the best improve with age.
John XXIII
1881-1963, Italian Pope

It takes a long time to become young!
Pablo Picasso
1881-1973, Spanish Painter, Sculptor, Graphic Artist

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

A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams.
John Barrymore
1882-1942, American Actor

I'm not interested in age. People who tell me their age are silly. You're as old as you feel.
Elizabeth Arden
1884-1966, Canadian/American Entrepreneur

Growing old is no more than a bad habit which a busy person has no time to form.
Andre Maurois
1885-1967, French Writer, Biographer, Essayist

Old age isn't so bad when you consider the alternative.
Maurice Chevalier
1888-1972, French Entertainer
in The New York Times , 1960

Youth has to do with spirit, not age. Men of 70 or 60 are often more youthful than the young. Theirs is the real youth.
Henry Miller
1891-1980, American Writer

You're never too old to become younger.
Mae West
1892-1980, American Actress, Scriptwriter

It is to be assumed that if man were to live his life like a poem, he would be able to look upon the sunset of his life as his happiest period, and instead of trying to postpone the much feared old age, be able actually to look forward to it, and gradually build up to it as the best and happiest period of his existence.
Lin Yutang
1895-1976, Chinese Writer, Dramatist, Translator
The Importance of Living , 1937

You can't help growing older, but you don't have to get old.
George Burns
1896-1996, American Comedian

If we mature as we grow older, hear true nature's voice, and are focused on growing, then our future horizons are not narrowed by age, but extended. We are old when we have no future left, but maturing keeps us young, since growing old makes it steadily easier to leave nonessentials behind and focus on the one thing that matters: perfecting ourselves as a medium for the great Life within us as it drives toward manifestation of itself.
Karlfried Graf Durckheim
1896-, German Psychologist, Philosopher
The Call for the Master , Vincent Nash, tr., 1989

How old would you be if you didn't know how old you was?
Satchel Paige
1900-1982, African-American Baseball Player
in Carson Kanin, It Takes Time to Become Young , 1978

Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.
Paige

I never feel age � If you have creative work, you don't have age or time.
Louise Nevelson
1900-1988, Russian/American Sculptress

Age is not important unless you are a cheese.
Helen Hayes
1900-1993, American Actress

The secret to the fountain of youth is to think youthful thoughts.
Josephine Baker
1906-1975, African-American/French Entertainer

If you carry with you your childhood, you never become older.
Abraham Sutzkever
1913-
in The New York Times

No matter how old you get, if you can keep the desire to be creative, you're keeping the man-child alive.
John Cassavetes
1929-1989, American Film Director

There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring in your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age.
Sophia Loren
1934-, Italian Actress

I think what I learned mostly with aging is to get out of my own way and allow my soul spirit to speak to my brain.
Shirley MacLaine
1934-, American Actress, Writer

The mistake is to think we are the bloom and not the whole plant. If the plant has not been plucked and sent to the florist's, a lot more goes on after the flower wilts and falls off. In the same way, we may lose our youthful bloom, but there is a lot more going on.
Toby Johnson
1945-, American Psychotherapist, Writer, Editor
Gay Spirituality: The Role of Gay Identity in the Transformation of Human Consciousness , 2000

Knowing means becoming old. To say someone is old is to say that this person knows something, or has experienced something valuable. Furthermore, the mature self is hardened in the field of experience by awareness. In contrast, the word young refers not just to age but also to the absence of awareness.
Malidoma Some
1956-, Burkina Fasso Dagara Shaman, Writer
The Healing Wisdom of Africa , 1999

Age is no barrier. It's a limitation you put on your mind.
Jackie Joyner-Kersee
1962-, African-American Athlete

No one grows old by living – only by losing interest in living.
- Marie Beyon Ray

To resist the frigidity of old age one must combine the body, the mind and the heart – and to keep them in parallel vigor one must exercise, study and love.
- Karl von Bonstetten

You don't stop laughing because you grow old; you grow old because you stop laughing.
- Michael Pritchard

Live your life and forget your age.
- Frank Bering

AGE / AGEING

This cross-index may help identify and delineate more closely subjective realities often hard to pin down.

Related states elucidate shades of meaning and amplify nuances of feeling
Syntonic elements foster and enhance well-being
Dystonic factors are contraindicated and should be minimized.

Related States & Conditions

Syntonic

Acceptance | Autonomy/Control | Balance | Centering | Composure/Peace/Tranquility | Confidence | Connection/Interbeing/Interdependence | Continuity | Courage | Creativity/Discovery/Innovation | Dance/Movement | Detachment | Determination/Persistence/Resolve | Equanimity, Faith, Flexibility/Flow/Flux, Forgiveness, Friendship, Giving/Serving, Health/Healing, Humor/Laughter, Introspection/Self-Knowledge, Learning, Leela/Leisure, Liberation/Liberty/Freedom, Love-Agape, Love-Eros, Mind, Meditation, Opportunity, Optimism/Positivism, Possibility/Potential, Power, Presence, Release, Renewal, Self, Self-Reliance, Sex/Sexuality, Sensibility/Sensuality, Today, Transformation, Strength, Wisdom, Zeal/Zest

Dystonic