For Jmore’s annual “Aging Gratefully” cover package, here are 18 (or chai) adages and insightful quotes from some famous folks about the process of growing older:
1.
“For the ignorant, old age is winter. For the learned, it is the harvest.”
—Chasidic saying
2.
“Getting old is like climbing a mountain. You get a little out of breath, but the view is much better.”
—Ingrid Bergman
3.
“Do not complain about growing old. It is a privilege denied to many.”
—Mark Twain
4.
“Life’s tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.”
—Benjamin Franklin
5.
“Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
—Dylan Thomas
6.
“When I was a boy, the Dead Sea was just sick.”
—George Burns
7.
“One does not get better but different and older, and that is always a pleasure.”
—Gertrude Stein
8.
“Gray hair is a crown of glory. It is attained by a life of righteousness.”
—Proverbs
9.
“You’re never too old to become younger.”
—Mae West
10.
“Age is strictly a case of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”
—Satchel Paige (also attributed to Jack Benny and Muhammad Ali)
11.
“Youth is the gift of nature, but age is a work of art.”
—Garson Kanin
12.
“Getting older is no problem. You just have to live long enough.”
—Groucho Marx
13.
“Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.”
—Franz Kafka
14.
“If you don’t run, you rust.”
—Tom Petty
15.
“You don’t stop laughing when you grow old, you grow old when you stop laughing.”
—George Bernard Shaw
16.
“And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.”
—Abraham Lincoln
17.
“If you’re always battling against getting older, you’re always going to be unhappy, because it will happen anyhow.”
—Mitch Albom
18.
“My mother always used to say, ‘The older you get, the better you get — unless you’re a banana.’”
—Betty White
“You can't dwell on things that happen. You’ve got to move on,” says Vicki K. Kahn, 77. "Everyone has problems, but you can't let your problems drag you down."
"Outlook is very important," says Jane Weiss, 78. "You can be old at the age of 25. You have to put forth an effort and step out of your comfort zone."
Paul Terle always advises people to take life right down the middle. “I’m an easygoing person,” says the 93-year-old father of three and grandfather of four. “I always say, ‘Never be too happy or too sad, too high or too low.’"
As part of Jmore's annual Aging Gratefully cover package, Simone Ellin writes about her mother's late-in-life passion for dance.