Quotes from Great Minds to Refresh Your Perspective on Old Age

Appearance

• “Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.” — Samuel Ullman
• “The most important thing I can tell you about aging is this: If you really feel that you want to have an off-the-shoulder blouse and some big beads and thong sandals and a dirndl skirt and a magnolia in your hair, do it. Even if you’re wrinkled.” — Maya Angelou

Wisdom

• “Those who improve with age embrace the power of personal growth and personal achievement and begin to replace youth with wisdom, innocence with understanding, and lack of purpose with self-actualization.” — Bo Bennett
• After enlightenment, the laundry.” — Buddha

Age

• “Youth has no age.” — Pablo Picasso
• “At age 20, we worry about what others think of us. At age 40, we don’t care what they think of us. At age 60, we discover they haven’t been thinking of us at all.” — Ann Landers

Success

• “Have regular hours for work and play; make each day both useful and pleasant, and prove that you understand the worth of time by employing it well. Then youth will be delightful, old age will bring few regrets, and life will become a beautiful success.” — Louisa May Alcott
• “From my perspective, there’s no reason to be afraid of aging, because if you age, you’re lucky! The alternative is death.” — Drew Barrymore

Capability

• “If youth knew; if age could.” — Sigmund Freud
• “Age is foolish and forgetful when it underestimates youth.” — J.K. Rowling

Purpose

• “Old age and treachery will always beat youth and exuberance.” — David Mamet
• “‘I’m not senile,’ I snapped, ‘If I burn the house down it will be on purpose.’” — Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin

Hope

• “Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope.” — Aristotle
• “The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible, and achieve it, generation after generation.” — Pearl S. Buck

Folly

• “Everybody’s youth is a dream, a form of chemical madness.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald
• “It is a great piece of folly to attempt to make anything out of my early life.” — Abraham Lincoln

Hindsight

• “I would like to recapture that freshness of vision which is characteristic of extreme youth when all the world is new to it.” — Henri Matisse
• “With aging, you earn the right to be loyal to yourself.” — Frances McDormand

Passion

• “Passion rebuilds the world for the youth. It makes all things alive and significant.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
• “Do not go gentle into that good night but rage, rage against the dying of the light.” — Dylan Thomas

Wonder

• “There are not many persons who know what wonders are opened to them in the stories and visions of their youth; for when as children we listen and dream, we think but half-formed thoughts, and when as men we try to remember, we are dulled and prosaic with the poison of life.” — H.P. Lovecraft
• “None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.” — Henry David Thoreau

Beauty

• “Youth is happy because it has the ability to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.” — Franz Kafka
• “Something in the human psyche confuses beauty with the right to be loved. The briefest glance at human folly reveals that good looks and worthiness operate independently. Yet countless socializing forces, from Aunt Clara to the latest perfume ad, reinforce beliefs like ‘If I were pretty enough, I would be loved.’” — Martha Beck

Learning

• “I go to school the youth to learn the future.” — Robert Frost
• “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 20 or 80. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.” — Henry Ford

This post originally appeared on the Ayuda Care Blog. To read more articles like this, sign-up for the Ayuda weekly newsletter on www.ayudacare.com.