Aging Gracefully

Experts say the keys to successful aging include accepting changes and finding meaningful activities. Aging gracefully isn’t always easy, but attitude is incredibly important. It’s true that aging brings hardships, but remember that the old are survivors. Wisdom, resilience and a mature perspective are often cited as the hard-won prizes of aging. Growing old is an accomplishment.

There have been many great quotes about aging, one of the most famous: “Youth is wasted on the young.” Here are some that are not quite as well-known, but perhaps they’ll make you smile or give you something to think about.

“In terms of days and moments lived, you’ll never again be as young as you are right now, so spend this day, the youth of your future, in a way that deflects regret. Invest in yourself. Have some fun. Do something important. Love somebody extra. In one sense, you’re just a kid, but a kid with enough years on her to know that every day is priceless.” –Victoria Moran

Maybe it’s true that life begins at fifty. But everything else starts to wear out, fall out, or spread out.” –Phyllis Diller

“As you get older, you’ve probably noticed that you tend to forget things. You’ll be talking with somebody at a party, and you’ll know that you know this person, but no matter how hard you try, you can’t remember his or her name. This can be very embarrassing, especially if he or she turns out to be your spouse.” –Dave Barry

“I’m pretty sure that eating chocolate keeps wrinkles away because I have never seen a 10 year old with a Hershey bar and crows feet.” –Amy Neftzger

“It’s paradoxical that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn’t appeal to anyone.” –Andy Rooney

“You don’t stop laughing when you grow old, you grow old when you stop laughing.” –George Bernard Shaw

“It is lovely to meet an old person whose face is deeply lined, a face that has been deeply inhabited, to look in the eyes and find light there.” –John O’Donohue

“Me, I’ve seen 45 years, and I’ve only figured out one thing. That’s this: if a person would just make the effort, there’s something to be learned from everything. From even the most ordinary, commonplace things, there’s always something you can learn.” –Haruki Murakami

“Sunrise paints the sky with pinks and the sunset with peaches. Cool to warm. So is the progression from childhood to old age.” –Vera Nazarian

“The really frightening thing about middle age is that you know you’ll grow out of it.” –Doris Day

Thirty-five is a very attractive age. London society is full of women of the very highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained thirty-five for years. Lady Dumbleton is an instance in point. To my own knowledge she has been thirty-five ever since she arrived at the age of forty, which was many years ago now.” –Oscar Wilde

“If we are truly happy inside, then age brings with it a maturity, a depth, and a power that only magnifies our radiance.” –David Deida

“I am thinking about the way that life can be so slippery; the way that a twelve-year-old girl looking into the mirror to count freckles reaches out toward herself and that reflection has turned into that of a woman on her wedding day, righting her veil. And how, when that bride blinks, she reopens her eyes to see a frazzled young mother trying to get lipstick on straight for the parent/teacher conference that starts in three minutes. And how after that young woman bends down to retrieve the wild-haired doll her daughter has left on the bathroom floor, she rises up to a forty-seven-year-old looking into the mirror to count age spots.” –Elizabeth Berg

“In youth the days are short and the years are long. In old age the years are short and day’s long.” –Nikita Ivanovich Pani