1
Some smack of age in you, some relish of the saltness of time.
Henry IV. Pt. II. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 91
2
You are old;
As you are old and reverend, you should be wise.
King Lear. Act I. Sc. 4. L. 261
3
Nature in you stands on the very verge
Of her confine.
King Lear. Act II. Sc. 4. L. 148
4
Pray, do not mock me:
I am a very foolish fond old man,
Fourscore and upward; not an hour more nor less,
And, to deal plainly,
I fear I am not in my perfect mind.
King Lear. Act IV. Sc. 7. L. 59
5
My way of life
Is fallen into the sear, the yellow leaf,
And that which should accompany old age,
As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends,
I must not look to have; but, in their stead,
Curses not loud, but deep, mouth-honor breath,
Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not.
6
Superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency lives longer.
Merchant of Venice. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 8
7
Nor age so eat up my invention.
8
Give me a staff of honor for mine age,
But not a sceptre to control the world.
Titus Andronicus. Act I. Sc. 1. L. 198
9
"You are old, Father William," the young man cried,
"The few locks which are left you are gray;
You are hale, Father William,—a hearty old man:
Now tell me the reason, I pray."
Southey—
The Old Man's Comforts, and how he Gained Them
10
When an old gentleman waggles his head and says: "Ah, so I thought when I was your age," it is not thought an answer at all, if the young man retorts: "My venerable sir, so I shall most probably think when I am yours." And yet the one is as good as the other.
R. L. Stevenson—Crabbed Age and Youth
11
Every man desires to live long; but no man would be old.
Swift—Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting
12
I swear she's no chicken; she's on the wrong side of thirty, if she be a day.
Swift—Polite Conversation. I
13
Vetera extollimus recentium incuriosi.
We extol ancient things, regardless of our own times.
Tacitus—Annales. II. 88
14
Vetera semper in laude, prsesentia in fastidio.
Old things are always in good repute, present things in disfavour.
Tacitus—Dialogus de Oratoribus. 18
15
An old man is twice a child.
John Taylor—The Old, Old, very Old Man. (Thos. Parr.)
16
O good gray head which all men knew.
Tennyson—
On the Death of the Duke of Wellington. St. 4
17
Age too shines out: and, garrulous, recounts the feats of youth.
Thomson—The Seasons. Autumn. L. 1231
18
Annus enim octogesimus admonet me, ut sarcinas colligam, antequam proficiscare vita.
For my eightieth year warns me to pack up my baggage before I leave life.
Varro—
De Re Rustica. I. 1
19
For Age with stealing steps
Hath clawed me with his crutch.
Thos. Vaux—The Aged Lover renounceth Love. (Quoted in Hamlet, Act V. Sc. 1. Not in quartos.)
20
Omnia fert aetas, animum quoque.
Age carries all things away, even the mind.
21
Venerable men! you have come down to us from a former generation. Heaven has bounteously lengthened out your lives, that you might
behold this joyous day.
Daniel Webster—
Address at Laying the Corner-Stone of the Bunker Hill Monument. June 17, 1825.
22
Is not old wine wholesomest, old pippins toothsomest, old wood burn brightest, old linen wash whitest? Old soldiers, sweetheart, are surest, and old lovers are soundest.
John Webster—Westward Ho. Act II. Sc. 1
(See also Bacon)
23
Thus fares it still in our decay,
And yet the wiser mind
Mourns less for what age takes away
Than what it leaves behind.
24
But an old age serene and bright,
And lovely as a Lapland night,
Shall lead thee to thy grave.
25
The monumental pomp of age
Was with this goodly Personage;
A stature undepressed in size,
Unbent, which rather seemed to rise
In open victory o'er the weight
Of seventy years, to loftier height.
