Quotes on Age

He that in the latter part of his life too strictly inquires what he has done, can very seldom receive from his own heart such an account as will give him satisfaction.

Nothing is more despicable than the old age of a passionate man. When the vigour of youth fails him, and his amusements pall with frequent repetition, his occasional rage sinks by decay of strength into peevishness; that peevishness, for want of novelty and variety, becomes habitual; the world falls off from around him, and he is left, as Homer expresses it, to devour his own heart in solitude and contempt.

...that though they may refuse to grow wise, they must inevitably grow old; ...that the proper solaces of age are not music and compliments, but wisdom and devotion; that those who are so unwilling to quit the world will soon be driven from it; and that it is therefore in their interest to retire while there yet remain a few hours of nobler employments.

For there is assuredly nothing dearer to a man than wisdom, and though age takes away all else, it undoubtedly brings us that.

There lies the weaknesss of positivists and professional atheists who are elated because they feel that they have not only successfully rid the world of gods but "bared the miracles." (That is, explained the miracles. - ed.) Oddly enough, we must be satisfied to acknowledge the "miracle" without there being any legitimate way for us to approach it . I am forced to add that just to keep you from thinking that -weakened by age-I have fallen prey to the clergy.

Law is nothing else but the best reason of wise men applied for ages to the transactions and business of mankind.

Books, like proverbs, receive their chief value from the stamp and esteem of the ages through which they have passed.

I was born at the age of twelve on an MGM lot.

If wrinkles must be written on our brows, let them not be written upon the heart. The spirit should never grow old.

The hallmark of our age is the tension between aspirations and sluggish institutions.

Please don't retouch my wrinkles. It took me so long to earn them.

Age is not all decay; it is the ripening, the swelling, of the fresh life within, that withers and bursts the husk.

What came up at age 49 is I realized that of all the things I'm interested in, the thing I'm most interested in is figuring out what makes people tick, why people think the way they do, why they act the way they do. And I realized that music is such a great way to investigate why people do what they do.

Science goes from question to question; big questions, and little, tentative answers. The questions as they age grow ever broader, the answers are seen to be more limited.

The mere man of pleasure is miserable in old age, and the mere drudge in business is but little better, whereas, natural philosophy, mathematical and mechanical science, are a continual source of tranquil pleasure, and in spite of the gloomy dogmas of priests and of superstition, the study of these things is the true theology; it teaches man to know and admire the Creator, for the principles of science are in the creation, and are unchangeable and of divine origin.

Science moves, but slowly, slowly, creeping on from point to point. ..._x000D_ _x000D_ Yet I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs,_x000D_ _x000D_ And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns. ..._x000D_ _x000D_ Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.

Not to know what has been transacted in former times is to be always a child. If no use is made of the labors of past ages, the world must remain always in the infancy of knowledge.

Criticism, though dignified from the earliest ages by the labours of men eminent for knowledge and sagacity, has not yet attained the certainty and stability of science.

From forty to fifty a man must move upward, or the natural falling off in the vigor of life will carry him rapidly downward.

Is that a birthday? 'tis, alas! too clear; 'Tis but the funeral of the former year.

When our vices desert us, we flatter ourselves that we are deserting our vices.