Many individuals approaching or reaching retirement age have some concerns about getting older. Read these 70 uplifting and truthful quotes regarding the aging process to rethink how you view your upcoming golden years by putting a positive spin on it.
Wise Words Regarding Getting Older
1. “Age is no barrier. It’s a limitation you put on your mind.” – Jackie Joyner-Kersee
2. “Don’t try to be young. Just open your mind. Say interested in stuff. There are so many things I won’t live long enough to find out about, but I’m still curious about them.” – Betty White
3. “I was thinking about how people seem to read the bible a lot more as they get older, and then it dawned on me – they’re cramming for their final exam.” – George Carlin
4. “Getting older makes you no wiser, but number of lessons that learned.” – Toba Beta, Master of Stupidity
5. “The clock never stops, never stops, never waits. We’re growing old. It’s getting late.” – Ben Folds
6. “A man growing old becomes a child again.” – Sophocles
7. “The trick is growing up without growing old.” – Casey Stengel
8. “Nobody ever said that growing old would be easy. Just having to hold the newspaper out in your forties and then hair growing out of unusual parts of your body in your fifties. It’s tough on the ego.” – Geoffrey Rush
9. “A man knows when he is growing old because he begins to look like his father.” – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
10. “I look forward to growing old and wise and audacious.” – Glenda Jackson
Some Insightful Quotes from Notable People on the Aging Process
11. “I had to wait 110 years to become famous. I wanted to enjoy it as long as possible.” – Jeanne Louise Calment
12. “At old age, one realizes that life is truly a dream.” – Michael Bassey Johnson, ‘The Oneironaut’s Diary'”
13. “I think for a woman, the hardest thing about growing old is becoming invisible. There’s something very front and center about being young.” – Amy Grant
14. “Too many people, when they get old, think that they have to live by the calendar.” – John Glenn
15. “I have reached an age when, if someone tells me to wear socks, I don’t have to.” – Albert Einstein
16. “Those who think they have no time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness.” – Edward Stanley
17. “Old age hath yet his honor and his toil.” – Alfred Lord Tennyson
18. “The longer I live the more beautiful life becomes.” – Frank Lloyd Wright
19. “Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be.” – Robert Browning
20. “Aging can be fun if you lay back and enjoy it.” – Clint Eastwood
Positive Quotes About the Truth of Getting Old
21. “About the only thing that comes to us without effort is old age.” – Gloria Pitzer
22. “Time wounds all heels.” – Dorothy Parker
23. “I will be refined by age, not defined by age.” – Kathy Sporre
24. “Age is how we determine how valuable you are.” – Jayne Elliot
25. “There’s no such thing as aging but maturing and knowledge. It’s beautiful, I call that beauty.” – Celine Dion
26. “You are never too old to look younger.” – Mae West
27. “I’ve often thought that the process of aging could be slowed down if it had to go through Congress.” – George Bush
28. “How beautifully leaves grow old. How full of light and colour are their last days.” – John Burroughs
29. “To be old is a glorious thing when one has not unlearned what it means to begin.” – Martin Buber
30. “To keep the heart unwrinkled, to be hopeful, kindly cheerful, reverent – that is to triumph over old age.” – Thomas Bailey Aldrich
Inspirational Quotes That Reveal the Silver Lining of Reaching Old Age
31. “Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.” – Franz Kafka
32. “Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears.” – John Lennon
33. “With age comes the inner, the higher life. Who would be forever young, to dwell always in externals?” – Elizabeth Cady Stanton
34. “If you associate enough with older people who do enjoy their lives, who are not stored away in any golden ghettos, you will gain a sense of continuity and of the possibility for a full life.” – Margaret Mead
35. “We grow neither better nor worse as we get old, but more like ourselves.” – May Lamberton Becke
36. “Relish love in our old age! Aged love is like aged wine; it becomes more satisfying, more refreshing, more valuable, more appreciated and more intoxicating.” – Leo Buscaglia
37. “I’ve looked forward to being older because you will have that many more miles covered. We mustn’t be led into thinking getting old is bad. Growing old is good.” – Joanna Lumley
38. “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.” – Henry Ford
39. “Aging is not lost youth but a new stage of opportunity and strength.” – Betty Friedan
40. “It does not take much to make us realize what fools we are, but the little it takes is long in coming.” – Flannery O’Connor
Becoming Old May Be Simply a Trick of the Mind – Hopeful Aging Quotes
41. “We are always the same age inside.” – Gertrude Stein
42. “My idea of growing old gracefully is probably different to other people’s!” – Jane Goldman
43. “Growing old on screen is not for the faint of heart.” – George Clooney
44. “I’m baffled that anyone might not think women get more beautiful as they get older. Confidence comes with age, and looking beautiful comes from the confidence someone has in themselves.” – Kate Winslet
45. “I’ve always said that I will never let an old person into my body. That is, I don’t believe in ‘thinking’ old. Don’t program yourself to break down as you age with thoughts that decline is inevitable.” – Wayne Dyer
46. “I’m not interested in age. People who tell me their age are silly, you’re as old as you feel.” – Elizabeth Arden
47. “Age is a matter of feeling, not of years.” – George William Curtis
48. “The aging process has you firmly in its grasp if you never get the urge to throw a snowball.” – Doug Larson
49. “You can free yourself from aging by reinterpreting your body and by grasping the link between belief and biology.” – Deepak Chopra
50. “And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” – Abraham Lincoln
Uplifting Quotes on Reaching Old Age by Famous Individuals
51. “I have found it to be true that the older I become the better my life has become.” – Rush Limbaugh
52. “Getting old is a fascination thing. The older you get, the older you want to get.” – Keith Richards
53. “I am appalled that the term we use to talk about aging is ‘anti.’ Aging is as natural as a baby’s softness and scent. Aging is a human evolution in its pure form.” – Jamie Lee Curtis
54. “Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideas. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.” – Samuel Ullman
55. “Combine nursing homes with nursery schools. Bring very old and very young together: they interest one another.” – John Cage
56. “It’s like you trade the virility of the body for the agility of the spirit.” – Elizabeth Lesser
57. “Age has taught me that what other people think of me is none of my business.” – Jane Tara
58. “If you don’t know how to grow old, don’t start learning how to grow old.” – Carew Papritz
59. “I’ve noticed that as I get older, time seems to fly by in hyper-speed. You blink, and a week has passed. Blink again, and a year has gone by.” – Elle Kennedy, ‘The Deal’
60. “The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.” – Jean-Paul Sartre
Beautiful Quotes About Overcoming the Fear of Getting Older
61. “The main fear about growing old as an actor is not losing the looks. I never had any to speak of, and what I had I’ve still got, but losing the memory is another matter.” – Miriam Margolyes
62. “The good thing about being old is not being young.” – Stephen Richards
63. “Health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.” – Author Unknown
64. “Laughter is timeless, imagination has no age, and dreams are forever.” – Walt Disney
65. “Youthful pleasures last until old age, and then they become old treasures.” – Anthony T. Hincks
66. “Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
67. “Cherish all your happy moments: they make a fine cushion for old age.” – Christopher Morley
68. “You’re never too old to set another goal or dream a new dream.” – C.S. Lewis
69. “In fact, looking back, it seems to me that I was clueless until I was about 50 years old.” – Nora Ephron
70. “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
Final Thoughts About Reaching Retirement Years
It is possible to reach retirement age without falling apart over your increased birthday numbers. In fact, many well-known people have already gone before us leaving their insightful quotes to lead us onward.
Hopefully, you will find these quotes a breath of fresh air while still seeing the silver lining in finally reaching those older years. Life at age 70, 80 or 90 can be just as fulfilling as those younger years with the right mindset and a positive attitude. Make sure you read these funny quotes about getting older which can be found here.
If you don’t know how to fill your days yet, we suggest you read this article that gives you 150 ideas of things to do as a retiree.