60 Quotes about Growing Older to Remind Us of the Beauty of Age

Some people fear aging, some people eagerly await it. It is something that can be scary, knowing you are growing older and losing your young self. However, if we spend time worrying about what is changing, we lose the time we have, and soon we look back and realize worry is all we have to remember.

These 60 quotes about growing older are to remind you that while aging is scary and a lot of things change, it is a part of life. You need to live life to the fullest and enjoy it when young and old.

60 Quotes about Growing Older

1. “Aging is an inevitable process. I surely wouldn’t want to grow younger. The older you become, the more you know; your bank account of knowledge is much richer.” – William Holden
2. “Wrinkles will only go where the smiles have been.” – Jimmy Buffet
3. “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
4. “A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams.” – John Barrymore
5. “I think most models fear growing old, but from a tender age I had always chosen to play someone grown up. I am slowly but surely catching up with the people that I have spent the last decade and a half trying to portray.” – Erin O’Connor
6. “You’re never too old to set another goal or dream a new dream.” – C.S. Lewis
7. “Today is the oldest you’ve ever been, and the youngest you’ll ever be again.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
8. “People don’t love each other at our age, Marthe—they please each other, that’s all. Later on, when you’re old and impotent, you can love someone. At our age, you just think you do. That’s all it is.” – Albert Camus
9. “None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.” – Henry David Thoreau
10. “The clock never stops, never stops, never waits. We’re growing old. It’s getting late.” – Ben Folds
11. “To all, I would say how mistaken they are when they think that they stop falling in love when they grow old, without knowing that they grow old when they stop falling in love.” – Gabriel García Márquez
12. “We live in a youth-obsessed culture that is constantly trying to tell us that if we are not young, and we’re not glowing, and we’re not hot, that we don’t matter. I refuse to let a system or a culture or a distorted view of reality tell me that I don’t matter. I know that only by owning who and what you are can you start to step into the fullness of life. Every year should be teaching us all something valuable. Whether you get the lesson is really up to you.” – Oprah Winfrey
13. “Growing old is not growing up.” – Douglas Horton
14. “I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity.” – Albert Einstein
15. “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
16. “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
17. “Getting old is like climbing a mountain; you get a little out of breath, but the view is much better!” – Ingrid Bergman
18. “Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.” – Franz Kafka
19. “The good thing about being old is not being young.” – Stephen Richards
20. “The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.”- Jean-Paul Sartre
21. “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
22. “I have known plenty of people who, in their later years, had the energy of children and the kind of curiosity and fascination with things like little children. I think we can keep that, and I think it’s important to keep that part of staying young. But I also think it’s great fun growing old.” – Johnny Depp
23. “The thing about growing old is you have to accept it – if you don’t, you’ll be as miserable as sin. You’ve got to try and find the few good things about it.” – Judy Parfitt
24. “You can live to be a hundred if you give up all things that make you want to live to be a hundred.” – Woody Allen
25. “Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.” – Samuel Ullman
26. “A man growing old becomes a child again.” – Sophocles
27. “Gravity and wrinkles are fine with me. They’re a small price to pay for the new wisdom inside my head and my heart.” – Drew Barrymore
28. “AGE IS NOT A NUMBER! It’s a well-earned gift of experiences.” – Ramesh Sood
29. “I wish the time hadn’t gone so fast, though. And sometimes I wish I’d enjoyed it more on the way, and worried about it less.” – Neil Gaiman
30. “The answer to old age is to keep one’s mind busy and to go on with one’s life as if it were interminable. I always admired Chekhov for building a new house when he was dying of tuberculosis.” – Leon Edel
31. “Growing old has been the greatest surprise of my life.” – Billy Graham
32. “There is a fountain of youth: It is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age.” – Sophia Loren
33. “Why do people talk of the horrors of old age? It’s great. I feel like a fine old car with the parts gradually wearing out, but I’m not complaining,… Those who find growing old terrible are people who haven’t done what they wanted with their lives.” – Martha Gellhorn
34. “My belief is that it’s a privilege to get older — not everybody gets to get older.” – Cameron Diaz
35. “Aging is not ‘lost youth’ but a new stage of opportunity and strength.” – Betty Friedan
36. “It is a little disappointing to see that your legs are not as strong. But I like the idea of growing old, and the thought of approaching death is not particularly daunting to me.” – Francis Ford Coppola
37. “I wouldn’t be young again even if it were possible, but I am not going to pretend that growing old is all sweetness and light.” – Ruth Rendell Young
38. “You know what? I’m not young. And I’m OK with that… I feel so much more comfortable. It’s like I’ve taken off a mask.” – Andie MacDowell
39. “Growing old is mandatory, but growing up is optional!” – Walt Disney
40. “I’m actually happier with my body now… because the body I have now is the body I’ve worked for.” – Cindy Crawford
41. “To me, growing old is great. It’s the very best thing – considering the alternative.” – Michael Caine
42. “Age is no barrier. It’s a limitation you put on your mind.” – Jackie Joyner-Kersee
43. “Do not deprive me of my age. I have earned it.” – May Sarton
44. “I have made a rule about such things, which I commend to you, young man: As soon as you feel too old to do a thing, DO IT.” – Margaret Deland
45. “Getting old is a fascinating thing. The older you get, the older you want to get!” – Keith Richards
46. “Getting older makes you more alive. More vitality, more interest, more intelligence, more grace, more expansion.” – Jamie Lee Curtis
47. “A man knows when he is growing old because he begins to look like his father.” – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
48. “Don’t underestimate the powers of an open mind. A lot of people are concerned with staying physically young; while that’s appealing, I’m more interested in maintaining my curiosity.” – Diablo Cody
49. “One day you will look back and see that all along you were blooming.” – Morgan Harper Nichols
50. “Mostly, what I have learned so far about aging, despite the creakiness of one’s bones and cragginess of one’s once-silken skin, is this: Do it. By all means, do it.” – Maya Angelou
51. “There are six myths about old age: 1. That it’s a disease, a disaster. 2. That we are mindless. 3. That we are sexless. 4. That we are useless. 5. That we are powerless. 6. That we are all alike.” – Maggie Kuhn
52. “At 50, everyone has the face he deserves.” – George Orwell
53. “You must not pity me because my sixtieth year finds me still astonished. To be astonished is one of the surest ways of not growing old too quickly.” – Sidonie Gabrielle Colette
54. “Don’t try to be young. Just open your mind. Stay 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. You know people who are already saying, ‘I’m going to be 30 — oh, what am I going to do?’ Well, use that decade! Use them all!” – Betty White
55. “Aging is just another word for living.” – Cindy Joseph
56. “The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes.” – Frank Lloyd Wright
57. “I like the way I look. I like the way I feel. I like my energy. I have wisdom. I have perspective, and I can tell you that aging can be so incredible.” – Suzanne Somers
58. “I never thought I’d reach 21. I used to feel that was old, but growing old doesn’t scare me anymore. I just want to have done something super special and have had someone to do it with.” – Edward Furlong
59. “Today I am 65 years old. I still look good. I appreciate and enjoy my age. A lot of people resist transition and therefore never allow themselves to enjoy who they are. Embrace the change, no matter what it is; once you do, you can learn about the new world you’re in and take advantage of it. You still bring to bear all your prior experience, but you are riding on another level. It’s completely liberating.” – Nikki Giovanni
60. “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