“At forty you stand upon the threshold of life, with values learned and rubbish cleared away. “ ~ A Prisoner in Fairyland by Algernon Blackwood

“Anybody is liable to rheumatism in her legs, Anne. It’s only old people who should have rheumatism in their souls, though. Thank goodness, I never have. When you get rheumatism in your soul you might as well go and pick out your coffin.” ~ Anne of the Island by Lucy Maud Montgomery

At last, however, his conversation became unbearable–a foul young man is odious, but a foul old one is surely the most sickening thing on earth. One feels that the white upon the hair, like that upon the mountain, should signify a height attained. ~ The Stark Munro Letters by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

When one grew old, the whole world was in conspiracy to limit freedom, and for what reason?–just to keep the breath in him a little longer. He did not want it at such cost. ~ The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy

Indeed, he would sometimes remark, when a man fell into his anecdotage, it was a sign for him to retire from the world. ~ Lothair by Benjamin Disraeli

“No one is ever too old to do a foolish thing.” ~ Uncle Silas by J. Sheridan Le Fanu

“As I said just now, the world has gone past me. I don’t blame it; but I no longer understand it. Tradesmen are not the same as they used to be, apprentices are not the same, business is not the same, business commodities are not the same. Seven-eighths of my stock is old-fashioned. I am an old-fashioned man in an old-fashioned shop, in a street that is not the same as I remember it. I have fallen behind the time, and am too old to catch it again.” ~ Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens

“The young have aspirations that never come to pass, the old have reminiscences of what never happened. It’s only the middle-aged who are really conscious of their limitations–that is why one should be so patient with them.” ~ Reginald by Saki

Don’t ever think the poetry is dead in an old man because his forehead is wrinkled, or that his manhood has left him when his hand trembles! If they ever WERE there, they ARE there still! ~ The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

There comes with old age a time when the heart is no longer fusible or malleable, and must retain the form in which it has cooled down. ~ Uncle Silas by J. Sheridan Le Fanu

What is the meaning of life? That was all–a simple question; one that tended to close in on one with years. The great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark. ~ To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

More Quotes About Aging from Literature