"Much has seen said of the wisdom of old age. Old age is wise, I grant, for itself, but not wise for the community. It is wise in declining new enterprises, for it has not the power nor the time to execute them; wise in shrinking from difficulty, for it has not the strength to overcome it; wise in avoiding danger, for it lacks the faculty of ready and swift action, by which dangers are parried and converted into advantages. But this is not wisdom for mankind at large, by whom new enterprises must be undertaken, dangers met, and difficulties surmounted."
Age quotes
Age
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Age quotes (page 40 of 323)
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"Supreme art is a traditional statement of certain heroic and religious truth, passed on from age to age, modified by individual genius, but never abandoned."
"I had a chair at every hearth, When no one turned to see, With 'Look at that old fellow there, 'And who may he be?"
"Never; he will not: Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale Her infinite variety: other women cloy The appetites they feed: but she makes hungry Where most she satisfies."
"You cannot call it love, for at your age the heyday in the blood is tame"
"When the age is in, the wit is out"
"Crabbed age and youth cannot live together: Youth is full of pleasance, age is full of care."
"Nor age so eat up my invention."
"A good old man, sir. He will be talking. As they say, when the age is in, the wit is out."
"Age, I do abhor thee, youth, I do adore thee."
"Youth is full of sport, age's breath is short; youth is nimble, age is lame; Youth is hot and bold, age is weak and cold; Youth is wild, and age is tame."
"As you are old and reverend, you should be wise."
"Nature, as it grows again toward earth, is fashioned for the journey, dull and heavy."
"How many ages hence Shall this our lofty scene be acted over In states unborn and accents yet unknown!"
"O sir, you are old; nature in you stands on the very verge of her confine; you should be ruled and led by some discretion, that discerns your fate better than you yourself."
"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."
"The legislator must be in advance of his age. Across the mind of the statesman flash ever and anon the brilliant, though partial, intimations of future events.... Something which is more than fore-sight and less than prophetic knowledge marks the statesman a peculiar being among his contemporaries."
"At the age of 12 I won the school prize for Best English Essay. The prize was a copy of Somerset Maugham's 'Introduction To Modern English And American Literature.' To this day I keep it on the shelf between my collection of Forester's works and the little urn that contains my mother's ashes."
"I grow old … I grow old … I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled."
"Every reform was once a private opinion, and when it shall be a private opinion again, it will solve the problem of the age."