80 Quotes on Aging Gracefully (Wisdom from Centenarians)

Do you want to age like fine wine? These funny and thought-provoking quotes from businessmen, novelists, actors, politicians and country leaders, etc. will show you what it means to age gracefully.

Table of Contents

Best Quotes about Aging Gracefully

1. “Aging can be fun if you lay back and enjoy it.” Clint Eastwood

2.“Wrinkles only show where smiles have been.” Mark Twain

3.“Aging is an extraordinary process where you become the person you always should have been.” David Bowie

4. 'You don’t stop laughing when you grow old, you grow old when you stop laughing.' George Bernard Shaw Share on X

5.“Age is not how old you are, but how many years of fun you’ve had.” Matt Maldre

Positive Quotes about Aging Gracefully

6. ”My face carries all my memories. Why would I erase them?” Diane Von Furstenberg

7. “Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.”

8. “Do not grow old no matter how long you live. Never cease to stand like curious children before the great mystery into which we were born.” Albert Einstein

9. “To find joy in work is to discover the fountain of youth.” Pearl S. Buck

10. “To keep the heart unwrinkled, to be hopeful, kindly, cheerful, reverent—that is to triumph over old age.” Thomas Bailey Aldrich

11. 'You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.' C.S. Lewis Share on X

12. “If wrinkles must be written on our brows, let them not be written upon the heart. The spirit should never grow old.” James A. Garfield

13. “Knowing how to age and not being afraid of aging is very healthy.” Evelyn Lauder

14. “I never have a sense of finishing up, just new things beginning. When I die, they’re going to carry me off a stage.” Angela Lansbury

15. “One of the few advantages to not being beautiful is that one usually gets better-looking as one gets older. I am, in fact, at this very moment gaining my looks.” Nora Ephron

16. “And the beauty of a woman, with passing years only grows!” Audrey Hepburn

17. “How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?” Satchel Paige

18. “You show me anyone who’s lived to over seventy and you show me a fighter—someone who’s got the will to live.” Agatha Christie

19. “We are always the same age inside.” Gertrude Stein

20. “The best part of the art of living is to know how to grow old gracefully.” Eric Hoffer

21. “Aging seems to be the only available way to live a long life.” Kitty O’Neill Collins

22. 'I think your whole life shows in your face and you should be proud of that.' Lauren Bacall Share on X

23. “Only by owning who and what you are can you start to step into the fullness of life. Every year should be teaching us something valuable. Whether you get the lesson is really up to you.” Oprah Winfrey

24. “The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes.” Frank Lloyd Wright

25. “I’m not interested in age. People who tell me their age are silly. You’re as old as you feel.” Henri Frederic Amiel

Beautiful Quotes from Centenarians (100-Year-Olds)

26. “Take one day at a time and go along with the tide.” Gilbert Herrick, 100

27. “Don’t worry. I don’t worry. If you worry, it gets you down. I never ever worry.” Grace Jones, 112

28. “Life was not easy, but it made me stronger.” Johanna Zurndorfer, 97

29. “My 80s were the best years of my life!” Besse Cooper, 116

30. “I try not to make a big fuss over things. I always said, ‘This too shall pass.’” Barbara Brody, 102

31. “Find a cause and knock yourself out for it. It will enhance your brainpower, interest in life, and keep you alive longer.” Alyse Laemmle, 96

32. 'Don’t fight the day, just let it be. Get up and be positive.' Gussie Levine, 100 years old Share on X

33. “In life there are always problems. You solve your problems to the best you can, and you accept the rest.” Teresa Hsu, 113

34. “Do things that you’ve never done before.” Lillian Modell, 100

35. “Don’t stay mad at anything—you have to get used to the losses, otherwise you can’t win.” Benjamin Goldfaden, 99

36. “Pizza is going to support a whole generation of cardiologists!” Dr. Leila Denmark, 114

37. “I’ll never retire as long as I live—that’s like retiring from life! I’ll never stop writing, teaching, lecturing. If you’re in good health, living is exciting on its own.” Bel Kaufman, 101

38. “It is very important to have a widespread curiosity about life.” Irving Kahn, 106

Funny Aging Quotes

39. “I’m like a good cheese. I’m just getting moldy enough to be interesting.” Paul Newman

40. “I do the New York Times crossword puzzle every morning to keep the old grey matter ticking.” Carol Burnett

41. “Age is not how old you are, but how many years of fun you’ve had.” Matt Maldre

42. “OMG I’m rich” Silver in the hair. Gold in the teeth. Crystals in the kidney. Sugar in the blood. Lead in the butt. Iron in the arteries, and an inexhaustible supply of natural gas.”

43. “I remember being able to get up without making sound effects…”

44. 'Memory is the first casualty of middle age, if I remember correctly.' Candice Bergen Share on X

45. “At age 20, we worry about what others think about 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

46. “Age is just a number. It’s totally irrelevant unless, of course, you happen to be a bottle of wine.” Joan Collins

47. “The great thing about getting older is that you don’t lose all the other ages you’ve been.” Madeleine L’Engle

48. “As a graduate of the Zsa Zsa Gabor School of Creative Mathematics, I honestly do not know how old I am.” Erma Bombeck

49. 'The more candles on my cake, the more exercise I get blowing them out.' Donna Lynn Hope Share on X

50. “Older women are like aging strudels – the crust may not be so lovely, but the filling has come at last into its own.” Robert Farrar Capon

Inspirational Quotes about Aging

50. ”As soon as you feel too old to do a thing, do it.” Margaret Deland

51. “The idea is to die young as late as possible.” Ashley Montagu

52. “It is not a question of how old you are, but a question of how you are old.” Jules Renard

53. “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

54. “Aging gracefully is one thing, but trying to slow it down is another.” Courteney Cox

55. “Don’t let aging get you down. It’s too hard to get back up.” Unknown

56. “No one can avoid aging, but aging productively is something else.” Katharine Graham

57. 'Aging is not lost youth but a new stage of opportunity and strength.' Betty Friedan Share on X

58. “There is an anti-aging possibility, but it has to come from within.” Susan Anton

59. “Those who love deeply never grow old; they may die of old age, but they die young.” Ben Franklin

60. “Aging has a wonderful beauty and we should have respect for that.” Eartha Kitt

61. “What I look forward to is continued immaturity followed by death.” Dave Barry

62. “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

63. 'If youth we run into difficulties. In old age difficulties run into us.' Beverly Sills Share on X

64. “The heyday of woman’s life is the shady side of fifty.” Elizabeth Cady Stanton

65. “If it seems as though things are under control, you’re not going fast enough.” Mario Andretti

66. “Grow old with me! The best is yet to be.” Robert Browning

67. “Old age is no place for sissies.” Bette Davis

Famous Quotes about Aging

68. “Growing old is mandatory, but growing up is optional.” Walt Disney

69. “Always semi-retire, never retire. Who wants to just sit somewhere?” Aretha Franklin

70. “Age appears to be best in four things: old wood to burn old wine to drink, old friends to trust and old authors to read.” Francis Bacon

71. “As we grow old, the beauty steals inward.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

72. “I’m saving that rocker for the day when I feel as old as I really am.” Dwight D. Eisenhower

73. 'The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.' Henry Ford Share on X

74. “Women sit or move to and fro, some are old, some young. The young are beautiful – but the old are more beautiful than the young.” Walt Whitman

75. “Even now, at 82 years old, if I don’t learn something every day, you know what I think? It’s a day lost.” B. B. King

76. “I’m not an aging gracefully type. But I do believe in aging with grace.” Danielle Steel

77. “Age makes you more confident. When you realize that it’s time now to just do things. When there’s not the pressure to perform on some level of expectations, there’s more to just explore.” Robin Williams

78. “At 50, I began to know who I was. It was like waking up to myself.” Maya Angelou

79. “If youth knew: if age could.” Sigmund Freud

80. Some guy said to me: ‘Don’t you think you’re too old to sing rock n’ roll?’ I said: ‘You’d better check with Mick Jagger’.” Cher

Fun Facts about Centenarians

The US has the highest number of centenarians in the world with 97 000 living in the country, followed by Japan with 79 000 in the country. Japan has the highest rate of centenarians, at 6 for every 10 000 people.
The world’s oldest person ever lived was a French woman called Jeanne Louise Calment (born 21 February, 1875) from France. She died at the age of 122 years and 164 days old in 1997. She said her secret to long life was olive oil, port and chocolate.
The world’s oldest person alive is a 117-year-old Japanese woman called Kane Tanaka (born 2 January, 1903) living in Japan. When asked what was her happiest moment so far, she replied: “now”.

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