Quotes about age
page 6

“Yes, it’s true. It’s true that Joan of Arc was my dream as a little girl. I discovered her toward the age of ten or twelve, when I went to France. I don’t remember where I read about her, but I recall that she immediately took on a definite importance for me. I wanted to sacrifice my life for my country. It seems like foolishness and yet … what happens when we’re children is engraved forever in our lives.”

Indíra Gándhí (1917–1984) Indian politician and Prime Minister

Oriana Fallaci. Interview with Indira Gandhi in New Delhi, February 1972

Life, Children, Dreams, Girl

“Malays abhor the state of celibacy. To remain unmarried was and is considered shameful. Everyone must be married at some time or other. The result is that whether a person is fit or unfit for marriage, he or she still marries and reproduces. An idiot or a simpleton is often married off to an old widower, ostensibly to take care of him in his old age. If this is not possible, backward relatives are paired off in marriage. These people survive, reproduce and propagate their species. The cumulative effect of this can be left to the imagination.”

Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) First Prime Minister of Singapore

[Barr, Michael D., Lee Kuan Yew: Race, Culture and Genes, Journal of Contemporary Asia, 1999, 29 2, 147, https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5058/d1bc358fe18944e8aaa399e422f74d0fed75.pdf]
1980s

Marriage, People, Imagination, Time

“From the time a woman is seven years old till she dies of old age, she is ready for action, and competent. As competent as the candlestick to receive the candle. But man is only briefly competent:…After fifty his performance is of poor quality; the intervals between are wide, and its satisfactions of no great quality to either party; whereas his great-grandmother is as good as new.”

Mark Twain book Letters from the Earth

Letters from the Earth (1909)

Time

“In our age of profound change, the Church is called to offer its unique contribution, by making visible the signs of the presence and closeness of God. And the Jubilee is a favorable time for us all, for in contemplating the Divine Mercy, which surpasses every human limitation and shines on the darkness of sin, we can become more convincing and effective witnesses.”

Pope Francis (1936) 266th Pope of the Catholic Church

2010s, Address to the United States Congress, Mercy Is 'What Pleases God Most

God, Making love, Change, Time

“Naturally, every age thinks that all ages before it were prejudiced, and today we think this more than ever and are just as wrong as all previous ages that thought so. How often have we not seen the truth condemned! It is sad but unfortunately true that man learns nothing from history.”

C.G. Jung book Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle

Source: Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle (1960), p. 33

Truth, Sadness, History, Nature

“William inherited very large possessions, part of which consisted of crown debts, due to the vice-admiral for sums he had advanced for the sea-service. No moneys were at that time less secure than those owing from the king. Penn was obliged to go, more than once, and "thee" and "thou" Charles and his ministers, to recover the debt; and at last, instead of specie, the government invested him with the right and sovereignty of a province of America, to the south of Maryland. Thus was a Quaker raised to sovereign power.
He set sail for his new dominions with two ships filled with Quakers, who followed his fortune. The country was then named by them Pennsylvania, from William Penn; and he founded Philadelphia, which is now a very flourishing city. His first care was to make an alliance with his American neighbors; and this is the only treaty between those people and the Christians that was not ratified by an oath, and that was never infringed. The new sovereign also enacted several wise and wholesome laws for his colony, which have remained invariably the same to this day. The chief is, to ill-treat no person on account of religion, and to consider as brethren all those who believe in one God. He had no sooner settled his government than several American merchants came and peopled this colony. The natives of the country, instead of flying into the woods, cultivated by degrees a friendship with the peaceable Quakers. They loved these new strangers as much as they disliked the other Christians, who had conquered and ravaged America. In a little time these savages, as they are called, delighted with their new neighbors, flocked in crowds to Penn, to offer themselves as his vassals. It was an uncommon thing to behold a sovereign "thee'd" and "thou'd" by his subjects, and addressed by them with their hats on; and no less singular for a government to be without one priest in it; a people without arms, either for offence or preservation; a body of citizens without any distinctions but those of public employments; and for neighbors to live together free from envy or jealousy. In a word, William Penn might, with reason, boast of having brought down upon earth the Golden Age, which in all probability, never had any real existence but in his dominions.”

Voltaire (1694–1778) French writer, historian, and philosopher

Variants:
No oaths, no seals, no official mummeries were used; the treaty was ratified on both sides with a yea, yea — the only one, says Voltaire, that the world has known, never sworn to and never broken.
As quoted in William Penn : An Historical Biography (1851) by William Hepworth Dixon
William Penn began by making a league with the Americans, his neighbors. It is the only one between those natives and the Christians which was never sworn to, and the only one that was never broken.
As quoted in American Pioneers (1905), by William Augustus Mowry and Blanche Swett Mowry, p. 80
It was the only treaty made by the settlers with the Indians that was never sworn to, and the only one that was never broken.
As quoted in A History of the American Peace Movement (2008) by Charles F. Howlett, and ‎Robbie Lieberman, p. 33
The History of the Quakers (1762)

Love, Money, God, Friendship

“William Penn, when only fifteen years of age, chanced to meet a Quaker in Oxford, where he was then following his studies. This Quaker made a proselyte of him; and our young man, being naturally sprightly and eloquent, having a very winning aspect and engaging carriage, soon gained over some of his companions and intimates, and in a short time formed a society of young Quakers, who met at his house; so that at the age of sixteen he found himself at the head of a sect. Having left college, at his return home to the vice-admiral, his father, instead of kneeling to ask his blessing, as is the custom with the English, he went up to him with his hat on, and accosted him thus: "Friend, I am glad to see thee in good health."”

Voltaire (1694–1778) French writer, historian, and philosopher

The viceadmiral thought his son crazy; but soon discovered he was a Quaker. He then employed every method that prudence could suggest to engage him to behave and act like other people. The youth answered his father only with repeated exhortations to turn Quaker also. After much altercation, his father confined himself to this single request, that he would wait on the king and the duke of York with his hat under his arm, and that he would not "thee" and "thou" them. William answered that his conscience would not permit him to do these things. This exasperated his father to such a degree that he turned him out of doors. Young Penn gave God thanks that he permitted him to suffer so early in His cause, and went into the city, where he held forth, and made a great number of converts; and being young, handsome, and of a graceful figure, both court and city ladies flocked very devoutly to hear him. The patriarch Fox, hearing of his great reputation, came to London — notwithstanding the length of the journey — purposely to see and converse with him. They both agreed to go upon missions into foreign countries; and accordingly they embarked for Holland, after having left a sufficient number of laborers to take care of the London vineyard.
The History of the Quakers (1762)

Health, Home, Nature, Study

“You have already heard that the Quakers date their epoch from Christ, who, according to them, was the first Quaker. Religion, say they, was corrupted almost immediately after His death, and remained in that state of corruption about sixteen hundred years. But there were always a few of the faithful concealed in the world, who carefully preserved the sacred fire, which was extinguished in all but themselves; till at length this light shone out in England in 1642.
It was at the time when Great Britain was distracted by intestine wars, which three or four sects had raised in the name of God, that one George Fox, a native of Leicestershire, and son of a silk-weaver, took it into his head to preach the Word, and, as he pretended, with all the requisites of a true apostle; that is, without being able either to read or write. He was a young man, about twenty-five years of age, of irreproachable manners, and religiously mad. He was clad in leather from head to foot, and travelled from one village to another, exclaiming against the war and the clergy.”

Voltaire (1694–1778) French writer, historian, and philosopher

The History of the Quakers (1762)

Death, God, War, World

“Who does not see that the blame of this return to the feral age is not of the soldiers who become barbaric and fierce in the fury of the battle, but of those powers and governments that, keeping peoples eager for freedom enslaved, make the wars inevitable?”

Ernesto Teodoro Moneta (1833–1918) Italian journalist, nationalist, revolutionary soldier and later a pacifist and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

Le guerre, le insurrezioni e la pace nel secolo XIX, vol. 4 https://archive.org/stream/leguerreleinsur00monegoog#page/n374/mode/2up (Milano: Società Internazionale per la Pace, 1910), p. 278 https://archive.org/stream/leguerreleinsur00monegoog#page/n658/mode/2up. Original: (it) Chi non vede che la colpa di questo ritorno all'età ferina non è dei soldati che nel furor della lotta diventano barbari e feroci, ma di quelle potenze e di quei governi che, tenendo schiavi popoli anelanti a libertà, rendono le guerre inevitabili?

War, People, Making love, Freedom

“If we take a survey of ages and of countries, we shall find the women, almost - without exception - at all times and in all places, adored and oppressed. Man, who has never neglected an opportunity of exerting his power, in paying homage to their beauty, has always availed himself of their weakness He has been at once their tyrant and their slave.”

Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist

Disputed, Women, Adored and Oppressed (1775)

Women, Beauty, Time, Country

“One afternoon, which is ever present in my recollection, I was enjoying a walk with my friend in the city park and reciting poetry. At that age I knew entire books by heart, word for word. One of these was Goethe's Faust. The sun was just setting and reminded me of a glorious passage:
Sie rückt und weicht, der Tag ist überlebt,
Dort eilt sie hin und fördert neues Leben.
O! daß kein Flügel mich vom Boden hebt,
Ihr nach und immer nach zu streben!
Ein schöner Traum, indessen sie entweicht.
Ach! zu des Geistes Flügeln wird so leicht
Kein körperlicher Flügel sich gesellen![The glow retreats, done is the day of toil;
It yonder hastes, new fields of life exploring;
Ah, that no wing can lift me from the soil
Upon its track to follow, follow soaring!
A glorious dream! though now the glories fade.
Alas! the wings that lift the mind no aid
Of wings to lift the body can bequeath me.
(tr. Bayard Taylor)
As I uttered these inspiring words the idea came like a flash of lightning and in an instant the truth was revealed. I drew with a stick on the sand the diagram shown six years later in my address before the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, and my companion understood them perfectly. The images I saw were wonderfully sharp and clear and had the solidity of metal and stone, so much so that I told him, "See my motor here; watch me reverse it."”

Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) Serbian American inventor

I cannot begin to describe my emotions. Pygmalion seeing his statue come to life could not have been more deeply moved. A thousand secrets of nature which I might have stumbled upon accidentally, I would have given for that one which I had wrested from her against all odds and at the peril of my existence …

On the Invention of the Induction Motor
My Inventions (1919)

Life, Truth, Books, Dreams

“Young people are openly talking about democracy, representation and freedom. They want to see constitutions that are by the people for the people. Children are challenging the adult world as they respond to the energies of the New Age. They want to see friendship, humanity and goodwill manifesting throughout the world.”

Benjamin Creme (1922–2016) artist, author, esotericist

The Art of Living: Living within the Laws of Life (2006)

Friendship, Children, People, World

“From my early youth, since I attained the age of puberty before I was twenty, until the present time when I am over fifty, I have ever recklessly launched out into the midst of these ocean depths, I have ever bravely embarked on this open sea, throwing aside all craven caution; I have poked into every dark recess, I have made an assault on every problem, I have plunged into every abyss, I have scrutinized the creed of every sect, I have tried to lay bare the inmost doctrines of every community. All this have I done that I might 68 distinguish between true and false, between sound tradition and heretical innovation. Whenever I meet one of the Batiniyah, I like to study his creed; whenever I meet one of the Zahiriyah, I want to know the essentials of his belief. If it is a philosopher, I try to become acquainted with the essence of his philosophy; if a scholastic theologian I busy myself in examining his theological reasoning; if a Sufi, I yearn to fathom the secret of his mysticism; if an ascetic (muta'ahhid) , I investigate the basis of his ascetic practices; if one ofthe Zanadiqah or Mu'attilah, I look beneath the surface to discover the reasons for his bold adoption of such a creed.”

Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (1058–1111) Persian Muslim theologian, jurist, philosopher, and mystic

The Deliverance from Error https://www.amazon.com/Al-Ghazalis-Path-Sufism-Deliverance-al-Munqidh/dp/1887752307, p: 20-21

Secret, Youth, Communication, Business

“We're emerging from the new dark age. The dark age of emotions and feelings. We're awakening to the idea that it is possible to be a very good parent on a physical level while being a very bad parent on an emotional level.”

Teal Swan (1984) American spiritual teacher

Bad luck, Feeling, Idea, Parent

“Men of unlimited means live lives of unbridled lust, and then, in their old age, they are helpless victims of their own impulses.”

Upton Sinclair (1878–1968) American novelist, writer, journalist, political activist

https://books.google.com/books?id=CbfTjcDmA6gC&pg=RA1-PA26&lpg=RA1-PA26&dq#v=onepage&q&f=false The Book of Life (1921)

Men

“Although my mother gave me courage [and power], I do not thank her for yielding to your trickery; prematurely aged, colorless and pale, I hate happy people, and nothing gives me pleasure!”

Richard Wagner (1813–1883) German composer, conductor

Original: (de) Gab mir die Mutter Muth,
nicht mag ich ihr doch danken,
daß deiner List sie erlag:
frühalt, fahl und bleich,
hass' ich die Frohen,
freue mich nie!
Source: Quotes from his operas, Götterdämmerung, Hagen, Act 2, Scene 1

Hate, Happiness, People, Pleasure

“We hold that the moral obligation of providing for old age, helpless infancy, and poverty, is far superior to that of supplying the invented wants of courtly extravagance, ambition and intrigue.”

Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist

1790s

“All the Buddhas of all the ages have been telling you a very simple fact: Be — don't try to become.”

Rajneesh (1931–1990) Godman and leader of the Rajneesh movement

Within these two words — being and becoming, your whole life is contained. Being is enlightenment, becoming is ignorance.
The Book of Wisdom

“Man's death by sins is more than his death by fate and his life by charity is more than his life by age.”

Muhammad al-Taqi (811–835) ninth of the Twelve Imams of Twelver Shi'ism

[Baqir Sharīf al-Qurashi, The life of Imam Muhammad al-Jawad, Wonderful Maxims and Arts, 2005]

Life, Death, Fate

“It's all nonsense. I do not claim to be prime minister. Why do they raise such issues ?! We are all ministers in our own place. But at this age, I'm not fighting for a position.”

Ayaz Mutallibov (1938–2022) Soviet politician, then president of Azerbaijan

Source: "“Bu yaşımda durub vəzifə davası edəcəm?!” - Ayaz Mütəllibov “Rusiyanın adamıdır” iddiasına cavab verdi" https://modern.az/az/news/142660 (7 September 2017)

Fight

“The form of this book can be seen as a revival for the present age of the oldest form of recorded spiritual teachings: the sutras of ancient India. Sutras are powerful pointers to the truth in the form of aphorisms or short sayings, with little conceptual elaboration. The Vedas and Upanishads are the early sacred teachings recorded in the form of sutras, as are the words of the Buddha. The sayings and parables of Jesus, too, when taken out of their narrative context, could be regarded as sutras, as well as the profound teachings contained in the Tao Te Ching, the ancient Chinese book of wisdom. The advantage of the sutra form lies in its brevity...”

Eckhart Tolle (1948) German writer

Source: Stillness Speaks (2003), intro

Wisdom, Truth, Books

“I would rather spend one lifetime with you, than face all the ages of this world alone.”

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien The Lord of the Rings

Source: The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring

World

“It's the age-old battle between mind and heart, which seldom want the same thing.”

Dan Brown book Inferno

Source: Inferno

Heart

“Anyone who claimed that old age had brought them patience was either lying or senile.”

Robert Jordan (1948–2007) American writer

Lying, Patience

“A tart temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only edge tool that grows keener with constant use.”

Washington Irving Rip Van Winkle

The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon (1819–1820)
Source: "Rip Van Winkle".

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.”

Laurence Binyon book For the Fallen

"For the Fallen" (1914), fourth verse
'Condemn' is sometimes quoted as 'Contemn'. Both make sense in the context, but it was 'condemn' which was included in the first printing of the poem on page 9 of The Times of 21 September 1914. Binyon did not change it to 'contemn' when shown the proof of a later printing.

Sun

“I told him that I did not believe that they could burn people in our age, that humanity would never tolerate it…”

Elie Wiesel book Night

Source: Night

People

“Ancient astronauts didn't build the pyramids. Human beings built the pyramids, because they're clever and they work hard.”

Gene Roddenberry (1921–1991) American television screenwriter and producer

Variant: No, ancient astronauts did not build the pyramids - human beings built them because they're clever and they work hard. And 'Star Trek' is about those things.

“I do love the beginning of the summer hols,' said Julian. They always seem to stretch out ahead for ages and ages.'
'They go so nice and slowly at first,' said Anne, his little sister. 'Then they start to gallop.”

Enid Blyton book Five Go Off in a Caravan

Source: Five Go Off in a Caravan

Love, Sister, Summer

“A woman without a man cannot meet a man, any man, of any age, without thinking, even if it's for a half-second, 'Perhaps this is THE man.”

Doris Lessing (1919–2013) British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer

Thinking

“I'm seventeen and I'm crazy. My uncle says the two always go together. When people ask your age, he said, always say seventeen and insane.”

Ray Bradbury book Fahrenheit 451

Source: Fahrenheit 451

People

“Acting is the most minor of gifts and not a very high-class way to earn a living. After all, Shirley Temple could do it at the age of four.”

Katharine Hepburn (1907–2003) film, stage, and television actress

Way

“I dread no more the first white in my hair,
Or even age itself, the easy shoe,
The cane, the wrinkled hands, the special chair:
Time, doing this to me, may alter too
My anguish, into something I can bear”

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950) American poet

Shoe, Time

“It was like seeing Bill Gates at age thirteen, times two. And half of him was wearing a cheerleader uniform. Yes, I know that’s a weird image.”

Jordan Sonnenblick (1969) American writer

Source: Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie

Time

“Though most expect young men to be fools, I've noticed that just a little bit of age can make a man far more foolish than he was as a child.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Final Empire

Men, Fools

“Walk away quietly in any direction and taste the freedom of the mountaineer. Camp out among the grass and gentians of glacier meadows, in craggy garden nooks full of Nature's darlings. Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves. As age comes on, one source of enjoyment after another is closed, but Nature's sources never fail. … The petty discomforts that beset the awkward guest, the unskilled camper, are quickly forgotten, while all that is precious remains. Fears vanish as soon as one is fairly free in the wilderness.”

John Muir (1838–1914) Scottish-born American naturalist and author

" The Yellowstone National Park http://books.google.com/books?id=smQCAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA509", The Atlantic Monthly, volume LXXXI, number 486 (April 1898) pages 509-522 (at pages 515-516); modified slightly and reprinted in Our National Parks http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/writings/our_national_parks/ (1901), chapter 2: The Yellowstone National Park 1900s, Our National Parks (1901)

Fear, Peace, Mountain, Autumn

“Tell my daughter Elizabeth -- no! Tell all my daughters, everywhere, in all the ages yet to come. Tell them how I died, and why. And tell them to remember this: the future is unwritten. Know your rights.”

Philippa Gregory book The Other Boleyn Girl

Source: The Other Boleyn Girl

Future, Daughters

“Love this job," Sanya murmured. "Just love it."
"I need to challenge more people to duels," Thomas said in agreement.
"Men are pigs," Murphy said.
"Amen," said Molly.
Lea gave me a prim look and said, "I've not sacrificed a holy virgin in ages.”

Jim Butcher book Changes

Source: Changes

Love, Men, People

“It is a frightful satire and an epigram on the modern age that the only use it knows for solitude is to make it a punishment, a jail sentence.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

Solitude

“We of this age have discovered a shorter, and more prudent method to become scholars and wits, without the fatigue of reading or of thinking.”

Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, and poet

Thinking, Reading

“Give me a girl at an impressionable age and she is mine for life.”

Muriel Spark book The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Source: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Life, Girl

“The religion of one age is the literary entertainment of the next.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Religion

“Some say that the age of chivalry is past, that the spirit of romance is dead. The age of chivalry is never past, so long as there is a wrong left unredressed on earth.”

Charles Kingsley (1819–1875) English clergyman, historian and novelist

Past, Dead, Romantic

“This problem - it is age old. To do what is right and save the day without destroying the very thing the day is lived for.”

Christopher Pike (1954) American author Kevin Christopher McFadden

Source: Black Blood

Problem

“Old age isn't a battle; old age is a massacre.”

Philip Roth book Everyman

Source: Everyman (2006)

“Woman must come of age by herself…
She must find her true center alone.”

Anne Morrow Lindbergh book Gift from the Sea

Source: Gift from the Sea

“What needs my Shakespeare for his honoured bones,
The labor of an age in pilèd stones,
Or that his hallowed relics should be hid
Under a star-y-pointing pyramid?
Dear son of memory, great heir of fame,
What need'st thou such weak witness of thy name?”

John Milton (1608–1674) English epic poet

On Shakespeare (1630)
Source: The Complete Poetry

Star, Memory

“Live your life and forget your age.”

Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American writer

Variant: Live your life, not your age.

Life, Forgetting

“I wonder what the retirement age is in the novel business.

The day you die.”

Yasunari Kawabata book Beauty and Sadness

Source: Beauty and Sadness

Business

“? Is that boy crazy?"
"Most young men his age are somewhat crazy, I think," Sazed said with a smile. "However, this is hardly unexpected. Haven't you noticed how he stares at you when you enter a room?"
"I thought he was just creepy.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Final Empire

Men, Smile, Boy, Thinking

“Not that I want to be a god or a hero. Just to change into a tree, grow for ages, not hurt anyone.”

Czeslaw Milosz (1911–2004) Polish, poet, diplomat, prosaist, writer, and translator

God, Tree, Change, Hurt

“What?" Simon looked alarmed. "I'm not really sleeping with your mom, you know. I was just trying to get your attention. Not that your mom isn't a very attractive woman, for her age.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Simon, pg. 7
Variant: Simon!" Clary shouted, and seized his arm.
"What?" Simon looked alarmed.
"I'm not really sleeping with your mom, you know. I was just trying to get your attention. Not that your mom isn't a very attractive woman, for her age.
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Bones (2007)

Moms, Sleep

“If you read one book a week, starting at the age of 5, and live to be 80, you will have read a grand total of 3,900 books, a little over one-tenth of 1 percent of the books currently in print.”

Lewis Buzbee (1957) American writer

Source: The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop: A Memoir, a History

Books, Reading

“Sometimes when I'm with you, I remember things I lost when I was your age. Like I remember the sound of the rain and the smell of the wind.”

Haruki Murakami book Dance Dance Dance

Source: Dance Dance Dance

“You live in a deranged age - more deranged than usual, because despite great scientific and technological advances, man has not the faintest idea of who he is or what he is doing.”

Walker Percy (1916–1990) Southern philosophical novelist

Source: Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book

Idea

“Children of the future Age
Reading this indignant page,
Know that in a former time
Love! sweet Love! was thought a crime.”

William Blake (1757–1827) English Romantic poet and artist

A Little Girl Lost, st. 1
1790s, Songs of Experience (1794)

Love, Children, Time, Reading

“Much reading after a certain age diverts the mind from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking,”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

1930s, Wisehart interview (1930)
Context: Much reading after a certain age diverts the mind from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking, just as the man who spends too much time in the theaters is apt to be content with living vicariously instead of living his own life.

Thinking, Reading

“In our age, self-indulgence and self-destruction, rather than self-sacrifice, are the foundations for new heroic myths.”

Dean Koontz book Brother Odd

Source: Brother Odd

“Don't follow a defeated foe. Follow Christ. It is costly. You will be an exile in this age. But you will be free.”

John Piper (1946) American writer

Source: The Passion of Jesus Christ

Christ

“There are mysteries which men can only guess at, which age by age they may solve only in part.”

Bram Stoker (1847–1912) Irish novelist and short story writer, best known today for his 1897 Gothic novel Dracula

Men, Parting

“Every golden age is as much a matter of disregard as of felicity.”

Michael Chabon book The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

Source: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

“These handwritten words in the pages of my journal confirm that from an early age I have experienced each encounter in my life twice: once in the world, and once again on the page.”

Terry Tempest Williams (1955) American writer

Source: When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice

Life, World

“Your best work involves timing. If someone wrote the best hip hop song of all time in the Middle Ages, he had bad timing.”

Scott Adams (1957) cartoonist, writer

Time

“There's an old adage," he said, "translated from the ancient Coptic, that contains all the wisdom of the ages -- "Life is life and fun is fun, but it's all so quiet when the goldfish die.”

Beryl Markham book West with the Night

Source: West with the Night

Life, Wisdom

“The temptation of the age is to look good without being good.”

Brennan Manning (1934–2013) writer, American Roman Catholic priest and United States Marine

Source: The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out

Deep

“Everyone should be forcibly transplanted to another continent from their family at the age of three.”

Philip Larkin (1922–1985) English poet, novelist, jazz critic and librarian

Source: Philip Larkin: Letters to Monica

Family

“The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm.”

Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English writer

Variant: The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm.

Secret, Attitude

“Five trolls in a dra-a-a-a-ag,' the four-inch man sang from my shoulder. 'Four purple condoms, three French ticklers, two horny vamps and a succubus in the snow.”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Source: White Witch, Black Curse

“At its best our age is an age of searchers and discoverers, and at its worst, an age that has domesticated despair and learned to live with it happily.”

Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964) American novelist, short story writer

Learning, Despair

“A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight.”

Robertson Davies (1913–1995) Canadian journalist, playwright, professor, critic, and novelist

Books, Youth, Light, Reading

“It's nice to have a lot of money, but you know, you don't want to keep it around forever. I prefer buying things. Otherwise, it's a little like saving sex for your old age.”

Warren Buffett (1930) American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist

Money, Sex

“Oh well, perhaps when you're my age you'll know the heart is an untrustworthy beast. The mind too, but it doesn't talk about love.”

Graham Greene book The Power and the Glory

Source: The Power and the Glory

Love, Heart

“Once the writer in every individual comes to life (and that time is not far off), we are in for an age of universal deafness and lack of understanding.”

Milan Kundera book The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

Part Four: Lost Letters (p. 106)
Source: The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (1979)
Context: The proliferation of mass graphomania among politicians, cab drivers, women on the delivery table, mistresses, murderers, criminals, prostitutes, police chiefs, doctors, and patients proves to me that every individual without exception bears a potential writer within himself and that all mankind has every right to rush out into the streets with a cry of "We are all writers!"
The reason is that everyone has trouble accepting the fact that he will disappear unheard of and unnoticed in an indifferent universe, and everyone wants to make himself into a universe of words before it's too late.
Once the writer in every individual comes to life (and that time is not far off), we are in for an age of universal deafness and lack of understanding.

Life, Understanding, Universe, Time

“When I was your age, television was called books.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

Books

“His view of the world is one that keeps his blood pressure low, sweeping the cholesterol from his relaxed, freeway-sized arteries. Everyone knows he is going to live till age ninety, although the question that goes begging is, “for what?”

Steve Martin book Shopgirl

Source: Shopgirl

World, Question

“Maybe age is kinder to us than we think. With my bad eyes, I can't see how bad I look, and with my rotten memory, I have a good excuse for getting out of a lot of stuff.”

Erma Bombeck (1927–1996) When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent le…

Source: Family - The Ties that Bind...And Gag!

Thinking, Memory

“Every man desires to live long, but no man would be old.”

Jonathan Swift book Les Voyages de Gulliver

Thoughts on Various Subjects from Miscellanies (1711-1726)
Variant: All would live long, but none would be old.
Source: Gulliver's Travels

“It looked as if a night of dark intent was coming, and not only a night, an age. Someone had better be prepared for rage…”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

" Once by the Pacific http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/once-by-the-pacific-2/" (1928) General sources Context: You could not tell, and yet it looked as if The shore was lucky in being backed by cliff, The cliff in being backed by continent; It looked as if a night of dark intent Was coming, and not only a night, an age. Someone had better be prepared for rage. There would be more than ocean-water broken Before God's last Put out the Light was spoken.

Rage, Night

“To make someone wait: the constant prerogative of all power, "age-old pastime of humanity".”

Roland Barthes book A Lover's Discourse: Fragments

Source: A Lover's Discourse: Fragments

Waiting

“I believe that everyone else my age is an adult whereas I am merely in disguise.”

Margaret Atwood book Cat's Eye

Variant: Another belief of mine: that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise.
Source: Cat's Eye (1988)

“But do you know how old I will be by the time I learn to really play the piano / act / paint / write a decent play?"
Yes… the same age you will be if you don't.”

Julia Cameron book The Artist's Way

Source: The Artist's Way

Learning, Time, Painting

“The magic of autumn has seized the countryside; now that the sun isn't ripening anything it shines for the sake of the golden age; for the sake of Eden; to please the moon for all I know.”

Elizabeth Coatsworth (1893–1986) American writer

Source: Personal Geography: Almost an Autobiography

Autumn, Sun

“I sometimes longed for someone who, like me, had not adjusted perfectly with his age, and such a person was hard to find; but I soon discovered cats, in which I could imagine a condition like mine, and books, where I found it quite often.”

Julio Cortázar book Around the Day in Eighty Worlds

Source: Around the Day in Eighty Worlds

Books, Imagination, Cats, Personality

“Age is just a number, not a state of mind or a reason for any type of particular behaviour.”

Cecelia Ahern book Love, Rosie

Source: Love, Rosie

“This is what a woman is: unadorned, after children and work and age, and experience-these are the marks of living.”

Zadie Smith On Beauty

Source: On Beauty

Children

“Death is an inevitability, isn't it? You become more aware of that when you get to my age. I don't worry about it. I'm ready for it. When I go, I want to go doing what I do best. If I died tomorrow, I couldn't complain. It's been good.”

Lemmy Kilmister (1945–2015) British singer-songwriter

Death

“The heads of strong old age are beautiful / Beyond all grace of youth”

Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962) American poet

Youth, Beauty, Strong

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

Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, and author

No. 97
Apophthegms (1624)
Context: Alonso of Aragon was wont to say in commendation of age, that age appears to be best in four things — old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.

Drink, Appearance, Wine, Reading

“It strikes me that this may be one of the differences between youth and age: when we are young, we invent different futures for ourselves; when we are old, we invent different pasts for others.”

Julian Barnes book The Sense of an Ending

Source: The Sense of an Ending

Youth, Past, Future

“Philosophy ought to question the basic assumptions of the age. Thinking through, critically and carefully, what most of us take for granted is, I believe, the chief task of philosophy, and the task that makes philosophy a worthwhile activity.”

Peter Singer book Animal Liberation

Source: Animal Liberation

Question, Thinking

“Age isn't how old you are but how old you feel.”

Gabriel García Márquez book Memories of My Melancholy Whores

Source: Memories of My Melancholy Whores

Feeling

“Do you know, one of the greatest problems of our age is that we are governed by people who care more about feelings than they do about thoughts and ideas? Now, thoughts and ideas, that interests me.”

Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician

Variant: Do you know that one of the great problems of our age is that we are governed by people who care more about feelings than they do about thoughts and ideas.
Source: Margaret Thatcher

People, Feeling, Idea, Problem