Getting On In Years

"If I had known I would live this long, I would have taken better care of myself."

"Manners, kindness, humility, and honesty never go out of style."

""How are you" is a greeting, not an invitation."

"Nobody wants to hear old people just sit around and gripe."

"Let's not sound like our parents."

"The folks dealing with truly serious stuff are usually the ones who dwell on it the least."

"Let's be the older folks people actually want to be around — the ones who still laugh, still listen, and still treat people the way we were taught to."

"Think of it like an old car. The kind that's been driven hard, never let anybody down — and now it needs some new parts and probably a tune-up. That doesn't mean the car's done. It means the car's a classic."

"When it's my time to meet St. Peter — I sure hope he has a sense of humor."

"How you survive the bad things reveals everything about who you are."

"Some of life's greatest rewards come from watching what your children become as people. The only thing better than that is watching your grandchildren do it too."

"You spend a lifetime raising children. Then one day you get to watch them raise their own — and it's even better the second time around."

"I spent years chasing wealth. Turns out I had it all along — it just had names and faces."

"The older you get, the more your wealth is measured in things no bank statement can show."

"Getting older is mandatory. Growing old is optional."

"I don't feel old. I feel experienced."

"Age is just a number. Mine is unlisted."

"At my age, everything I own is either paid off or worn out."

"Rather be seen than viewed."

"The older I get, the less I care what people think — and the more I care about the people who matter."

"I used to want more things. Now I want more time with the right people."

"It's funny — as you get older, the race for money and material things seems to wane, and you become more concerned with the special people you've known."

"Sometimes as you get older you realize you were wrong about what you thought was important. It was a false illusion all along."

"Experience doesn't make you old. It makes you valuable."

"The secret to aging well is to keep moving, keep laughing, and never tell your age to anyone who might use it against you."

"It's almost liberating to say I love you and appreciate you to your faithful friends."

"Old people mean well — we're just a little disappointed that we didn't listen to the advice old folks gave us."

"My doctor told me to watch my drinking. So now I do it in front of a mirror."

"I've reached the age where my back goes out more than I do."

"At my age, happy hour is a nap."

"At my age, wisdom and forgetfulness start to look alike."

"At my age, getting lucky means finding my car keys on the first try."

"Life is like a roll of toilet paper — the closer you get to the end, the faster it goes."

"The question isn't how long you lived. It's how you lived."

"Live your life so that the preacher doesn't have to lie at your funeral."

"When they talk about you after you're gone, what do you want them to say?"

"The most expensive thing in life isn't money. It's the years you can't get back."

"Don't let your best stuff die with you — give it away first."

"I've had a good life. Some of it I even planned."

"But what a great ride it has been."

"At 75, I'm still learning things I didn't know at 50. That never stops if you're paying attention."

"Youth teaches you what to expect. Age teaches you what actually happens."

"Wisdom is a gift you get from learning things that were never easy — or cheap — to learn."

"Wisdom isn't free. You pay for it in mistakes, losses, and hard years."

"Every ounce of wisdom I have cost me something to get."

"Nobody hands you wisdom. You earn it the hard way, one hard lesson at a time."

"The tuition for wisdom is experience — and it's rarely a bargain."

"Old men act like they're so wise with all that wisdom. Trust me — they usually paid dearly for it."

"Every gray hair on an old man's head is a receipt for a lesson he paid full price for."

"Old men aren't born wise. They just survived enough mistakes to look like it."

"There's two kinds of old men — the ones who warn you, and the ones who just let you find out."