Old Man Quotes - Page 26

• Certain old men prefer to rise at dawn, taking a cold bath and a long walk with an empty stomach and otherwise mortifying the flesh. They then point with pride to these practices as the cause of their sturdy health and ripe years; the truth being that they are hearty and old, not because of their habits, but in spite of them. The reason we find only robust persons doing this thing is that it has killed all the others who have tried it.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Crazy, Pride, Men

  Ambrose Bierce (2009). “The Devil's Dictionary: Easyread Large Bold Edition”, p.50, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• Old men, for the most part, are like old chronicles that give you dull but true accounts of times past, and are worth knowing only on that score.

  Alexander Pope

  Memories, Past, Men

  Alexander Pope, Alexander Chalmers (1807). “A Supplementary Volume to the Works of Alexander Pope, Esq: Containing Pieces of Poetry, Not Inserted in Warburton's and Warton's Editions : and a Collection of Letters, Now First Published”, p.125

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• When that happens [the demise of golf], old men will furtively beckon to their sons and, like fugitives from the guillotine recalling the elegant orgies at the court of Louis XV, will recite the glories of Portmarnock and Merion, of the Road Hole at St. Andrews, the sixth at Seminole, the eighteenth at Pebble Beach. They will take out this volume from its secret hiding place and they will say: "There is no question, son, that these were unholy places in an evil age. Unfortunately, I had a whale of a time."

  Alistair Cooke

  Beach, Son, Golf

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• What early tongue so sweet saluteth me? Young son, it argues a distemper'd head So soon to bid good morrow to thy bed: Care keeps his watch in every old man's eye, And where care lodges, sleep will never lie; But where unbruised youth with unstuff'd brain Doth couch his limbs, there golden sleep doth reign.

  William Shakespeare

  Sweet, Lying, Sleep

  William Shakespeare (2014). “Arden Shakespeare Complete Works”, p.1019, Bloomsbury Publishing

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• The old men gazed on them in their loveliness, and turned away with that deep and painful sigh, which the gladness of childhood, and thetransient beauty of youth, are so apt to awaken in the bosom of the aged.

  Lydia M. Child

  Men, Childhood, Youth

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• Old men are always young enough to learn with profit.

  Aeschylus

  Learning, Men, Age

  Aeschylus (2013). “Aeschylus II: The Oresteia”, p.40, University of Chicago Press

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• Every old man complains of the growing depravity of the world, of the petulance and insolence of the rising generation.

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Age, Complaining

  Samuel Johnson (1820). “The Rambler”, p.266

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• Chastity is not chastity in an old man, but a disability to be unchaste.

  John Donne

  Men, Disability, Chastity

  John Donne (1839). “The works of John Donne”, p.28

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• This is not our fight', the old man said. 'British or American, that is not the choice. You must choose your own side, find your road through the valley of darkness that will lead you to the river Jordan. . . Look hard for your river Jordan, my child. You'll find it.

  Laurie Halse Anderson

  Children, Fighting, Men

  Laurie Halse Anderson (2010). “Chains”, p.167, Simon and Schuster

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• Although not a very old man, I have yet lived a great deal in my life, and I have known sorrow too bitter and joy too keen to allow me to become either cast down or elated for more than a very brief period over any success or defeat.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Men, Joy, Sorrow

  Theodore Roosevelt (1951). “Letters, Selected and Edited by Elting E. Morison”

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• I was remembering the things we had done together, the times we had had. It would have been pleasant to preserve that comradeship in the days that came after. Pleasant, but alas, impossible. That which had brought us together had gone, and now our paths diverged, according to our natures and needs. We would meet again, from time to time, but always a little more as strangers; until perhaps at last, as old men with only memories left, we could sit together and try to share them.

  John Christopher

  Memories, Men, Trying

  John Christopher (2013). “The Pool of Fire”, p.134, Simon and Schuster

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• Every life is in many days, day after day. We walk through ourselves, meeting robbers, ghosts, giants, old men, young men, wives, widows, brothers-in-love. But always meeting ourselves.

  James Joyce

  Brother, Men, Wife

  James Joyce (2016). “Ulysses”, p.217, First Avenue Editions

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• Young men's minds are always changeable, but when an old man is concerned in a matter, he looks both before and after.

  Homer

  Men, Mind, Age

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• I'm an old man, and she's gone now. So don't worry, okay?

  Rebecca Stead

  Men, Worry, Gone

  Rebecca Stead (2010). “When You Reach Me/First Light”, p.213, Wendy Lamb Books

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• Care keeps his watch in every old man’s eye, And where care lodges, sleep will never lie.

  William Shakespeare

  Lying, Sleep, Eye

  William Shakespeare, George Steevens, Nicholas Rowe, Samuel Johnson (1824). “The Plays”, p.37

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• It was a grand old house, the Ayemenem House, but aloof-looking. As though it had little to do with the people who lived in it. Like an old man with rheumy eyes watching children play, seeing only transience in their shrill elation and their whole-hearted commitment to life.

  Arundhati Roy

  Children, Commitment, Eye

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• No, that is the great fallacy: the wisdom of old men. They do not grow wise. They grow careful.

  Ernest Hemingway

  Life, Wise, Wisdom

  Ernest Hemingway (2014). “Farewell to Arms: The Hemingway Library Edition”, p.258, Simon and Schuster

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• Love That’s it: The cashless commerce. The blanket always too short. The loose connexion. To search behind the horizon. To brush fallen leaves with four shoes and in one’s mind to rub bare feet. To let and rent hearts; or in a room with shower and mirror, in a hired car, bonnet facing the moon, wherever innocence stops and burns its programme, the word in falsetto sounds different and new each time. Today, in front of a box office not yet open, hand in hand crackled the hangdog old man and the dainty old woman. The film promised love.

  Gunter Grass

  Heart, Moon, Men

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• The old man slowly raised himself from the piano stool, fixed those cheerful blue eyes piercingly and at the same time with unimaginable friendliness upon him, and said: "Making music together is the best way for two people to become friends. There is none easier. That is a fine thing. I hope you and I shall remain friends. Perhaps you too will learn how to make fugues, Joseph.

  Hermann Hesse

  Eye, Men, Blue

  Hermann Hesse (2002). “The Glass Bead Game: (Magister Ludi) A Novel”, p.55, Macmillan

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• That's a nice song,' said young Sam, and Vimes remembered that he was hearing it for the first time. It's an old soldiers' song,' he said. Really, sarge? But it's about angels.' Yes, thought Vimes, and it's amazing what bits those angels cause to rise up as the song progresses. It's a real soldiers' song: sentimental, with dirty bits. As I recall, they used to sing it after battles,’ he said. 'I've seen old men cry when they sing it,’ he added. Why? It sounds cheerful.' They were remembering who they were not singing it with, thought Vimes. You'll learn. I know you will.

  Terry Pratchett

  Song, Real, Nice

  Terry Pratchett (2002). “Night watch”, Doubleday UK

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• I have now been an officer in this Church for a very long time. I am an old man who cannot deny the calendar. I have lived long enough and served in enough different capacities to have removed from my mind, if such were necessary, any doubt of the divinity of this, the work of God. We respect those of other churches. We desire their friendship and hope to render meaningful service with them. We know they all do good, but we unabashedly state—and this frequently brings criticism upon us—that this is the true and living Church of our Father in Heaven and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

  Gordon B. Hinckley

  Meaningful, Jesus, Father

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• And his eyes frighten me, too. They're the eyes of an old man, an old man who's seen so much in life that he no longer cares to go on living. They're not even desperate... just quiet and expectant, and very, very lonely, as if he were quite alone of his own free choice.

  Anne Holm

  Lonely, Eye, Men

  Anne Holm (1990). “North to Freedom”, Odyssey Classics

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• I meet a third man he's an old man he trips in the street he falls and I help him up, walk him to the curb. He shakes my hand says keep the faith, young man. I ask him what he means, he says keep running and don't let them catch you.

  James Frey

  Running, Fall, Mean

  James Frey (2005). “My Friend Leonard”, p.83, Penguin

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• And so they played some of the world's loveliest piano music - the exiled homesick girl, the humiliated, tired old man. Not properly. Better than that.

  Eva Ibbotson

  Girl, Tired, Men

  Eva Ibbotson (2008). “The Secret Countess”, p.101, Pan Macmillan

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• In spite of all the dishonour, the broken standards, the broken lives, The broken faith in one place or another, There was something left that was more than the tales Of old men on winter evenings.

  T. S. Eliot

  Winter, Men, Broken

  T. S. Eliot (2014). “Complete Poems and Plays, 1909-1950”, p.119, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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