Maxims for aging and thoughts about life in Daydreaming on the Porch

The older I grow, the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom

H.L. Mencken


There are many wise young people, but they are marginalized as “old souls.”

You all of a sudden realize that you are being ruled by people you went to high school with. You all of a sudden catch on that life is nothing but high school… class officers, cheerleaders, and all.

Kurt Vonnegut

Look at the mess Baby Boomers have made of things. What happened to the idealism and hopefulness of the Sixties?

At fifty, everyone has the face he deserves.

George Orwell

Let’s hope it’s just a silly observation that our pets begin to look like their owners.

We all have our ‘good old days’ tucked away in our hearts, and we return to them in daydreams like cats to favorite armchairs.

Brian Carter


Oh, yes! Some would say I live in those “good old days.”

The man who was too old to learn was probably always too old to learn.

Henry S. Haskins

Sadly a majority of people decide to stop learning, some at a very early age.

When I was 27 I felt like a pebble on the beach. Now I feel like the whole beach.

Shirley MacLaine


At 27 didn’t care so much about a little pebble in my shoe, now I cannot endure the aggravation.

To be 70 years old is like climbing the Alps. You reach a snow-covered summit and see behind you the deep valley stretching miles and miles away, and before you other summits, higher and whiter, which you may have the strength to climb or may not. Then you sit down and meditate and wonder which it will be.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


I’ll take the next valley and settle there.

Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.

Will Rogers


Time saved is often just time wasted.

In youth one has tears without grief, in old age grief without tears.

Jean Paul

I only shed tears thinking of my departed mother who imbued in me a reverence for God and Nature and all the beautiful things in this world.

From the book,

Old Age is Always 15 Years Older Than I Am, edited by Randy Voorhees.

Last updated November 09, 2022