Aging Gracefully Quotes For Staying Young At Heart

Smile and celebrate the beauty inside of you with these thoughtful, aging gracefully quotes. 

Tell us which aging gracefully quote resonated most with you in the comment section below.

Why is aging beautiful?

Beauty is subjective; what is beautiful to one group may not be attractive to another. 

There are many forms of beauty. 

Physical beauty is one type of beauty, but there is beauty in how people treat or feel about each other. 

Our youth may fade, but our beauty does not. 

Our youth may present physical beauty, which is external; however, age and experience offer a different expression of beauty, inner beauty. 

Here are some fascinating facts about aging:

• Wisdom and more free time come along with aging. 
• Financial breakthroughs occur for many people when they get older. 
• Multiple studies show that the elderly are among the happiest people. 

How we feel about ourselves will determine how we navigate the aging process. 

It is valuable to remember that as we grow deeper into our beauty, we age. 

Yet, with age comes less beauty that is less superficial and more authentic. 

Our inner beauty is the energy radiating from our eyes and smile; it is the confidence we walk with and the maturity that comes with life experience. 

Maturity is a form of beauty

Not everyone has the eyes to see inner beauty; that vision ironically develops as we age. 

A Jewish proverb notes, “For the unlearned, old age is winter; for the learned, it is the season of the harvest.”   

If you are interested in more content, check out our fabulous selection of aging gracefully quotes below. 

Short aging gracefully quotes

These quotes capture the beauty of maturing in a few words. 

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

2. “Ageing is just another word for living.” — Cindy Joseph

3. “It’s not how old you are. It’s how you are old.” — Jules Renard

4. “It matters not how long we live but how.” — Philip James Bailey

5. “Wrinkles will only go where the smiles have been.” — Jimmy Buffet

6. “Growing old is mandatory, but growing up is optional!” — Walt Disney

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

8. “The best tunes are played on the oldest fiddles!” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

9. “A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams.” — John Barrymore

10. “Age is something that doesn’t matter unless you are a cheese!” — Billie Burke

Beautiful aging gracefully quotes

These quotes remind us that as we get older, we get wiser. 

12. “Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.” — Mark Twain

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

14. “Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.” — Franz Kafka

13. “Life’s tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.” — Benjamin Franklin

16. “Age is simply the number of years the world has been enjoying you!” — Anonymous

18. “Laughter is timeless. Imagination has no age. And dreams are forever.” — Walt Disney

15. “As a white candle in a holy place, so is the beauty of an aged face.” — Joseph Campbell

17. “One day you will look back and see that all along you were blooming.” — Morgan Harper Nichols

19. “Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears.” — John Lennon

20. “The wiser mind mourns less for what age takes away than what it leaves behind.” — William Wordsworth

Growing old gracefully quotes

These quotes remind us that grace and wonder come with getting older. 

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

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

23. “You can’t help getting older, but you don’t have to get old.” — George Burns

24. “Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.” — Franz Kafka

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

26. “None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.”  — Henry David Thoreau

27. “Aging is not lost youth but a new stage of opportunity and strength.” — Betty Friedan

28. “When it comes to staying young, a mind lift beats a face lift any day.” — Marty Buccella

29. “In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” — Abraham Lincoln

30. “Getting old is a fascinating thing. The older you get, the older you want to get.” — Keith Richards

Aging gracefully quotes and sayings

Part of aging gracefully is maintaining a positive outlook. 

31. “I suppose real old age begins when one looks backward rather than forward.” — May Sarton

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

33. “When we were small children, we all played dress up, and everybody had a good time. So why stop?” — Iris Apfel

34. “And yet the wiser mind mourns less for what age takes away than what it leaves behind.” — William Wordsworth

35. “Getting old is like climbing a mountain; you get a little out of breath, but the view is much better!” — Ingrid Bergman

36. “Your face is marked with lines of life, put there by love and laughter, suffering and tears. It’s beautiful.” — Lynsay Sands

37. “No, that is the great fallacy: the wisdom of old men. They do not grow wise. They grow careful.” — Ernest Hemingway

38. “Old age is an excellent time for outrage. My goal is to say or do at least one outrageous thing every week.” — Maggie Kuhn

39. “The mere process of growing old together will make our slightest acquaintances seem like bosom friends.” — Logan Pearsall Smith

40. “It’s paradoxical that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn’t appeal to anyone.” — Andy Rooney

Inspirational quotes on growing older 

As we mature, we still need motivation. These quotes keep us going as we get older. 

41. “Age is no barrier. It’s a limitation you put on your mind.” — Jackie Joyner Kersee

42. “Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” — Mark Twain

43. “I suppose real old age begins when one looks backward rather than forward.” — Mary Sarton

44. “For the unlearned, old age is winter; for the learned, it is the season of the harvest.”   — Hasidic saying

45. “Your 40s are good. Your 50s are great. Your 60s are fab. And 70 is f*@king awesome!” — Helen Mirren

46. “You don’t stop laughing when you grow old; you grow old when you stop laughing.” — George Bernard Shaw

47. “One of the reasons people get old lose their aliveness is that they get weighed down by all of their stuff.” — Richard Leider

48. “Oh, the worst of all tragedies is not to die young, but to live until I am seventy-five and yet not ever truly to have lived.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

49. “Know that you are the perfect age. Each year is special and precious, for you shall only live it once. Be comfortable with growing older.”  — Louise Hay

50. “Of all the self—fulfilling prophecies in our culture, the assumption that aging means decline and poor health is probably the deadliest.” — Marilyn Ferguson

The journey is the destination

It is important to remember that the journey is the destination.

This understanding allows us to stay centered in the present moment so we can enjoy maturing. 

Every birthday represents another rotation around the sun, and gratitude allows us to celebrate the idea that we have lived as long as we have. 

If our identity is based on our physical appearance or youth, it will surely disappoint us as we age. 

Aging is explored differently depending on cultural customs, but gratitude is the key to maturation in many traditions. 

In many African traditions, less attention is paid to wrinkles or a person’s waistline, and more focus is put on their influence or power within the community.

The United States has an unrealistic obsession with youth and physical perfection. 

It is no wonder many people struggle with self-esteem as they age. 

Staying mindful that physical beauty standards are often unrealistic or unattainable allows us to appreciate our maturation process.