Getting older is inevitable, but in a world where the word “aging” is usually prefaced with “anti,” it can be difficult to enjoy the process, as normal and natural as it is. Yet there are many benefits to getting older: With age come experience, wisdom, and an opportunity to live more intentionally and enjoy every day.
“As I go on in life and I feel more and more myself and less judgmental about myself, my values become clearer to me,” Gwyneth Paltrow once said, highlighting a hopeful way to think about aging. “I can be in integrity all the time, which is much harder when you’re younger.”
With a slight shift in perspective, it’s possible to see all the positives that come along with moving up in years. It can be helpful to remember that not everyone gets the chance to age as far into life as others, and that we should cherish the time as we have it. Here are 10 selected quotes that will help you to appreciate the beauty in life and embrace getting older.
Know that you are the perfect age. Each year is special and precious, for you shall only live it once.
— Louise Hay, author
Your wrinkles reflect the roads you have taken; they form the map of your life… My face carries all my memories. Why should I erase them?
— Diane von Fürstenberg, fashion designer
Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
— Max Ehrmann, writer
I don’t believe in aging. I believe in forever altering one’s aspect to the sun.
— Virginia Woolf
The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes.
— Frank Lloyd Wright
Every year brings you closer to expressing your whole and healed self. I celebrate that. Honor it. Hold it in reverence. And I'm grateful for every age I'm blessed to become.
— Oprah Winfrey
You die young, or you get older. There is nothing in between. You may as well enjoy it.
— Helen Mirren
One day, you will look back and see that all along, you were blooming.
— Morgan Harper Nichols, artist and writer
The great thing about getting older is that you don't lose all the other ages you've been.
— Madeleine L'Engle, author
If wrinkles must be written upon our brows, let them not be written upon the heart. The spirit should never grow old.
— James A. Garfield
Photo credit: Don Arnold/ WireImage via Getty Images
