When old people speak it is not because of the sweetness of words in our mouths; it is because we see something which you do not see.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
The older you get, the more you are aware that everybody has a certain way of seeing things, which they have to honour.
Perhaps being old is having lighted rooms inside your head, and people in them, acting. People you know, yet can't quite name.
You see failed vocabulary in the adult world so often, and it's often because once you reach a certain age you're kind of embarrassed to go look up a word if you don't know what it means.
Many people must have noticed the intense attention given by children to the conversation of grown-ups when they cannot possibly be understanding a word of what they hear. They are trying to get hold of words, and they often demonstrate this fact by repeating joyously some word which they have been able to grasp.
The trouble with words is that you never know whose mouths they have been in.
'Ageism,' or whatever you want to call it, is a very English phenomenon. You don't get it too much in many other cultures. And no one says it about authors or poets or filmmakers. 'Oh, they're too old to make films or write books.'
Age makes all things greater after their death; a name comes to the tongue easier from the grave.
The chief virtue that language can have is clearness, and nothing detracts from it so much as the use of unfamiliar words.
Why do people talk of the horrors of old age? It's great. I feel like a fine old car with the parts gradually wearing out, but I'm not complaining,... Those who find growing old terrible are people who haven't done what they wanted with their lives.
I believe that the development of language - of naming, categorization, conceptualization - destroys our ability to see as we age.