The lost leaves measure our years; they are gone as the days are gone. – Richard Jefferies, The Life of the Fields, 1908

We hold that the most wonderful and splendid proof of genius is a great poem produced in a civilized age. – Thomas B. Macaulay

A person is always startled when he hears himself seriously called an old man for the first time. – Oliver W. Holmes, Sr.

I was a mixture of being incredibly old for my age and incredibly backwards. I was born quite old, but then I stopped growing. I lived with my mum and dad till I was 30. – Helena Bonham Carter