Old Age

Ipsa est vere senectus illa venerabilis, quae non canis, sed meritis albescit; ea est enim reverenda canities, quae est canities animae, in canis cogitationibus et operibus effulgens. Quae est enim vere aetas senectutis, nisi vita immaculata, quae non deibus aut mensibus, sed saeculis propagatur, cujus sine fine est diuturnitas, sine debilitate longaevitas? Quo enim diuturnior, eo fortior: et quo diutius eam vitam vixerit, eo fortius in virum perfectum excrescit. Sanctus Ambrosius Mediolanensis, Epistola XVI, Anysio Fratri Source: Migne PL 16.960c

That old age is truly venerable which whitens not with gray hairs but in good deeds; for those white hairs are reverent which are the white hairs of the soul, shining with bright thoughts and words. For what is true old age, but an unspotted life, which lasts not for days or months but for ages, whose continuance is without end, whose length is without frailty? Indeed the longer it lasts, so the stronger it is; the longer such a life is lived the more vigorously does it grow into a perfect man. Saint Ambrose, from Letter 16, to his brother Anysius