Euripides, fr. 25 (Aeolus):
“Alas, the ancient proverb holds well:
We old men are nothing other than a sound
and an image, lurking imitations of dreams.
We have no mind and but we think we know how to think well.”
φεῦ φεῦ, παλαιὸς αἶνος ὡς καλῶς ἔχει·
γέροντες οὐδέν ἐσμεν ἄλλο πλὴν ψόφος
καὶ σχῆμ’, ὀνείρων δ’ ἕρπομεν μιμήματα·
νοῦς δ’ οὐκ ἔνεστιν, οἰόμεσθα δ’ εὖ φρονεῖν.
This is certainly uplifting. Not sure if I prefer to age with Euripides in mind or this:
Democritus, fr. 296
“Old age is the perfect handicap: it has everything and lacks everything.”
γῆρας ὁλόκληρός ἐστι πήρωσις·
πάντ’ ἔχει καὶ πᾶσιν ἐνδεῖ.
If not, maybe we can take some solace in Pindar:
Pindar, Olympian 4.25-27
“Sometimes even young men grow grey hair before the right time of life”
φύονται δὲ καὶ νέοις
ἐν ἀνδράσιν πολιαί
θαμάκι παρὰ τὸν ἁλικίας ἐοικότα χρόνον
But if we get too high on that, we can always rely on Cicero to bring us back to earth:
Sophocles, fr. 65
“No one loves living as much as a man growing old”
τοῦ ζῆν γὰρ οὐδεὶς ὡς ὁ γηράσκων ἐρᾷ
Cicero, On Old Age 24
“No one is so old that he thinks he could not live another year”
nemo enim est tam senex qui se annum non putet posse vivere
Sophocles and Cicero are so on in this case.