"You do not know yet what is is to be seventy years old. I will tell you, so that you may not be taken by surprise when your turn comes. It is like climbing the Alps. You reach a snow-crowned summit, and see behind you the deep valley stretching miles and miles away, and before you other summits higher and whiter, which you may have strength to climb, or may not. Then you sit down and meditate and wonder which it will be. That is the whole story, amplify it as you may. All that one can say it that life is opportunity."
"In old age our bodies are worn out instruments, on which the soul in vain tries to play the melodies of youth. But because the instrument has lost its strings, or is out of tune, it does not follow that the musician has lost his skill."So his verse might be more apt for an even older age.
I see green in front as well as behind.
being the vehicles that our souls move on to becoming prisons for them.
It is so slow and gradual, that we hardly ever notice until it is too late.
There was another poet who said something like: Do not go softly into that night. Rage against the fading of the light.
I think it might have been Dylan Thomas, but not sure.
That's where my mind is, in any case.
It was Dylan Thomas after all, and it is one hell of a great poem.
Here it is:
Dylan Thomas is a favorite of mine. The quote is "Do not go gently into that good night; rage, rage, against the dying of the light." I find it applies to more than growing old.
i was told that behind every hill (and beyond its downhill) there was always another, taller hill.
Now I know (perhaps) where that came from....
As I got older, I became fond of climbing hills - and still do. 
because I would have given up. At 82 and 10 months I probably wouldn't have my 29 yo ATM coming over for some play time. LOL
Due to occassional selective dyslexia, I very nearly professed my undying love for you.