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In the Talmud, it is written: “Whoever quotes his sources brings redemption to the world.” It is, of course, questionable that we who quote our wise predecessors bring redemption to the world. What is important is that we not take their name in vain, but that in learning from them and interpreting their wisdom, we may be able to bring comfort to others, alleviate pain, and thereby fulfill another Talmudic observation: “Whoever fulfills one life, it is as if he were to save the world.” In the individual's world, I believe.
My personal and professional lifelong involvement with aging has obviously sent me scurrying to the literature to learn from the sages about the question, “Is life harder towards the end, or what report do they give of it?” No sooner is this question asked, then a flood of response ranging from the extreme of pessimism to an excessive optimism engulfs one. Aristophanes (445-380 B.C.) was the first to point to the regressive aspects of aging in his famous, but by now discredited, aphorism: “Old Age is but a second childhood.”1 He spoke of the hostility and fear of the young for the lechery and impotence of the old. He recognized that younger men were afraid of ending up like the old, with sexual desires but no power to gratify them. The young, Aristophanes thought, fear the old as sexual rivals, because they have wealth, status, and, therefore, power.
The Greek Poet Menander (343-291 B.C.) had this to say: “A long life is a painful thing. O burdensome old age! You have nothing good to offer mortals, but you are lavish with pain and disease. And yet we all help to reach you and we do our very best to succeed.”2 As for Aristotle (384-332 B.C.), he described the aged as mean, paranoid, ill-natured, fearful, and pessimistic. “They always expect things to turn out badly because of their experience of life … they live more upon memory than hope.”3