Adage: It's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years

[Garson O'Toole]

And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the
life in your years.

I've been asked about the maxim above which has been credited to
Abraham Lincoln in the big quotation databases. As is well-known, the
war between the North and South was almost lost because Lincoln was
engrossed in composing an astonishingly mammoth corpus of aphorisms.
But this particular nugget may not be one of them.

Wikiquote points to a speech by Adlai Stevenson on March 22, 1954.
I've traced it back to a doctor in 1947 and would welcome additional
interesting cites.

Cite: 1947 March 16, Chicago Tribune, How Long Do You Plan to Live?,
[Advertisement for the book "The Second Forty Years" by Edward J.
Stieglitz, M.D.], Page C7, Chicago, Illinois. (ProQuest)
[Begin excerpt]
The important thing to you is not how many years in your life, but how
much life in your years!
[End excerpt]

Cite: 1949 February 22, Hartford Courant, Informing You by M. Oakley
Stafford, Page 16, Hartford, Connecticut. (ProQuest)
[Begin excerpt]
Dr. Edward Stieglitz says "the important thing is not how many years
in your life but how much life in your years." He's got something
there.
[End excerpt]

Cite: 1952 July 27, Oregonian, G. S. Howell Family of Castle Rock Sets
Example of Efficiancy in Garden by Ruth Seaton Hicks, Page 6, Column
3, Portland, Oregon. (GenealogyBank)
[Begin excerpt]
The exhibit, based on the theme, "Put more years in your life and more
life in your years," was a stopper!
[End excerpt]

Cite: 1952 October 26, Boston Globe, Leadership Thrust on U. S., Adlai
Tells Globe Forum by Joan McPartlin, Start Page C1, Quote Page 23,
Boston, Massachusetts. (ProQuest)
[Begin excerpt]
Fight for a better future with confidence. he urged the students.
"However else you live your life, live it freely. It Is not the years
in your life count, it is the life in your years."
[End excerpt]


Cite: 2000 May 10, Herald-News, Section: LOCAL, You're Only as Old as
You Feel -- New Perception on Aging by Kelly Myers, Page D6, Joliet,
Illinois. (NewsBank Access World News)
[Begin excerpt]
"And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the
life in your years ." -- Abraham Lincoln
[End excerpt]

Garson

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