Old age is 15 years older than I am.

1. 22 October 1924Earliest found · credited to no oneThe earliest fifteen-years form located by Quote Investigator appears anonymously in a newspaper anecdote acknowledging the Paris periodical Cyrano.The Minneapolis Morning Tribune, ‘Charming Thought’, 22 October 1924, p. 10, column 4. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source
2. 15 August 1948Credited to Bernard BaruchThis Week Magazine credits the fifteen-years joke to Baruch.Minneapolis Sunday Tribune, This Week Magazine supplement, ‘Sidelines’, 15 August 1948, p. 2, column 3. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source
3. 2 July 1965Spread · credited to Bernard BaruchTIME closes its obituary with the joke, describing it as one of Baruch’s habitual sayings.TIME, ‘Nation: The Man Behind the Legend’, 2 July 1965. Checked in a full-text transcription. Source

TIME’s obituary quotes a familiar Baruch joke at its close. It is a reported habitual remark, not a dated interview transcript. Earlier circulation predates the attributions to him, so the documented use does not make him its inventor.

Aging people can keep moving the boundary of old age beyond their own present age.

Genuine as a saying attributed to Baruch in contemporary reporting, but not established as his coinage. Quote Investigator documents an anonymous fifteen-years form in 1924, before its 1948 Baruch attribution.

Time

• The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated. (paraphrase) Mark Twain
• A curved line is the loveliest distance between two points. Mae West
• Either that wallpaper goes, or I do. (not found) Oscar Wilde
• I have nothing to declare except my genius. (not found) Oscar Wilde
• There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about. Oscar Wilde

• quoteinvestigator.com/2019/02/05/old

Bernard Baruch, TIME, ‘Nation: The Man Behind the Legend’, 2 July 1965, final paragraph. Checked at Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/old-age-is-fifteen-years-older-than-i-am/ (22 October 2026).

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