Old age adds to the respect due to virtue, but it takes nothing from the contempt inspired by vice; it whitens... — Ira Gershwin

Old age adds to the respect due to virtue, but it takes nothing from the contempt inspired by vice; it whitens only the hair.

Author: Ira Gershwin

Insight: There's a sharp truth buried in this line that we tend to soften with politeness: time doesn't automatically redeem a bad character. We live in a culture that treats aging almost as a moral upgrade—the idea that someone becomes wise or gentle simply because they've lived longer. But Gershwin cuts through that. A person who spent decades being selfish, cruel, or dishonest doesn't become noble just because their hair turned gray. What makes this stick is the asymmetry. Getting older does amplify respect for someone who built their life on genuine principles—there's real dignity in consistent virtue over decades. But it has no such mercy for the vicious. If anything, a lifetime of poor choices compounds the contempt. You've had all that time to know better, to change, to choose differently. The practical angle most of us miss: this applies to ourselves. We sometimes tell ourselves that we'll become better versions of ourselves "later," as if aging automatically upgrades us. But gray hair is just gray hair. What actually matters is what we're building now, in the choices we make today. Time is a mirror, not a makeover.