English · Proverb Candidate

young men may die, old men must. (16th century)

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Young people may die, but old people will definitely die

Literally: young men may die, old men must

Examples

The doctor told his patient that young men may die, old men must

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed on English Wikiquote “English proverbs” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31). Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-08-01; pending editor spot-check.

Topics: Life & death

Common questions

What does “young men may die, old men must. (16th century)” mean?

Young people may die, but old people will definitely die Literally: young men may die, old men must

Is “young men may die, old men must. (16th century)” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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