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.
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.