Victor Hugo and Wellington were both in their prime after they had reached the age of threescore years and ten.

George Bancroft wrote some of his best historical work when he was eighty-five.
Gladstone ruled England with a strong hand at eighty-four, and was a marvel of literary and scholarly ability.
"Your Grace has not the organ of animal courage largely developed," said a phrenologist, who was examining Wellington's head.

"You are right," replied the Iron Duke, "and but for my sense of duty I should have retreated in my first fight." That first fight, on an Indian field, was one of the most terrible on record.
Grant never knew when he was beaten.

When told that he was surrounded by the enemy at Belmont, he quietly replied: "Well, then, we must cut our way out." When General Jackson was a judge and was holding court in a small settlement, a border ruffian, a murderer and desperado, came into the court-room with brutal violence and interrupted the court.

The judge ordered him to be arrested.