Age is a case of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it don’t matter.

Leroy “Satchel” Paige (1906–1982), the legendary Negro Leagues and Major League pitcher, became famous not only for his longevity but for his wry, aphoristic humor about aging and attitude. The quip “Age is a case of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it don’t matter” is widely circulated in collections of Paige’s sayings and is typically linked to the public persona he cultivated late in his career—an older pitcher still competing effectively and deflecting questions about his age with jokes and folk wisdom. It reflects the mid‑20th‑century sports-media fascination with Paige’s (often disputed) age and his insistence that performance and outlook mattered more than the number.

Paige turns “mind over matter” into a pun that reframes aging as largely psychological: the burdens of age—decline, limitation, social expectations—gain power when one fixates on them. By saying “If you don’t mind, it don’t matter,” he suggests that attitude can blunt the felt impact of time, preserving confidence and agency even as the body changes. The line also works as a piece of self-mythmaking: Paige’s career depended on projecting composure and control, and the joke implies that worry itself is the real opponent. Its folksy grammar (“don’t… don’t”) reinforces an everyman wisdom that resists medical or statistical determinism.