I have a wonderful respect for old people.

Kilborn’s line reads as a plainspoken affirmation of deference toward age and longevity. Taken at face value, it suggests that having lived longer—accumulating experience, endurance, and perspective—merits admiration independent of fame or status. The simplicity of “wonderful respect” also carries a lightly comic, conversational tone typical of a television host, implying an offhand sincerity rather than a formal maxim. In a quotations database, it can be indexed as a sentiment about valuing elders and the authority of lived experience, while also noting that without a known occasion it functions more as a personal attitude than a developed argument.