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Birthday Quotes

Birthday quotes here lean towards reflection rather than celebration. The page is built from the pages on age, time, friendship and happiness, and Shakespeare has the most entries, then Byron, Edward Young and Longfellow.

That is useful if you want something thoughtful for a milestone birthday and less so for a card with balloons on it. The funny ones are on the Funny page. A warning on the friendship quotes: “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer” is not from Sun Tzu, and “Time flies like an arrow” was not said by Groucho Marx. Both are flagged here.

Random quote on Birthday

Most quoted on birthday:

Friendship is the positive and unalterable choice of a person whom we have singled out for qualities that we most admire.

André Maurois Un Art de Vivre (The Art of Living) (1939)

It is important to our friends to believe that we are unreservedly frank with them, and important to friendship that we are not.

Mignon McLaughlin The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981)

Wasn’t friendship its own miracle, the finding of another person who made the entire lonely world seem somehow less lonely?

Hanya Yanagihara

I hope the longstanding friendship and cooperation between Taiwan and Eswatini continue to flourish, guided by cherished shared values and mutual respect.

Pholile Shakantu

He ought not to pretend to friendship's name,
Who reckons not himself and friend the same.

Sir Samuel Tuke, 1st Baronet The Adventures of Five Hours (1663)

Friendship. Before, during, and after [marriage]

Marilou Diaz-Abaya

Let me correct an impression. Sheikh is part of my name. Neither is it a title nor a name given for my old age.

Ahmed Lemu

I think I probably will never really experience a genuine relationship or friendship from anybody because of my status and my numbers.

Chrisean Rock

He must not cultivate his friends, but cultivate his friendships within himself. They must be kept, cared for, watered.

Joseph Joubert The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert (1883)

Does absolute reliance carry with it a complete exchange of confidences? I believe that true friendship cannot exist otherwise.

André Maurois Un Art de Vivre (The Art of Living) (1939)

Friendship is held to be the severest test of character. It is easy, we think, to be loyal to a family and clan, whose blood is in your own veins.

Charles Eastman The Essential Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa): Light on the Indian World (2007)

There can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity.

Samuel Johnson

Man proposes and old age disposes—

Isaac Asimov I. Asimov: A Memoir (1994)

We need better government, no doubt about it. But we also need better minds, better friendships, better marriages, better communities.

Wendell Berry A Continuous Harmony (1972)

I remember my loves, my conversation, my friendships. I remember it all, see it all, see them all.

Octavio Paz The Clerk's Vision (1949)

The materials, the colors, were like friendship and love, both wanting to fulfill themselves in the most beautiful form.

Emil Nolde

“We became friends, I suppose, because we lived close to each other and it suited us and because when you are young friendships go unquestioned.”

Aminatta Forna

From World to Universe and beyond. A friendship that's spanned 8 years and counting!

Catriona Gray

19) Think before you make the coward's choice. Old age is not for sissies.

Larry Niven

So far as it depends on the course of this government, our relations of good will and friendship will be sedulously cultivated with all nations.

John Tyler

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