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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:

Farid, time was when these frail thighs
scoured over desert and hill;
Now, feeble with age even the prayer-jug
looks as though lying miles away.

Baba Farid

Happiness is a stranger to mankind,
And, like to a forc'd motion, it is ever
Strongest at the beginning; then languishing
With time, grows weary of our company.

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

Always expecting this and expecting that. May I recommend serenity to you? A life that is burdened with expectations is a heavy life. Its fruit is sorrow and disappointment. Learn to be one with the joy of the moment.

Douglas Adams The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (1988)

11) There is a time and place for tact.
And there are times when tact is entirely misplaced.

Larry Niven

when a man had deserved his good luck, it was the part of his neighbours to wish him joy.

George Eliot Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe (1861)

"Now you understand the Oriental passion for tea," said Japhy. "Remember that book I told you about; the first sip is joy, the second is gladness, the third is serenity, the fourth is madness, the fifth is ecstasy."

Jack Kerouac The Dharma Bums (1958)

There is no reason to write pornography when your own sex life is good. Why waste time writing about it?

Ray Bradbury Playboy interview (1996)

It's not enough to have lived. We should be determined to live for something. May I suggest that it be creating joy for others, sharing what we have for the betterment of personkind, bringing hope to the lost and love to the lonely.

Leo Buscaglia LOVE (1972)

Matter can be conveniently divided for descriptive purposes into space, time, mass, and energy. However we can only describe any one of these phenomena in terms of the other three. Any definitions we care to make about matter are thus tautological.

Peter J. Carroll Liber Kaos (1992)

III. Thesis. A God working in Time. (Government of the world). Antithesis. A timeless, personal, omniscient, al-mighty, all-benevolent God (Providence).

Bernhard Riemann Gesammelte Mathematische Werke (1876)

This year, the twenty-ninth of the twelfth
No longer has a place to come to.
The twenty-ninth of the twelfth next year
Already has no place to go.

Nampo Jomyo

We won't sacrifice our ties with any of our allies or good friends over business relations with another country. We firmly believe no country in the world can restrict our sovereign decision to make friends with another country.

Mario Abdo Benítez Mario Abdo Benítez (2019)

My profession has taught me that the most difficult and improbable thing is to change. Yet the pursuit of happiness lies not in preserving, but in the courage to change the course of events.

Paolo Crepet

Any heart turned Godward feels more joy
In one short hour of prayer, than e'er was raised
By all the feasts of earth since its foundation.

Philip James Bailey Festus (1839)

"I fly from pleasure," said the prince, "because pleasure has ceased to please; I am lonely because I am miserable, and am unwilling to cloud with my presence the happiness of others."

Samuel Johnson The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1759)

The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment

Franklin D. Roosevelt State of the Union Address — Second Bill of Rights (1944)

There's confusion in my head as I depart
but a singing, ringing, soaring in my heart
for beyond all time and space and doubt
I know
I've lived here before
long ago.

Mike Scott Universal Hall (2003)

Washington was the right man at the right time – sometimes he was the first man, but sometimes he simply knew when to ride the crest of a wave or the leading edge of a trend.

Alan Axelrod

But time irreparable hasts away.

John Ogilby The Works of Publius Virgilius Maro (1654)

We must start from the joy of life, from respect, from humanity, because the most important thing in life is having respect for other people. Especially for those who might think very differently from you.

Brunello Cucinelli

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