Famous Birthday Quotes From the Famous

When you are a kid, each birthday is a high point of the year—your own special day, with cake, ice cream, a party, and presents. And you are the absolute star for a day. As you get older, the milestones matter—ages 18, 21, 30, 40 and so on through the decades. As those numbers get bigger, some feel an intense need to ignore this most personal and important holiday, all your own, while others celebrate each one to the max. As Abraham Lincoln said, "And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count, it's the life in your years." Make a toast to that. Excellent advice.

What would it be like if Plato or Jonathan Swift wished you a happy birthday? Would it make you feel special? Here are some uplifting famous birthday quotes from some famous people. The authors might not be around to give their wishes to you personally, but their heartfelt birthday greeting could make you feel on top of the world.

Famous Birthday Quote

William Butler Yeats: "From our birthday, until we die, / Is but the winking of an eye."

Plato: "Old age: A great sense of calm and freedom. When the passions have relaxed their hold, you may have escaped, not from one master but from many."

Pope John XXIII: "Men are like wine. Some turn to vinegar, but the best improve with age."

Jonathan Swift: "May you live all the days of your life."

"No wise man ever wished to be younger."

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Tom Stoppard: "Age is a high price to pay for maturity." 

John P. Grier: "You are only young once, but you can be immature for a lifetime."

Titus Maccius Plautus: "Let us celebrate the occasion with wine and sweet words."

Lucille Ball: "The secret to staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age." 

J. P. Sears: "Let us respect gray hairs, especially our own."

George Burns: "Nice to be here? At my age, it's nice to be anywhere."

Robert Browning: "Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be, the last of life, for which the first was made."

Mark Twain: "Age is a case of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter."

Madeleine L'Engle: "The great thing about getting older is you don't lose all the other ages you've been."

Decimus Magnus Ausonius: "Let us never know what old age is. Let us know the happiness time brings, not count the years."

William Shakespeare: "With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come."

Lucy Larcom: "Whatever with the past has gone, the best is always yet to come." 

Charles Schulz: "Just remember, once you're over the hill you begin to pick up speed."

Brigitte Bardot: "Every age can be enchanting, provided you live within it."

Satchel Paige: "How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are?"

Ethel Barrymore: "You grow up the day you have the first real laugh at yourself."

Bob Hope: "You know you are getting old when the candles cost more than the cake."

Bernard Baruch: "We grow neither better nor worse as we get old, but more like ourselves."