“I hate birthdays. I hate birthday parties. I hate them. I don't know what it is, anybody's only got to come wafting near me with a piece of cake with a candle on and I break out in hives.”
Birthdays are milestones disguised as parties. These quotes capture the joy, nostalgia, and mild existential crisis that can all show up when you add another number. Good for cards, toasts, or just sitting with the strangeness of getting older.
“I quit high school on my birthday. It was my senior year and I didn't see the point. This was 1962, and I was ready to make music.”
“I hate birthdays. I hate birthday parties. I hate them. I don't know what it is, anybody's only got to come wafting near me with a piece of cake with a candle on and I break out in hives.”
“You know you're getting old when you get that one candle on the cake. It's like, 'See if you can blow this out.'”
“Some people won't go the extra mile, and then on their birthday, when no one makes a fuss, they feel neglected and bitter.”
“For the youth, the indignation of most things will just surge as each birthday passes.”
“With my daughter, we do arts and crafts, we read a lot, we listen to music, and we cut the strings off balloons and bounce them around after birthday parties.”
“The Queen of Crafts herself, Martha Stewart, and I have the same birthday. I prefer to think it's the glue-gun wielding, perfect-tart-producing Martha and not the copper pan-throwing, jail-going Martha. But I suppose if I am going to share a calendar square with some of Martha, I have to share it with all of Martha.”
“I was fired at the pinnacle of my career, on my 39th birthday. And in the year that followed, I learned that there are many psychological phases of being 'let go.'”
“As far as those kinds of things, I also played at the concert to call for the release of Nelson Mandela when he was a political prisoner in South Africa. We were celebrating his 70th birthday and calling for his release.”
“The day which we fear as our last is but the birthday of eternity.”
“Your children need your presence more than your presents.”
“The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.”
“I told my father I wanted to play the banjo, and so he saved the money and got ready to give me a banjo for my next birthday, and between that time and my birthday, I lost interest in the banjo and was playing guitar.”
“The way I see it, you should live everyday like its your birthday.”
“The return of my birthday, if I remember it, fills me with thoughts which it seems to be the general care of humanity to escape.”
“To my surprise, my 70s are nicer than my 60s and my 60s than my 50s, and I wouldn't wish my teens and 20s on my enemies.”