WIST Quotations

Martial -- Epigrams [Epigrammata], Book 9, epigram 53 (9.53) (AD 94) [tr. Hay (1755), ep. 54]

Dave — Fri, 10 Sep 2021 17:42:12 +0000

When I would send such trifles as I can;
You stop me short; you arbitrary man!
But I submit. Both may our orders give;
And do what both like best: let me receive.

[Natali tibi, Quinte, tuo dare parva volebam
Munera; tu prohibes: inperiosus homo es.
Parendum est monitis, fiat quod uterque volemus
Et quod utrumque iuvat: tu mihi, Quinte, dato.]

Martial (AD c.39-c.103) Spanish Roman poet, satirist, epigrammatist [Marcus Valerius Martialis]
Epigrams [Epigrammata], Book 9, epigram 53 (9.53) (AD 94) [tr. Hay (1755), ep. 54]
(Source)

(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:

On your birth-day, Quintus, I wished to make you a small present: you forbade me; you are imperious. I must obey your injunction: let that be done which we both desire, and which will please us both. Do you, Quintus, make me a present.
[tr. Bohn's Classical (1897)]

Your birthday I wished to observe with a gift;
Your forbade and your firmness is known.
Every man to his taste:
I remark with some haste,
May the Third is the date of my own.
[tr. Nixon (1911)]

On your birthday, Quintus, I was wishing to give you a small present; you must forbid me; you are an imperious person! I must obey your monition. Let be done what both of us wish, and what pleases both. Do you, Quintus, make me a present!
[tr. Ker (1919), Ep. 53]

I wished to send you for your birthday
A gift, a small thing really.
But you said, "No, I want no gift,"
And meant it most sincerely.
Let both our wishes be esteemed.
Why invite a rift
Between us? When my birthday comes,
Please send me a gift.
[tr. Marcellino (1968)]

I wished to give you a trifling birthday present, Quintus. You forbid it. you are an imperious fellow; I must obey your admonition. Let it be as both of us will wish, as gives both of us pleasure: you give me something, Quintus.
[tr. Shackleton Bailey (1993)]

Martial -- Epigrams [Epigrammata], Book 9, epigram 52 (9.52) (AD 94) [tr. Hay (1755)]

Dave — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 17:26:46 +0000

Believing hear, what you deserve to hear:
Your birthday as my own to me is dear.
Blest and distinguished days! which we should prize
The first, the kindest bounty of the skies.
But yours gives most; for mine did only lend
Me to the world; yours gave to me a friend.

[Si credis mini, Quinte, quot mereris,
natalis, Ovidi, tuas Aprilis
ut nostras amo Martias Kalendas
felix utraque lux diesque nobis
signandi melioribus lapillis!
hic vitam tribuit set hic amicum
pus dant, Quinte, mini tuae Kalendae.]

Martial (AD c.39-c.103) Spanish Roman poet, satirist, epigrammatist [Marcus Valerius Martialis]
Epigrams [Epigrammata], Book 9, epigram 52 (9.52) (AD 94) [tr. Hay (1755)]
(Source)

To the poet Ovid. Original Latin. Alternate translations:

What thou deserv'st, if thou beleeve,
I do to Aprils Calends give
For thy birth, Ovid, what I doe
To March, to which mine own I owe.
Both happy dayes, with whitest stone
Both to bee mark'd by me; by one
A friend: by tother life I have.
The greater gift thy Calends gave.
[tr. May (1629), 9.53]

If you but believe me, Quintus Ovidius, I love, as you deserve, the first of April, your natal day, as much as I love my own first of March. Happy is either morn! and may both days be marked by us with the whitest of stones! The one gave me life, but the other a friend. Yours, Quintus, gave me more than my own.
[tr. Bohn's Classical (1859)]

Ovid, as your deserts are high,
Know that our natal mornings I
Keep with a like fidelity;
How blest the light
Of those twin days we mark with white!
Mine gave me life, but yours a friend,
And that's the gift I more commend.
[tr. Street (1907)]

If you believe me, Quintus Ovidius, the kalends of your natal April I love -- 'tis your desert -- as much as my own of March. Happy is either morn! and days are they to be marked by us with fairer stones. One gave me life, but the other a friend. Your kalends, Quintus, gave me the more.
[tr. Ker (1919)]

If you believe me, Quintus Ovidius, I love your birthday Kalends of April as much as my own of March -- you deserve it. Happy both days, days to be marked by me, with superior pebbles. The one gave me life, but the other a friend. Quintus, your Kalends give me more.
[tr. Shackleton Bailey (1993)]

Glenn, John -- Speech, New Concord, Ohio (20 Feb 1997)

Dave — Fri, 21 May 2021 23:08:35 +0000

There is still no cure for the common birthday.

John Glenn (1921-2016) American politician and astronaut
Speech, New Concord, Ohio (20 Feb 1997)
(Source)

Announcing his retirement from the U. S. Senate after his next term would expire the next year.

Chesterton, Gilbert Keith -- “Our Birthday,” G. K.’s Weekly (1935-03-21)

Dave — Fri, 14 May 2021 22:24:57 +0000

The first fact about the celebration of a birthday is that it is a way of affirming defiantly, and even flamboyantly, that it is a good thing to be alive.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
“Our Birthday,” G. K.’s Weekly (1935-03-21)
(Source)

Boreham, Frank W. -- “So It’s Your Birthday!” The Tide Comes In (1958)

Dave — Fri, 07 May 2021 20:34:08 +0000

Yet, when all is said and done, birthdays are mere records of time, not registers of distance. They are chronometers, not speedometers. They tell us how long we have been upon the road, not how far we have travelled.

Frank W. Boreham (1871-1959) Anglo-Australian preacher
“So It’s Your Birthday!” The Tide Comes In (1958)

Frost, Robert -- (Attributed)

Dave — Mon, 02 May 2016 17:41:33 +0000

A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman’s birthday but never remembers her age.

Robert Frost (1874-1963) American poet
(Attributed)

Kasdan, Lawrence -- Return of the Jedi (1983) [with George Lucas]

Dave — Fri, 19 Feb 2016 16:56:52 +0000

YODA: When 900 years old you reach, look as good you will not, hmm?

Lawrence Kasdan (b. 1949) American screenwriter, director, producer
Return of the Jedi (1983) [with George Lucas]

Wilde, Oscar -- The Importance of Being Earnest, Act 3 (1895)

Dave — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 13:15:32 +0000

LADY BRACKNELL: Thirty-five is a very attractive age. London society is full of women of the highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained thirty-five for years. Lady Dumbleton is an instance in point. To my own knowledge she has been thirty-five ever since she arrived at the age of forty, which was many years ago now.

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit, dramatist
The Importance of Being Earnest, Act 3 (1895)
(Source)

Wagner, John -- Maxine

Dave — Mon, 13 Jul 2015 13:41:39 +0000

Take every birthday with a grain of salt. This works much better if the salt accompanies a large margarita.

John Wagner (b. 1949) American-British cartoonist ("Maxine")
Maxine

Pope, Alexander -- “To Mrs. M.B. on Her Birth-Day”, l. 1

Dave — Mon, 29 Jun 2015 15:30:38 +0000

Oh! be thou blest with all that Heaven can send,
Long health, long youth, long pleasure, and a friend.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744) English poet
“To Mrs. M.B. on Her Birth-Day”, l. 1

~Proverbs and Sayings -- Irish proverb

Dave — Mon, 22 Jun 2015 13:55:56 +0000

May you live to be a hundred years,
With one extra year to repent.

Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Irish proverb

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Reply to an invitation from Maud Howe to Julia Ward Howe’s birthday (1889-05-27)

Dave — Mon, 15 Jun 2015 12:17:20 +0000

To be seventy years young is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful than to be forty years old.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Reply to an invitation from Maud Howe to Julia Ward Howe’s birthday (1889-05-27)

This is the long form version of the quotation, today usually rendered, "It is better to be seventy years young than forty years old."

Other variants:

To be seventy years young is sometimes far more cheerful than to be forty years old.
To feel seventy years young is far more cheerful than to feel forty years old.
It is possible to be seventy years young, instead of forty years old.

The first references to this quotation are within the first few months of the event, which argues for its authenticity, including The Unitarian Magazine, Vol. 4, No. 7 (1889-07) and even newspaper blurbs, e.g., 1889-05-30. This last has a more expanded quotation:

As for your mothers's age, I am bound to believe her own story, but I can only say that to be seventy years young is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful than to be forty years old.

In a 1910 obituary article for Howe, the story and the full quote are again given.

Howe and Holmes (who was eighty when he gave this) were good friends, and Howe and her daughter Laura frequently visited the elder poet. In Julia Ward Howe, 1819-1910, ch. 23 (1915), a biography of Howe by Laura and another daughter, Maud, it expands the anecdote:

The seventieth birthday was a great festival. Maud, inviting Oliver Wendell Holmes to the party, had written, "Mamma will be seventy years young on the 27th, Come and play with her!"
The Doctor in his reply said, "It is better to be seventy years young than forty years old!"

Note that uses the short form, and give at least partial credit to the phrase to Maud.

References to the quotation, or even just to "seventy years young" (crediting it to Holmes) are common in the 1890s (e.g., 1890, 1892, 1894, 1899) and into the new millennium . Emily Bishop titled her 1907 self-help book, The Road to "Seventy Years Young"; or The Unhabitual Way after this phrase (which she used as the epigraph on the title page; ironically, she died in 1916 at age 58). Its appearance (in short form) in Howe's 1915 biography, and (in long form) in the 1919 Bartlett's were at its peak popularity.

Heinlein, Robert A. -- Time Enough For Love [Lazarus Long] (1973)

Dave — Tue, 28 Apr 2015 12:29:59 +0000

Oh, knock it off, Bud; there’s no virtue in being old, it just takes a long time.

Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) American writer
Time Enough For Love [Lazarus Long] (1973)

Lerner, Max -- “Fifty,” New York Post (18 Dec 1952)

Dave — Tue, 17 Feb 2015 14:25:14 +0000

The real sadness of fifty is not that you change so much but that you change so little.

Maxwell "Max" Lerner (1902-1992) American journalist, columnist, educator
“Fifty,” New York Post (18 Dec 1952)

Heinlein, Robert A. -- Time Enough For Love [Lazarus Long] (1973)

Dave — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 12:46:36 +0000

Ira, age does not bring wisdom. Often it merely changes simple stupidity into arrogant conceit.

Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) American writer
Time Enough For Love [Lazarus Long] (1973)