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Born Quotes

Where you start shapes who you become.

This page gathers quotes about origins in the literal sense — being born into music, born in a specific state or country — alongside a more analytical note on how each generation's tastes differ from the one before it. For more on personal identity, see our Identity quotes.

I was born in Riverside and spent my whole growing-up years in Florence, a little township on the Delaware River. I tell people that I'm from the West Coast of New Jersey.

Quotes by Adam Hughes

I was born in California. When I was six, we moved to a small town in northern Indiana called Mishawaka.

Quotes by Adam Driver

I was born in Jerusalem with a religious background and a rabbi as a father... it was rather poor, but what we did have, we did have books.

Quotes by Ada Yonath

I was born in Jerusalem in 1939 to a poor family that shared a rented four-room apartment with two additional families and their children.

Quotes by Ada Yonath

I'm a born athlete. Weight-lifting is in my blood. I used to do the powerlifting thing. I gained a little weight, but I still got it; I'm mad built.

Quotes by Action Bronson

My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families - second families, perhaps I should say.

Abraham Lincoln

I was born and have ever remained in the most humble walks of life.

Abraham Lincoln

I was very lucky to be born into a very academic family. I was well-read, well-trained in mathematics. I had lots of advantages to start with.

Quotes by Abhijit Banerjee

I was born in the Bronx, and then my father moved us to the country at an early age.

Quotes by Abel Ferrara

If the lives of men can be measured in terms of years, ideologies in decades, and nations in centuries, then the unit measuring civilizations, born of the interaction among peoples, would be the millennium.

Quotes by Abdelaziz Bouteflika

If I could have worked from the time I was born until I was 18 and never had to work again, I would have done it.

Quotes by Abby Lee Miller

I was born in Mumbai, but I grew up in England, and then my adulthood has been in the States. I'm an American stuffed with an English person with an Indian person inside. I feel like those things kind of...

Quotes by Aasif Mandvi

I was born in India - but never really lived there.

Quotes by Aasif Mandvi

I was around computers from birth; we had one of the first Macs, which came out shortly before I was born, and my dad ran a company that wrote computer operating systems. I don't think I have any particular technical...

Quotes by Aaron Swartz

I grew up all over Idaho - I was born in Emmett, a very small town.

Quotes by Aaron Paul

I know the fact that I was born means I have to die, so my only aim is to reach out and help someone along the way.

Quotes by Aaron Neville

When I was growing in the Callope project, we had an oval parkway. Pavement ran around this whole thing. We'd skate or ride bicycles. There were benches and trees out there. It was paradise to us. They finished building it...

Quotes by Aaron Neville

Shortly after I was born he emigrated to Durban, where members of my mother's family had settled at the turn of the century, and the rest of the family followed soon thereafter.

Quotes by Aaron Klug

The Lib-Dems are sidekicks. They were born to be sidekicks and that's what they should concentrate on being.

Quotes by A. A. Gill

Hip-hop originated from the Bronx specifically; that means everything. I'm down the block from where hip-hop was born and raised, so I'm glad I am here and I'm able to represent New York the way I am.

Quotes by A Boogie wit da Hoodie

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a quote about feeling born to do something specific, like music?
Yes, one quote puts it simply: "I feel like I was born to make music." For more on this sense of purpose and identity, see our Identity quotes.
Is there a quote about being born in one place but not sounding like it?
Yes, one quote notes: "I was born in New Jersey, but it doesn't sound like I'm from a certain region." For more on origins and starting points, check our Beginning quotes.
Is there a quote that gives an exact birth date and place?
Yes, one quote is quite specific: "I was born on June 3rd, 1929, in Graenichen in the Canton of Aargau, Switzerland, where I went to the public schools until the age of 16." For more reflections on the shape of a life, see our Life quotes.
Is there a quote comparing people born in different generations?
Yes, one quote observes: "We are working to understand the tastes of people born in the 1980s and 1990s - it is very different from my generation." It's a reminder of how much perspective can shift between generations.
Where can I find more quotes about identity and emotion tied to where we come from?
Our Emotion quotes are a good next stop for more on the feelings tied up in where and how we begin.

Quotes about how people start out and grow continue on our Beginning page, while Life quotes take the theme further into adulthood.