The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.

An anonymous saying. Quote Investigator’s earliest strong match is a sermon by Ernest T. Campbell at the Riverside Church in New York on 25 January 1970, who introduced it with ‘It has been said that…’: the two most important days of a man’s life are the day he was born and the day he discovers why he was born. A 1906 book had paired the day of birth with the day of death instead. The earliest credit to Twain found is a Twitter post of 13 September 2011, a century after his death; later credits to the Scottish preacher William Barclay are also unsupported.

Widely shared online and in commencement speeches as Twain’s. Not in any of the fifteen Twain texts in the sources, and no letter, notebook or speech of his has been cited for it.

Life begins at birth, but it gains its meaning on the day you discover what you are here for.

Life, Time, Wisdom, Self-knowledge, Meaning of life

• You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream. (misattributed) C. S. Lewis
• Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. (not found) Mahatma Gandhi
• To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. (misattributed) Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. (not found) Maya Angelou
• Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. (misattributed) Ralph Waldo Emerson

• quoteinvestigator.com/2016/06/22/why

“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” Attributed to Mark Twain. No. It is not in Twain’s works, and who first wrote it is not known. Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/two-most-important-days/ (checked 20 October 2026).

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