50 Turning 30 Quotes for your Loved Ones

This is the place to start your search if you are looking for the best turning 30 quotes.

Turning 30 is a milestone birthday that not everyone enjoys celebrating.

This is often seen as a turning point in life when you are no longer a child, and your fun 20s are behind you.

More thirty-year-olds are reaching different life milestones, such as getting married, buying a house, having children, or climbing the corporate ladder.

It’s common for people to feel like they are getting old as they move into their 30s.

However, this is also a time in life that can come with many advantages, something we’re reminded of in the hilarious romantic comedy 13 Going on 30.

Many people are in more secure situations when they reach their 30s, and they often have more confidence and a sense of who they are.

These turning 30 quotes show the good, the bad, and the funny about this milestone birthday.

Check out our most popular quote article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily inspiration.

Explore our complete collection of motivational quotes here.

Top 10 Turning 30 Quotes

There are a lot of thoughts and emotions that come with turning 30 years old. These quotes highlight a little of it all.

1. “Everything I know I learned after I was thirty.” – Georges Clemenceau

2. “The body is at its best between the ages of thirty and thirty-five.” – Aristotle

3. “After 30, a body has a mind of its own.” – Bette Midler 

4. “Turning 30 – the best that ever happened to me.” – Bonnidette Lantz 

5. “Time and tide wait for no man, but time always stands still for a woman of thirty.” – Robert Frost

6. “Don’t just count your years, make your years count.” – George Meredith

7. “Age is a matter of feeling, not of year.” – George William Curtis 

8. “I looked at 30 as a challenge; I was naive then.” – Hannah Amgott 

9. “At twenty years of age, the will reigns; at thirty, the wit; and at forty, the judgment.” – Benjamin Franklin

10. “After you turn 30, your enthusiasm for music festivals will go way down.” – Jessica Misener 

You will also enjoy our article on birthday quotes.

Turning 30 Quotes for Friends 

While some view turning 30 as getting old, others view it as the time when life begins. Read these quotes and see which side you agree with.

11. “At thirty you can get flirty without being dirty.” – Greg Tamblyn 

12. “I’m turning 30 years old this year … it’s better than 20, I’ll tell you that. The lessons I’ve learned.” – Christina Aguilera

13. “It is well for the world that in most of us, by the age of thirty, the character has set like plaster, and will the never soften again.” – William James

14. “At twenty a man is a peacock, at thirty a lion, at forty a camel, at fifty a serpent, at sixty a dog, at seventy an ape, at eighty a nothing at all.” – Baltasar Gracian

15. “At 30 you finally start to catch up to those dreams you’ve been chasing for the last 10 plus years.” – Bonnidette Lantz

16. “One’s 30th birthday and one’s 60th are days that press their message home with iron hand.” – Elbert Hubbard

17. “Miranda in Miranda’s sight is old, gray and dirty; Twenty-nine she was last night; This morning she is thirty.” – Ogden Nash

18. “The only time you really live fully is from thirty to sixty. The young are slaves to dreams; the old servants of regrets. Only the middle-aged have all their five senses in the keeping of their wits.” – Hervey Allen

19. “If you haven’t turned rebel by twenty you’ve got no heart; if you haven’t turned establishment by thirty you’ve got no brains!” – Kevin Spacey

20. “A man thirty years old, I said to myself, should have his field of life all ploughed, and his planting well done; for after that it is summer time.” – Lew Wallace

You will also enjoy our article on getting older quotes.

Turning 30 Quotes to make you think (or laugh)

Many people feel like once they hit 30, they can’t get away with some of the immature things they could still pull off in their 30s. Others think they are in the clear until they hit 40. See what you think after reading these quotes.

21. “The excess of our youth are checks written against our age, and they are payable with interest 30 years later.” – Charles Caleb Colton

22. “Actually, I think that turning 29 was more difficult, because once I turned 29, I anticipated 30 for the whole year, so by the time 30 came around it really wasn`t that bad.” – Michelle Pfeiffer 

23. “It`s really something for people who are approaching 30 to take a look at what that means to them. I think turning 30 is a chance to re-identify with yourself.” – Neil Patrick Harris 

24. “30 was the best year of my life until the next year and then the next. Every year since 30 has been the best year.” – Bonnidette Lantz 

25. “Most adults look forward to their thirtieth birthday. They’re far beyond a ‘just starting’ twenty-one, but certainly not entering the middle age of forty.” – Colin S. Smith

26. “I went little nuts in my twenties, but I am just turned thirty, and I feel like older now.” – Sunny Mabrey 

27. “One of the great things about turning 30 is figuring out how to dress comfortably and still look good.” – Cobie Smulders

28. “Thirty was so strange for me. I’ve really had to come to terms with the fact that I am now a walking and talking adult.” – C. S. Lewis

29. “You can be gorgeous at thirty, charming at forty, and irresistible for the rest of your life.” – Coco Chanel 

30. “Thirty – the promise of a decade of loneliness, a thinning list of single men to know, a thinning briefcase of enthusiasm, thinning hair.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald

Related: Happy Birthday Quotes

Funny Turning 30 Quotes

30 is when people start to joke about their backs hurting and knees aching. If that’s where you find yourself, you may need a good laugh and these quotes can help.

31. “I`ll tell you what thirty means to me. Thirty means only going to the pub if there`s somewhere to sit down.” – Mike Gayle 

32. “Age is strictly a case of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” – Jack Benny 

33. “When you turn thirty, a whole new thing happens: you see yourself acting like your parents.” – Blair Sabol

34. Life may be a series of milestones, but nothing compares to turning 30, the point at which your metabolism abandons you but your creditors do not.” – Elsa Hornfischer 

35. “Don’t trust anyone over thirty.” – Jerry Rubin

36. “I am turning thirty this year. And you know the saying a woman over thirty is more likely to get hit by a bomb than find a man.” – Fanny Fink

37. “A woman over 30 will never wake you in the middle of the night to ask, “What are you thinking?”. She doesn’t care what you think.” – Andy Rooney

38. “Turning 30? Age is just a number! False: Age is a word.” – Dwight Shrute

39. “I’m not a millionaire. I thought I would be by the time I was 30, but I wasn’t even close. Then I thought maybe by 40, but by 40 I had less money than I did when I was 30.” – Michael Scott

40. “Inside every thirty-year-old is an eighteen-year-old asking, What happened?” – Eppie Lederer

Turning 30 Quotes you will love

Some say age is just a number and that it’s more important how old you feel. See how old you feel after reading through these quotes.

41. “Doctors tell me I have the body of a thirty-year-old. I know I have the brain of a fifteen-year-old. If you’ve got both, you can play baseball.” – Pete Rose

42. “The ‘I just woke up face’ of your 30’s is the all day long face of your 40’s.” – Libby Reid

43. “Everyone is the sum total of past experiences. A character doesn’t just spring to life at age thirty.” – Kelley Armstrong

44. “Being 30 is no joke, but it can be a lot of laughs.” – Melanie White

45. “Whether we expect to live forever or die before we are ‘old’ and if we survive the often reckless years of our youth, we will turn 30.” – Donna Elliott

46. “There is a difference between twenty-nine and thirty. When you are twenty-nine it can be the beginning of everything. When you are thirty it can be the end of everything.” – Gertrude Stein

47. “If a man begins writing at thirty, by the time he is fifty or sixty, the bulk of his work has been done. By the time he is eighty, he’s got nothing more, you know?” – V. S. Naipaul

48. If you don’t start your career until thirty, that still gives you thirty-five years to make it professionally. If you can’t make it in thirty-five years, you weren’t going to make it in forty or forty-five.” – Charles Murray

49. “Turning 30? Your weekends are now a baby shower or a wedding.” – Unknown

50. “I’m not 30. It’s my 1st anniversary of my 29th birthday.” – Unknown 

Which of these Turning 30 Quotes is your Favorite?

Thirty is the birthday when many consider themselves to be full-fledged adults.

By the time you hit 30, you have enough life experience to know that you don’t know everything you used to think you knew.

While this idea excites some people who are ready for a new stage of life, it’s challenging for others who are afraid of growing older. 

Some people even experience birthday depression each year as they get another year older.

However, each year is what you make of it. 

30th birthday parties can be a fun time to celebrate if the birthday person has a good attitude about their new age.

If you’re getting ready to celebrate your 30th or a friend’s, pick your favorite turning 30 quotes to share with us in the comments.