Did Mark Twain Say “The Two Most Important Days in Your Life Are the Day You Are Born and the Day You Find Out Why”?

The short answer

Quote Investigator found no substantive support for the Twain attribution. The earliest strong match it located is a sermon given on 25 January 1970 by Ernest T. Campbell at the Riverside Church in New York and printed as a pamphlet: “It has been said that the two most important days of a man's life are the day on which he was born and the day on which he discovers why he was born.” Campbell was quoting something already in circulation, so the author is unknown.

Earlier versions said something else

In 1906 a book called Boulder Reveries by W. S. Blatchley spoke of “the two most important days in a man's existence”, but meant the day of birth and the day of death, of both of which, it said, a man remembers nothing. The version about finding out why you were born came later. Quote Investigator also notes a credit to the theologian William Barclay, which appeared many years after his death and is weak.

Did Mark Twain say “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why”?

No source shows that he did. The earliest strong match is a 1970 sermon by Ernest T. Campbell, who introduced it as something that “has been said”.

Who said it first?

Nobody knows. Campbell helped make it popular, but he was quoting it.

What does it mean?

That being born is one turning point and discovering your purpose is the other.