Quote Queen

Philippe Quinault (Photo credit: Stifts- och landsbiblioteket i Skara)

Philippe Quinault – 1635 – Dramatist

“It is not wise to be wiser than is necessary.”

James Hutton – 1726 – Scientist

“What more can we require?  Nothing but time.”

William Hone – 1780 – Writer

“A good lather is half the shave.”

Richard Cobden – 1804 – Businessman

“For every credibility gap there is a gullibility gap.”

Jefferson Finis Davis – 1808 – U.S. Statesman and Soldier

“Never be haughty to the humble or humble to the haughty.”

Raoul Dufy – 1877 – Artist

“I don’t follow any system.  All the laws you can lay down are only so many props to be cast aside when the hour of creation arrives.”

Alfred Korzybski – 1879 – Scientist

“There are two ways to slice easily through life; to believe everything or to doubt everything.  Both ways save us from thinking.”

English: Alfred Korzybski, Polish philosopher and scientist. Polski: Alfred Korzybski, inżynier, filozof, matematyk (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Josephine Baker – 1906 (Freda Josephine McDonald) – Dancer and Entertainer

“Beautiful?  It’s all a question of luck.  I was born with good legs.  As for the rest…beautiful, no.  Amusing, yes.”

Tony Curtis – 1925 (Bernard Schwartz) – Actor

“I enlisted when I was a boy.  The Navy looked after me like my mother.  It fed me, took care of me and gave me wonderful opportunities.”

Allen Ginsberg – 1926 – Poet

“Whoever controls the media, the images, controls the culture.”

Chuck Barris – 1929 – Television Producer

“Spontaneity is such an entertaining facet of show business.”

Howard Simons – 1929 – Editor

“People who are funny and smart and return phone calls get much better press than people who are just funny and smart.”

Larry McMurtry – 1936 – Writer, Bookseller, and Academic

“Incompetents invariably make trouble for people other than themselves.”

Ian Hunter – 1939 – Musician

“I think writers, by nature, are more observers instead of participators.”

Curtis Mayfield – 1942 – Rhythm and Blues Singer and Songwriter

“Our purpose is to educate as well as to entertain.”

Hale Irwin – 1945 – Athlete

“If you’re not just a bit nervous before a match, you probably don’t have the expectations of yourself that you should have.”

John Dykstra – 1947 – Scientist

“If you can imagine it, we can make it.”

Silas Robertson – 1948 – Celebrity

“America, everybody is in too big a rush.  Lay back, take a sip of tea, mow a little grass.  Then if you get tired, take a nap.”

Anderson Cooper – 1967 – Journalist

“Anyone who has experienced a certain amount of loss in their life has empathy for those who have experienced loss.”

Katie Hoff – 1989 – Athlete

“I can just put my head down and train hard.”

Hedda Hopper, American actress/newspaper columnist (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Johnny Weissmuller at a swim meet (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Martha Washington – 1731 – Wife of President George Washington

“I am more like a state prisoner than anything else.”

Hedda Hopper – 1890 (Elda Furry) – Gossip Columnist

“And in singing, what my voice lacked in quality it made up for in volume.”

Johnny Weissmuller – 1904 – U.S. Freestyle Swimmer and Actor

“How can a guy climb trees, say Me Tarzan, You Jane, and make a million?”

Dorothy West – 1907 – Writer and Editor

“There is no life that does not contribute to history.”

Pete Conrad – 1930 – Astronaut

“The flight was extremely normal…for the first 36 seconds then after that it got very interesting.”

Tony Buzan – 1942 – Author

“Learning how to learn is life’s most important skill.”

Marvin Hamlisch – 1944 – Composer

“There have been studies that clearly state that children who are exposed to arts education at a young age will in fact do markedly better in their SAT scores.”

Michael Leunig – 1945 – Cartoonist

“Love one another and you will be happy.  It’s a simple and as difficult as that.”

Dana Carvey – 1955 – Comedian

“I’m thirty years old, but I read at the thirty-four-year-old level.”

Wayne Brady – 1972 – Actor

“Work is the thing that happens around the game time.”

English: John Marshall Harlan, 1833-1911, United States Supreme Court Justice (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Brigham Young – 1801 – Religious Leader and Founder of Utah

“It is wise for us to forget our troubles, there are always new ones to replace them.”

John Marshall Harlan – 1833 – Judge

“Our constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.”

John Masefield – 1878 – Poet

“Poetry is a mixture of common sense, which not all have, with an uncommon sense, which very few have.”

John Drinkwater – 1882 – Poet

“Poetry is the communication through words of certain experiences that can be communicated in no other way.”

Henry Beston – 1888 – Writer

“The seas are the heart’s blood of the earth.”

Frank Morgan – 1890 – Actor

“A heart is not judged by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others.”

Walter Legge – 1906 Businessman

“I am convinced that in the arts, committees are useless.”

Bob Monkhouse (a)Live on the Tube (Photo credit: Annie Mole)

Frank Whittle – 1907 – Inventor

“A nation’s ability to fight a modern war is as good as its technological ability.”

Bart Howard – 1915 – Composer

“I’ve always said it took me 20 years to find out how to write a song in 20 minutes.”

Bob Monkhouse – 1928 – Comedian

“Silence is not only golden, it is seldom misquoted.”

Marilyn Monroe – 1929 – (Norma Jeane Mortenson) Actress

“I don’t want to make money.  I just want to be wonderful.”

Cropped screenshot of Marilyn Monroe from the trailer for the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Morgan Freeman – 1937 – Actor

“As you grow in this business, you learn how to do more with less.”

Colleen McCullough – 1937 – Author

“It’s a dead giveaway of an inexperienced writer if every character speaks with the same voice.”

Robert Powell – 1944 – Actor

“There is no teaching to compare with example.”

Tony Snow – 1955 – Journalist

“Every one of our greatest national treasures, our liberty, enterprise, vitality, wealth, military power, global authority, flow from a surprising source:  our ability to give thanks.”

Jeff Hawkins – 1957 – Inventor

“Whatever the difference between brilliant and average brains, we are all creative.  And through practice and study we can enhance our skills and talents.”

Paul Coffey – 1961 – Athlete

“Nobody’s a natural.  You work hard to get good and then work to get better.  It’s hard to stay on top.”

Alan Lewis – 1964 – Athlete

“If at first you don’t succeed, get a bigger hammer.”

Heidi Klum – 1973 – Model

“I like to dream, but I like to make things happen.”