Quote Queen

Image of Victoria Woodhull (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Kublai Khan – 1215 – Chinese Statesman

“Why do you speak to me of the stones?  It is only the arch that matters to me.”

Jane Taylor – 1783 – Poet

“Who ran to help me when I fell, And would some pretty story tell, Or kiss the place to make it well?  My mother.”

Victoria Woodhull – 1838 – Activist

“I ask the rights to pursue happiness by having a voice in that government to which I am accountable.”

Robert Bosch – 1861 – Businessman

“I don’t pay good wages because I have a lot of money; I have a lot of money because I pay good wages.”

Walter Lippmann – 1889 – Journalist

“It requires wisdom to understand wisdom:  the music is nothing if the audience is deaf.”

Paul Delvaux – 1897 – Artist

“I have always wanted my colours to sing.”

Louise Berliawsky Nevelson – 1899 – Sculptor

“I think all great innovations are built on rejections.”

Jaroslav Seifert – 1901 – Poet

“If an ordinary person is silent, it may be a tactical maneuver.  If a writer is silent, he is lying.”

Mickey Rooney – 1920 – actor

“You always pass failure on your way to success.”

John Coltrane – 1926 – Musician

“You can play a shoestring if you’re sincere.”

Ray Charles – 1930 – Musician

“What is a soul?  It’s like electricity – we don’t really know what it is, but it’s a force that can light a room.”

Fujio Mitarai – 1935 – Businessman

“Diversification and globalization are the keys to the future.”

English: artist Louise Berliawsky Nevelson (fourth from left) posing for a class portrait with her classmates. Louise Berliawsky Nevelson with her classmates, 1913 / unidentified photographer. Louise Nevelson papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Antonio Tabucchi – 1943 – Writer

“Doubts are like stains on a shirt.  I like shirts with stains, because when I’m given a shirt that’s too clean, one that’s completely white, I immediately start having doubts.”

Julio Igelesias – 1943 – Musician

“I have discipline; I look after my voice.”

Bruce Springsteen – 1949 – Musician and Singer

“Trust the art, not the artist.”

Jerry B. Jenkins – 1949 – Novelist

“As for dialogue, I think it keeps things moving to cut to the chase.”

Chi McBride – 1961 – Actor

“Teachers are out there with a very difficult job, which they pursue with tireless dedication.”

Harry Connick, Jr. – 1967 – Musician

“I’ve raised my girls in a sort of genderless fashion.  I mean, I’ll take them to get their nails done – I actually love doing that – but I also play ball with them.  As a result, my girls are tough and athletic and game for anything.”

Ani DiFranco – 1970 – Musician

“Strangers are exciting, their mystery never ends.  But, there’s nothing like looking at your own history in the faces of your friends.”

Karl Pilkington – 1972 – Actor

“People who live in a glass house have to answer the door.”

Rob James-Collier – 1976 – Actor

“If I had a comfort blanket, I wouldn’t have been as passionate and driven.”

Anthony Mackie – 1978 – Actor

“So I feel like success is opportunity plus preparation, so work begets work, and as long as you’re prepared it’s going to continue to come your way.”

Joshua Foer – 1982 – Journalist

“If you want to live a memorable life, you have to be the kind of person who remembers to remember.”

English: British suffragist and poet Alice Meynell (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Philip Stanhope – 1694 – British Statesman

“Words, which are the dress of thoughts, deserve surely more care than clothes, which are only the dress of the person.”

Lord Chesterfield – 1694 – British Statesman

“Modesty is the only sure bait when you angle for praise.”

Michael Faraday – 1791 – Scientist

“The five essential entrepreneurial skills for success are concentration, discrimination, organization, innovation, and communication.”

Alice Meynell – 1847 – Poet

“Happiness is not a matter of events; it depends upon the tides of the mind.”

Maurice Barres – 1862 – Politician

“The politician is an acrobat.  He keeps his balance by saying the opposite of what he does.”

Erich von Stroheim – 1885 – Actor

“In Hollywood – in Hollywood, you’re as good as your last picture.”

Paul Muni – 1895 – Actor

“Nature’s far too subtle to repeat herself.”

Charles Brenton Huggins – 1901 – Scientist

“Nature can refuse to speak but she cannot give a wrong answer.”

David Riesman – 1909 – Sociologist

“Why, I ask, isn’t it possible that advertising as a whole is a fantastic fraud, presenting an image of America taken seriously by no one, least of all by the advertising men who create it?”

Martha Scott – 1912 – Celebrity

“Do not make the mistake of treating your dogs like humans or they will treat you like dogs.”

Arthur Lowe – 1915 – Actor

“An actor is an actor is an actor.  The less personality an actor has off stage the better.  A blank canvas on which to draw the characters he plays.”

Bob Lemon – 1920 – Athlete

“I don’t care how long you’ve been around, you’ll never see it all.”

Tommy Lasorda – 1927 – Coach

“There are three types of baseball players:  Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen, and those who wonder what happens.”

Fay Weldon – 1931 – Novelist

“Beauty is the first present nature gives to women and the first it takes away.”

David Stern – 1942 – Businessman

“Everyone knows that if you can keep on making money, everyone’s happy.”

Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr. – 1951 – Publisher

“If you don’t occasionally make a mistake, you aren’t trying hard enough.”

David Coverdale – 1951 – Musician

“What anybody else thinks about you is really  of no consequence.  It’s what you think of yourself.”

Debby Boone – 1956 – Singer and Actress

“Dreams are the seeds of change.  Nothing ever grows without a seed, and nothing ever changes without a dream.”

The Best of Andrea Bocelli: Vivere (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Neil Cavuto – 1958 – Journalist

“There’s nothing wrong or evil about having a bad day.  There’s everything wrong with making others have to have it . . . with you.”

Andrea Bocelli – 1958 – Musician

“All that counts in life is intention.”

Joan Jett – 1958 – Musician

“You got nothing to lose.  You don’t lose when you lose fake friends.”

Scott Baio – 1961 – Actor

“When I was a baby, my mother tells me I never slept because I never wanted to miss anything.”

Bonnie Hunt – 1961 – Actress

“If I’ve learned one thing in life, it’s:  stand for something or you’ll fall for anything.”

Ernesto Bertarelli – 1965 – Businessman

“You can’t change who you are, but you can change what you have in your head, you can refresh what you’re thinking about, you can put some fresh air in your brain.”

Derek Sivers – 1969 – Businessman

“There are plenty of millionaires who would pay millions to hang a Van Gogh painting on the wall, but hardly one that would have ever had the crazy nut over for dinner.  They’ll say, ‘We love music!  It’s all about the music!’ – but if a musician shows up at the door, they call security.”

Erin Ries – 1979 – Businessman

“Most phenomenal startup teams create businesses that ultimately fail.  Why?  They build something that nobody wants.”

Tom Felton – 1987 – Actor

“I find it’s usually the bullies who are the most insecure.”

Henry L. Stimson (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

H. G. Wells – 1866 – Author (Herbert George Wells)

“If you fell down yesterday, stand up today.”

Henry L. Stimson – 1867 – Statesman

“The only way to make a man trustworthy is to trust him.”

Gustav Holst – 1874 – Musician

“Failure is the most important part of an artist’s training, and one you cannot afford to do without.”

Ethel Percy Andrus – 1884 – Activist

“We learn the inner secret of happiness when we learn to direct our inner drives, our interest and our attention to something besides ourselves.”

Luis Cernuda – 1902 – Poet

“Everything beautiful has its moment and then passes away.”

Kwame Nkrumah – 1909 – Ghanaian Statesman

“Freedom is not something that one people can bestow on another as a gift.  They claim it as their own and none can keep it from them.”

Chuck Jones – 1912 – Director

“Human beings will line up for miles to buy a bucket of catastrophes, but don’t try selling sunshine and light – you’ll go broke.”

John Kluge – 1914 – Businessman

“Go into something because you really like it, and then do it with a drive and enthusiasm so that it isn’t work.”

Bernard Williams – 1929 – Philosopher

“Man never made any material as resilient as the human spirit.”

Larry Hagman – 1931 – Actor

“Don’t you find that the more you know, the more you don’t know and can’t ever learn because there’s too much stuff out there?”

Shirley Conran – 1932 – Journalist

English: Larry Hagman attending the “Night of 100 Stars” for the 82nd Academy Awards viewing party at the Beverly Hills Hotel, Beverly Hills, CA on March 7, 2010 – Photo by Glenn Francis of http://www.PacificProDigital.com (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“First things first, second things never.”

Leonard Cohen – 1934 – Musician

“Act the way you’d like to be and soon you’ll be the way you act.”

Lance Morrow – 1939 – Writer

“A rattlesnake loose in the living room tends to end all discussion of animal rights.”

Bill Kurtis – 1940 – Journalist

“Movie stars and singers never fully pass away because their images are replayed on film and recordings, over and over.”

Fannie Flagg – 1941 – Author

“Remember if people talk behind your back, it only means you’re two steps ahead.”

Jerry Bruckheimer – 1945 – Producer

“I mean if you put all your eggs in one basket, boy, and that thing blows up you’ve got a real problem.”

Stephen King – 1947 – Author

“French is the language that turns dirt into romance.”

Marsha Norman – 1947 – Dramatist

“Dreams are illustrations from the book your soul is writing about you.”

Bill Murray – 1950 – Actor

“People say I’m difficult and sometimes that’s a badge of honor.”

Cass Sunstein – 1954 – Lawyer

“I think it’s a very firm part of human nature that if you surround yourself with like-minded people, you’ll end up thinking more extreme versions of what you thought before.”

Nancy Travis – 1961 – Actress

“I wish my real life could be as simple and scripted as it is on television.”

Faith Hill – 1967 – Singer

“Country music is the people’s music.  It just speaks about real life and about truth and it tells things how they really are.”

Rikki Lake – 1968 – Actress and Television Talk Show Hostess

“Motherhood is the greatest thing and the hardest thing.”

Anne Burrell – 1969 – Chef

“Organizing ahead of time makes the work more enjoyable.  Chefs cut up the onions and have the ingredients lined up ahead of time and have them ready to go.  When everything is organized you can clean as you go and it makes everything so much easier and fun.”

Alfonso Ribeiro – 1971 – Actor

“If you want to be an actor, you have to do it because you love acting, not because you want to be a celebrity.”

Luke Wilson – 1971 – Actor

“The thing about being an actor is that you’re in the business of not growing up.”

Kareena Kapoor – 1980 – Actress

“Life is full of happiness and tears; be strong and have faith.”

Kevin Systrom – 1984 – Businessman

“Great products sell themselves.”

Stevie Smith (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

William Chappell – 1809 – Writer

“I think women get a little crazier when they run in packs.  They want to outdo each other.”

James Dewar – 1842 – Scientist

“Minds are like parachutes, they only function when they are open.”

Upton Sinclair – 1878 – Author

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”

Elizabeth Kenny – 188o – Celebrity

“He who angers you conquers you.”

Charles Williams – 1886 – Editor

“Many promising reconciliations have broken down because while both parties come prepared to forgive, neither party comes prepared to be forgiven.”

Stevie Smith – 1902 – Poet

“All poetry has to do is to make a strong communication.  All the poet has to do is listen.  The poet is not an important fellow.  There will always be another poet.”

Clarice Taylor – 1917 – Actress

“My family thought it was insanity for me to go into the theater rather than to get an education.”

Red Auerbach – 1917 – Coach

“He who believes in nobody knows that he himself is not to be trusted.”

William Kapell – 1922 – Musician

“The dull and stupid have a much easier time of it.”

Joyce Brothers – 1927 – Psychologist

“Trust your hunches.  They’re usually based on facts filed away just below the conscious level.”

Malachy McCourt – 1931 – Actor

“Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die.”

NASCAR and former Formula One driver Juan Pablo Montoya at the August 2007 NASCAR race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Cropped from original. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sophia Loren – 1934 – Actress

“Mistakes are the dues one pays for a full life.”

Andrew Davies – 1936 – Writer

“You’re stuck with being yourself, so the important thing is to find people who like that.”

Pete Coors – 1946 – Businessman

“I’ve always wanted to serve my country in some capacity.”

Jude Deveraux – 1947 – Author

“I don’t like to read books where I feel as though I’ve stepped into the middle of things and don’t know what’s going on.  I like to see characters I’ve met before, but I don’t want to feel left out because I haven’t read other books in the series.”

George R. R. Martin – 1948 – Author

“Of course it’s not enough to be a good man to be an effective ruler and it never has been.”

Guy Lafleur – 1951 – Athlete

“Play every game as if it is your last one.”

Nuno Bettencourt – 1966 – Musician

“As much as you put into it is as much as you get out of it.”

Kristen Johnston – 1967 – Actress

“And to be different is great.  You don’t want to be the same.”

Juan Pablo Montoya – 1975 – Professional Race Car Driver

“I’m busy, man, too busy.  There’s a lamentable absence of free time.”

Jon Bernthal – 1976 – Actor

“If you can figure out how to get paid to do something you love, that’s the dream.”

Dante Hall – 1978 – Athlete

“Treat everyone the way you would want to be treated . . . this can be applied to any situation.”

Photo of Lajos Kossuth (1802 -1891) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Lajos Kossuth – 1802 – Lawyer

“The unspoken word never does harm.”

George Cadbury – 1839 – Businessman

“But if each man could have his own house, a large garden to cultivate and healthy surroundings – then, I thought, there will be for them a better opportunity of a happy family life.”

Rachel Field – 1894 – Novelist

“Too much good fortune can make you smug and unaware.  Happiness should be like an oasis, the greener for the desert that surrounds it.”

Mika Waltari – 1908 – Author

“A decision once taken brings peace to a man’s mind and eases his soul.”

William Golding – 1911 – Novelist

“Childhood is a disease – a sickness that you grow out of.”

Frances Farmer – 1913 – Actress

“If a person is treated like a patient, they are apt to act like one.”

Emil Zatopek – 1922 – Athlete

“An athlete cannot run with money in his pockets.  He must run with hope in his heart and dreams in his head.”

James Lipton – 1926 – Educator

“The definition of genius, really, should be that that person can do what the rest of us have to learn how to do.”

Adam West – 1928 – Actor

“I’ve always tried to fit what I do professionally into my family, rather than the other way around.”

David McCallum – 1933 – Actor

“I think your life is governed not by the bricks or mortar around you, it’s governed by who holds your hand and who spits in your eye.”

Al Oerter – 1936 – Athlete

“To exercise at or near capacity is the best way I know of reaching a true introspective state.  If you do it right, it can open all kinds of inner doors.”

Cass Elliot – 1941 – Musician

English: Emil Zatopek (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“Honest is all you need.”

Joe Morgan – 1943 – Athlete

“I believe you learn social skills by mixing with people.”

Kate Adie – 1945 – Journalist

“I’ve never been one to sit around and eat my heart out.  Life’s too short.”

Tanith Lee – 1947 – Writer

“No one is ever ordinary.”

Joan Lunden – 1950 – Celebrity

“Holding on to anger, resentment and hurt only gives you tense muscles, a headache and a sore jaw from clenching your teeth.  Forgiveness gives you back the laughter and the lightness in your life.”

Nile Rodgers – 1952 – Musician

“I think the hardest thing to overcome is judging yourself and being your own worst critic so to speak.”

Michael Symon – 1969 – Chef

“Sitting down for dinner not only helps you learn, but also teaches you how to listen – which I feel is the most important skill to have.  I remember as a kid going around the table listening to everyone’s day.  It was hard to have the manners not to interrupt back then.”

Jimmy Fallon – 1974 – Comedian

“Everyone looks so much better when they smile.”

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Greta Garbo in The Joyless Street. Alexander Binder (for Atelier Binder) made the portrait during the filming. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Samuel Johnson – 1709 – Author

“Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must be first overcome.”

Joseph Story – 1779 – Judge

“A feeble executive implies a feeble execution of the government.”

Greta Garbo – 1905 – Actress

“Life would be so wonderful if we only knew what to do with it.”

Agnes de Mille – 1905 – Dancer

“No trumpets sound when the important decisions of our life are made.  Destiny is made known silently.”

Francis Parker Yockey – 1917 – Writer

” Pessimism only describes an attitude, and not facts, and hence is entirely subjective.”

Scotty Bowmen – 1933 – Coach

“There is nothing so uncertain as a sure thing.”

Robert Blake – 1933 – Actor

“Don’t give it to the audience; leave it to the audience.”

Frankie Avalon – 1939 – Actor

“I think today’s music absolutely stinks.  I really do mean that.”

Fred Willard – 1939 – Comedian

“Suddenly you’re like a pirate, you’re 65 years old and you’ve got an earring.”

Peter Shilton – 1949 – Athlete

“Being fit will keep you mentally sharp and people forget that.”

Anna Deavere Smith – 1950 – Actress

“Listening is not just hearing what someone tells you word for word.  You have to listen with a heart.  I don’t want that to sound touchy-feely; it is not.  It is very hard work.”

Rick Pitino – 1952 – Athlete

“Excellence is the unlimited ability to improve the quality of what you have to offer.”

James Gandolfini (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Debbi Fields – 1956 – Businesswoman

“Good enough never is.”

Ryne Sandberg – 1959 – Athlete

“I was taught you never, ever disrespect your opponent or your teammates or your organization or your manager and never, ever your uniform.”

Bernard Werber – 1961 – Writer

“Can we ever really know anyone well?  Let’s just say we often found ourselves in each other’s company and neither of us minded.”

James Gandolfini – 1961 – Actor

“I love hearing people laugh.”

Christopher Heyerdahl – 1963 – Actor

“Mother Nature is the great equalizer.  You can’t get away from it.”

Aisha Tyler – 1970 – Actress

“When I get old and slow down I want to look behind me and see all the fire and the wreckage and no stone left unturned.”

Lance Armstrong – 1971 – Athlete

“Pain is temporary.  Quitting lasts forever.”

Jada Pinkett Smith – 1971 – Actress

“I have a thing for doors.  I always think of them as a threshold to something new.”

Chief Justice Warren E. Burger (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Francisco de Quevedo – 1580 – Writer

“In short, not only are things not what they seem, they are not even what they are called!”

Marquis de Condorcet – 1743 – Philosopher

“Enjoy your own life without comparing it with that of another.”

Samuel Prout – 1783 – Artist

“Poetry does not consist of words alone; there must be sentiment and fancy, combination and arrangement.”

Gabriel Heatter – 1890 – Journalist

“More power than all the success slogans ever penned by human hand is the realization for every man that he has but one boss.  That boss is the man – he – himself.”

Warren E. Burger – 1907 – Judge

“Free speech carries with it some freedom to listen.”

M. F. Husain – 1915- Artist (Maqbool Fida Husain)

“I only give expression to the instincts from my soul.”

Dinah Sheridan – 1920 – Actress

“After all, a job isn’t worth doing unless you enjoy it.”

Hank Williams – 1923 – Musician

“I was a pretty good imitator of Roy Acuff, but then I found out they already had a Roy Acuff, so I started singin’ like myself.”

Roddy McDowall – 1928 – Actor

“My whole life I’ve been trying to prove I’m not just yesterday.”

Jim Rohn – 1930 – Businessman

“If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan.  And guess what they have planned for you?  Not much.”

Anne Bancroft – 1931 – Actress

“If you marry the wrong person for the wrong reasons, then no matter how hard you work, it’s never going to work, because then you have to completely change yourself, completely change them, completely – by that time, you’re both dead.”

Robert B. Parker – 1932 – Writer

“If you want to write, write it.  That’s the first rule.  And send it in, and send it in to someone who can publish it or get it published.  Don’t send it to me.  Don’t show it to your spouse, or your significant other, or your parents, or somebody.  They are not going to publish it.”

Chuck Grassley – 1933 – Politician

“What makes a child gifted and talented may not always be good grades in school, but a different way of looking at the world and learning.”

Ken Kesey – 1935 – Author

“People think love is an emotion.  Love is good sense.”

Orlando Cepeda – 1937 – Athlete

“When people are wrong, you’ve got to let them know it.”

David H. Souter – 1939 – Judge

Roddy McDowall taken at 60th Academy Awards 4/11/88 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“It is much easier to modify an opinion if one has not already persuasively declared it.”

Phil Jackson – 1945 – Coach

“Always keep an open mind and a compassionate heart.”

John Ritter – 1948 – Actor

“I knew when I grew up, I always wanted to be a liar, and if you’re in television, you’re lying because you’re just pretending to be yourself much like I’m doing now.”

Rita Rudner – 1955 – Comedian

“Men who have a pierced ear are better prepared for marriage – they’ve experienced pain and bought jewelry.”

Kyle Chandler – 1965 – Actor

“Opportunity does not knock, it presents itself when you beat down the door.”

Bryan Singer – 1965 – Director

“We don’t live in the world of reality, we live in the world of how we perceive reality.”

Tito Vilanova – 1968 – Athlete

“You should never get nervous about anything.  What today seems important tomorrow isn’t so any more.”

Cheryl Strayed – 1968 – Writer

“Writing is part intuition and part trial and error, but mostly it’s very hard work.”

Jimmie Johnson – 1975 – Professional Race Car Driver

“I didn’t get into racing to make friends.”

Elliott Bisnow – 1985 – Businessman

“Entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship.  It drives everything:  Job creation, poverty alleviation, innovation.”

Cropped screenshot of Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart, from the trailer for the film To Have and Have Not. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Henry St. John – 1678 – Politician

“Truth lies within a little and certain compass, but error is immense.”

Nathan Meyer Rothschild – 1777 – Businessman

“We are like the mechanism of a watch:  each part is essential.”

James J. Hill – 1838 – Businessman

“Most men who have really lived have had, in some share, their great adventure.  This railway is mine.”

Ricardo Flores Magon – 1874 – Journalist

“We are free, truly free, when we don’t need to rent our arms to anybody in order to be able to lift a piece of bread to our mouths.”

Lewis Hine – 1874 – Photographer

“If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn’t need to lug around a camera.”

James Cash Penney – 1875 – Businessman

“Men are not great or small because of their material possessions.  They are great or small because of what they are.”

Alfred Noyes – 1880 – Poet

“The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas.”

Clive Bell – 1881 – Critic

“Do not mistake a crowd of big wage-earners for the leisure class.”

Karen Horney – 1885 – Psychologist

“The perfect normal person is rare in our civilization.”

Nadia Boulanger – 1887 – Musician

“Loving a child doesn’t mean giving in to all his whims; to love him is to bring our the best in him, to teach him to love what is difficult.”

Albert Szent-Gyorgyi – 1893 – Scientist

“Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought.”

Allen Funt – 1914- Celebrity

Ed Begley, Jr. at the 81st Academy Awards (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“When people are smiling they are most receptive to almost anything you want to teach them.”

Frank Butler – 1916 – Journalist

“A golf course is nothing but a pool room moved outdoors.”

Laurence J. Peter – 1919 – Scientist

“Psychiatry enables us to correct our faults by confessing our parents’ shortcomings.”

Lauren Bacall – 1924 – Actress (Betty Jean Perske)

“Imagination is the highest kite one can fly.”

Charlie Byrd – 1925 – Musician

“A person should design the way he makes a living around how he wishes to make a life.”

B. B. King – 1925 – Musician (Riley B. King)

“The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.”

Peter Falk – 1927 – Actor

“Usually, I get hired because I’m tall.”

George Chakiris – 1934 – Dancer

“No matter how dark the moment, love and hope are always possible.”

Elgin Baylor – 1934 – Athlete

“Coaching is easy.  Winning is the hard part.”

Ed Begley, Jr. – 1949 – Actor

“One of the regular intervals of meditation in my life, believe it or not, is in my car.”

David Copperfield – 1956 – Illusionist

“I’m just waiting for people to start asking me to make the rain disappear.”

Orel Hershiser – 1958 – Athlete

“No matter how noble and special people want to make the playoffs out to be . . . it’s a crapshoot.”

Trisha Yearwood – 1964 – Musician

“What’s meant to be will always find a way.”

Marc Anthony – 1969 – Musician

“If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.”

Kristy Coventry – 1983 – Athlete

“It is much harder to retain your position at the top than to get to the top.”

Agatha Christie (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Marco Polo – 1254 – Explorer

“I have not told half of what I saw.”

Francois de La Rochefoucauld – 1613 – Writer

“A true friend is the greatest of all blessings, and that which we take the least care to acquire.”

Karl Philipp Moritz – 1756 – Author

“It is a common observation, that the more solicitous any people are about dress, the more effeminate they are.”

James F. Cooper – 1789 – Novelist

“Candor is a proof of both a just frame of mind, and of a good tone of breeding.  It is a quality that belongs equally to the honest man and to the gentleman.”

William Howard Taft – 1857 – 27th President of the United States

“No tendency is quite so strong in human nature as the desire to lay down rules of conduct for other people.”

Bruno Walter – 1876 – Composer

“Napoleon is dead – but Beethoven lives.”

Claude McKay – 1889 – Writer

“If a man is not faithful to his own individuality, he cannot be loyal to anything.”

Dame Agatha Christie – 1890 – Author

“An archaeologist is the best husband a woman can have:  the older she gets, the more interested he is in her.”

Robert Benchley – 1889 – Humorist and Actor

“It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous.”

Roy Acuff – 1903 – Musician

“My health is good; it’s my age that’s bad.”

Fay Wray – 1907 – Actress

“Only in your imagination can you revise.”

Fawn M. Brodie – 1915- Author

“Housework is a breeze.  Cooking is a pleasant diversion.  Putting up a retaining wall is a lark.  But teaching is like climbing a mountain.”

Nipsey Russell – 1918 – Comedian

“I start with the joke line and write backward.”

Jackie Cooper – 1922 – Actor

“If it’s boring, then it’s tiring.”

Bobby Short – 1924 – Musician

“But life is tough and if you’re creative, it’s tougher.”

Murray Gell-Mann – 1929 – Physicist

“Enthusiasm is followed by disappointment and even depression, and then by renewed enthusiasm.”

Gaylord Perry – 1938 – Athlete

“The trouble with baseball is that it is not played the year round.”

Merlin Olsen – 1940 – Athlete

“One of life’s most painful moments comes when we must admit that we didn’t do our homework, that we are not prepared.”

Norman Spinrad – 1940 – Author

“I’m not gifted, but I’m not hopeless.”

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro – 1942 – Writer

“Storylines are how characters create the plots involved in their stories.”

Jessye Norman – 1945 – Musician

“A person has the right, and I think the responsibility, to develop all of their talents.”

Tommy Lee Jones – 1946 – Actor

“Kindness and politeness are not overrated at all.  They’re underused.”

Oliver Stone – 1946 – Director

“Never underestimate the power of jealousy and the power of envy to destroy.  Never underestimate that.”

English: Chimamanda Adichie (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Dan Marino – 1961 – Athlete

“I don’t need to be motivated by anybody.  Never have.”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – 1977 – Writer

“Successful fiction does not need to be validated by ‘real life’; I cringe whenever a writer is asked how much of a novel is ‘real’.”

Prince Harry – 1984 – British Royalty

“You’ve got to give something back.  You can’t just sit there.”

English: Alice Stone Blackwell and suffragist newspaper (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

John Gould – 1804 – Writer

“A lecture is an occasion when you numb one end to benefit the other.”

Ivan Pavlov – 1849 – Psychologist

“Perfect as the wing of a bird may be, it will never enable the bird to fly if unsupported by the air.  Facts are the air of science.  Without them a man of science can never rise.”

Alice Stone Blackwell – 1857 – Journalist

“Justice is better than chivalry if we cannot have both.”

Hamlin Garland – 1860 – Novelist

“There is no gilding of setting sun or glamor of poetry to light up the ferocious and endless toil of the farmers’ wives.”

Jan Masaryk – 1886 – Diplomat

“Dictators are rulers who always look good until the last ten minutes.”

Peter Scott – 1909 – Artist

“I’ve always believed the greater danger is not aiming too high, but too low for a bogey rather than shooting for an eagle.”

Clayton Moore – 1914 – Actor “The Loner Ranger”

“I think you’re going to find out that westerns will be coming back.  It’s Americana, it’s part of our history, the cowboy, the cattle drive, the sheriff, the fight for law, order, and justice.  Justice will always prevail as far as I’m concerned.”

Robert McCloskey – 1914 – Author

“I get a lot of letters.  Not only from children but from adults, too.  Almost every week, every month, clippings come in from some part of the world where ducks are crossing the street.”

Eric Bentley – 1916 – Critic

“Ours is the age of substitutes:  instead of language, we have jargon; instead of principles, slogans; and instead of genuine ideas, bright ideas.”

Sydney Harris – 1917 – Journalist

“When I hear somebody say ‘Life is hard’, I am always tempted to ask ‘Compared to what?'”

Jerry Coleman – 1924 – Athlete

“You never ask why you’ve been fired because if you do, they’re liable to tell you.”

Clayton Moore (Photo credit: twm1340)

Allan Bloom – 1930 – Philosopher

“Education is the movement from darkness to light.”

Barbara Grizzuti Harrison – 1934 – Writer

“There are no original ideas.  There are only original people.”

Renzo Piano – 1937 – Architect

“A museum is a place where one should lose one’s head.”

Robert Herjavec – 1963 – Businessman

“Business is a sprint until you find an opportunity, then it’s the patience of a marathon runner.”

Tyler Perry – 1969 – Actor

“It’s not an easy journey, to get to a place where you forgive people.  But it is such a powerful place, because it frees you.”