Quote Queen

The Author of “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Clement Clarke Moore – 1779 – Writer

“T’was the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.”

Franklin Knight Lane – 1864 – Politician

“A public office is not a job, it is an opportunity to do something.”

Lord Northcliffe – 1865 – Publisher

“Journalism:  A profession whose business is to explain to others what it personally does not understand.”

Walter Benjamin – 1892 – Critic

“Gifts must affect the receiver to the point of shock.”

Rudolf Arnheim – 1904 – Artist

“In a land of immigrants, one was not an alien but simply the latest arrival.”

Dorothy Fields – 1905 – Musician

“A song just doesn’t come on.  I’ve always had to tease it, squeeze it out.”

Robert Conquest – 1917 – Historian

“Everyone is a reactionary about subjects he understands.”

Iris Murdoch – 1919 – Author

“Falling out of love is chiefly a matter of forgetting how charming someone is.”

Jacques Derrida – 1930 – Philosopher

“To pretend, I actually do the thing:  I have therefore only pretended to pretend.”

Clive Cussler – 1931 – Writer

“Sometimes my plot lines are so convoluted, I get calls from friends at 3 AM saying; you SOB.  You’ll never pull this one off.”

Harrison Birtwistle – 1934 – Composer

“My attitude to writing is like when you do wallpapering, you remember where all the little bits are that don’t meet.  And then your friends say:  It’s terrific!”

Alex Karras – 1935 – Athlete

“Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles.”

Larry Cohen – 1941 – Director

“Are you eating it?  Or is it eating you?”

Linda Ronstadt – 1946 – Musician

“The thing you have to be prepared for is that other people don’t always dream your dream.”

Lydia Davis – 1942 – Writer

“I would recommend, definitely, developing a ‘day job’ that you like – don’t expect to make money writing.”

Trevor Horn – 1949 – Musician

“I hate having to read the manual.”

Richard Russo – 1949 – Novelist

“People in small towns, much more than in cities, share a destiny.”

Jesse Ventura – 1952 – Athlete and Politician

“Wrestling is ballet with violence.”

Willie Aames – 1960 – Actor

“I don’t think you need to go looking for the enemy.  He’s going to look for you.”

Kim Alexis – 1960 – Model

English: Dan Lipinski (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“Don’t ever be afraid to step out and do something different.”

Dan Lipinski – 1966 – Politician

“On this Veterans Day, let us remember the service of our veterans, and let us renew our national promise to fulfill our sacred obligations to our veterans and their families who have sacrificed so much so that we can live free.”

Adam Savage – 1967 – Entertainer

“I reject your reality and substitute my own.”

Ian K. Smith – 1969 – Author

“Women want to feel wanted.  Men want to feel needed.”

Brian Austin Green – 1973 – Actor

“The worst thing you can do is to put your life aside for someone else.”

Seth Gordon – 1974 – Director

“The best movies are rooted in reality.”

Diane Kruger – 1976 – Model

“You should be smart enough to know that you don’t know everything.  But you have to believe in yourself.  I certainly do.”

Taylor Kinney – 1981 – Actor

“To be honest, as an actor, job security is not a trait.”

English: Owen Wister (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Pasquier Quesnel – 1634 – Theologian

“The truth only irritates those it enlightens, but does not convert.”

James Whistler – 1834 – Artist

“An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision.”

Emmeline Pankhurst – 1858 – Activist

“Justice and judgment lie often a world apart.”

Owen Wister – 1860 – Writer

“When you can’t have what you choose, you just choose what you have.”

Happy Chandler – 1898 – Politician

“We Americans are a peculiar people.  We are for the underdog, no matter how much of a dog he is.”

Gerald Finzi – 1901 – Composer

“But no work from a first rate mind is ever really second rate.”

Erwin Griswold – 1904 – Lawyer

“The right to be left alone is the underlying principle of the Constitution’s Bill of Rights.”

Isaac Bashevis Singer – 1904 – Novelist

English: Woody Guthrie, half-length portrait, seated, facing front, playing a guitar that has a sticker attached reading: This Machine Kills Fascists Türkçe: Woody Guthrie, üzerinde “Bu makine faşistleri öldürür” yazan gitarıyla birlikte (8 Mart 1943). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“When you betray somebody else, you also betray yourself.”

Woody Guthrie – 1912 – Musician

“This land is your land, this land is my land, From California to the New York Island.  From the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters.  This land was made for you and me.”

Northrop Frye – 1912 – Critic

“Advertising – a judicious mixture of flattery and threats.”

Gerald R. Ford – 1913 – 38th President of the United States

“A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.”

Jerome Lawrence – 1915 – Playwright

“A neurotic is a man who builds a castle in the air.  A psychotic is the man who lives in it.  A psychiatrist is the man who collects the rent.”

Arthur Laurents – 1918 – Playwright

“Psychoanalysts and elephants, they never forget.”

Ingmar Bergman – 1918 – Director

“I write scripts to serve as skeletons awaiting the flesh and sinew of images.”

Lee Friedlander – 1934 – Photographer

“I retired from everything except work.”

Bruce Oldfield – 1950 – Designer

“Don’t be limited by the expectations of others.  You can always be better and do more.”

Esther Dyson – 1951 – Scientist

“Change means that what was before wasn’t perfect.   People want things to be better.”

English: John Clare (1793-1864), Poet. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

John Clare – 1793 – Poet

“The best way to avoid a bad action is by doing a good one, for there is no difficulty in the world like that of trying to do nothing.”

Isaac Babel – 1894 – Journalist

“No iron can pierce the heart with such force as a period put just at the right place.”

Charles Scribner, Jr. – 1921 – Publisher

“Reading is a means of thinking with another person’s mind; it forces you to stretch your own.”

Simone Veil – 1927 – Lawyer

“Pain is the root of knowledge.”

David Storey – 1933 – Novelist

“Have confidence that if you have done a little thing well, you can do a bigger thing well too.”

Wole Soyinka – 1934 – Dramatist

“And I believe the best learning process of any kind of craft is just to look at the work of others.”

Jack Kemp – 1935 – Politician

“Winning is like shaving – you do it every day or you wind up looking like a bum.”

Paul Prudhomme – 1940 – Chef

“Have fun.  Do something nobody else had done before, or has done since.”

Sir Patrick Stewart – 1940 – Actor and Writer

“I would like to see us get this place right first before we have the arrogance to put significantly flawed civilizations out onto other planets, even though they may be utterly uninhabited.”

Chef Paul Prudhomme (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Robert Forester – 1941 – Actor

“If you deliver excellence right now, that gives you the best shot at the best future you’ve got coming.”

Harrison Ford – 1942 – Actor

“I’m like old shoes.  I’ve never been hip.  I think the reason I’m still here is that I was never enough in fashion that I had to be replaced by something new.”

Erno Rubik – 1944 – Inventor

“Our whole life is solving puzzles.”

Cheech Marin – 1946 – Comedian

“The reason we’re so dangerous is because we’re totally harmless.”

Ian Hislop – 1960 – Editor

“I get paid to do what I enjoy, not that common a condition.”

Tom Kenny – 1962 – Actor

“You have to remember we’re just performers, that we seldom have any kind of grasp on real life.”

Jose Andres Puerta – 1969 – Chef

“Simple ingredients, treated with respect … put them together and you will always have a great dish.”

Carolyn Mackler – 1973 – Author

“Everything you do to other people affects them, and how you treat people affects them.”

Liu Xiang – 1983 – Athlete

“Challenges are meant to be met and overcome.”

Drawing upside down – Andrew Wyeth (Photo credit: Ujwala Prabhu)

Claude Bernard – 1813- Psychologist

“It is what we know already that often prevents us from learning.”

Henry David Thoreau – 1817- Poet

“Luck comes to all who work at making it happen.”

William Osler – 1849 – Scientist

“One of the first duties of the physician is to educate the masses not to take medicine.”

George Eastman – 1854 – Businessman

“What we do during our working hours determines what we have; what we do in our leisure hours determines what we are.”

Max Jacob – 1876 – Poet

“Friendship is inexplicable, it should not be explained if one doesn’t want to kill it.”

Oscar Hammerstein – 1895 – Writer

“If you don’t have a dream how are you going to make a dream come true?”

R. Buckminster Fuller – 1895 – Inventor

“There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly.”

Pablo Neruda – 1904 – Writer

cdcovers/tchaikovsky/concerto no 1 van cliburn.jpg (Photo credit: exquisitur)

“Love is so short, forgetting is so long.”

Milton Berle – 1908 – Comedian (Milton Berlinger)

“Motivation is when dreams put on work clothes.”

Willis Lamb – 1913 – Scientist

“You never find friends following your advice upon their own affairs; nor allowing you to manage your own.”

Andrew Wyeth – 1917 – Artist

“I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape.  Something waits beneath it; the whole story doesn’t show.”

Pierre Berton – 1920 – Author

“Racism is a refuge for the ignorant.  It seeks to divide and destroy.  It is the enemy of freedom, and deserves to be met head-on and stamped out.”

Beah Richards – 1926 – Actress

“Heaven and earth!  How is it that bodies join but never meet?”

Van Cliburn – 1934 – Musician

“I’m not a success, I’m a sensation.”

Bill Cosby – 1937 – Actor and Writer

“I guess the real reason that my wife and I had children is the same reason that Napoleon had for invading Russia:  it seemed like a good idea at the time.”

Phillip Adams – 1939 – Writer

“Unless you’re willing to have a go, fail miserably, and have another go, success won’t happen.”

John Lahr – 1941 – Critic

“Nobody has ever gone broke selling escape to the American public.”

Richard Simmons – 1948 – Celebrity

“Number one, like yourself.  Number two, you have to eat healthy.  And number three, you’ve got to squeeze your buns.  That’s my formula.”

Cheryl Ladd – 1951 – Actress

“You have to make peace with life.”

J. D. Hayworth – 1958 – Politician

“A fair question could be posted in this fashion:  If people are not obeying existing laws, what makes us think they would obey any new laws?”

Adam Johnson – 1967 – Writer

“I know it really sounds cheesy, but I did feel a duty to try to tell the stories of people who couldn’t speak for themselves.”

Lisa Nicole Carson – 1969 – Actress

“Life is a full meal.”

Kristi Yamaguchi – 1971 – Athlete

“They say, once you have a child, your heart is forever outside your body.  I totally understand that now.”

Cheyenne Jackson – 1975 – Actress

“I think having a dog makes you more compassionate.”

Michelle Rodriguez – 1978 – Actress

“The best part of making the movies … learning from the pros themselves.”

John Quincy Adams portrait. “John Quincy Adams”. Metropolitan Museum of Art . . Retrieved September 4, 2009 . (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

John Quincy Adams – 1767 – 6th President of the United States

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”

John Wanamaker – 1838 – Businessman

“People who cannot find time for recreation are obliged sooner or later to find time for illness.”

E. B. White – 1899 – Author (Elwyn Brooks White)

“Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half the people are right more than half the time.”

Harry von Zell – 1906 – Actor

“Radio is the most intimate and socially personal medium in the world.”

Yul Brynner – 1915- Actor (Yuliy Borisovich Briner)

“Now that I’m gone, I tell you, don’t smoke.”

Brett Somers – 1924 – Actress

“I had to give up martinis – I enjoyed them too much.”

Frederick Buechner – 1926 – Clergyman

“You can’t be too careful what you tell a child because you never know what he’ll take hold of and spend the rest of his life remembering you by.”

Tab Hunter – 1931 – Actor (Arthur Andrew Kelm)

“People believe what they want to believe.”

Giorgio Armani – 1934 – Designer

“To create something exceptional, your mindset must be relentlessly focused on the smallest detail.”

Cropped screenshot of Yul Brynner as Ramses from the trailer for the film The Ten Commandments. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Howard Gardner – 1943 – Psychologist

“Stories are the single most powerful tool in a leader’s toolkit.”

Ed Markey – 1946 – Politician

“Education is not only a ladder of opportunity, but it is also an investment in our future.”

Leon Spinks – 1953 – Athlete

“Opportunity knocks only once.  You never know if you’ll get another opportunity.”

Johann Lamont – 1957 – Politician

“Schools are not exam factories for the rat race.”

Jhumpa Lahiri – 1967 – Author

“The first sentence of a book is a handshake, perhaps an embrace.”

Michael Rosenbaum – 1972 – Actor

“With all the horror in the world and all the crap that’s going on, for an hour and a half you go eat some popcorn and laugh with you friends.  That’s what a movie is all about!”

Kevin Powers – 1980 – Writer

“I’m always most interested in writing about things that I don’t understand.”

Photograph of Camille Pissarro (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

John Calvin – 1509 – Theologian

“The torture of bad conscience is the hell of a living soul.”

William Blackstone – 1723 – Judge

“It is better that ten guilty escape than one innocent suffer.”

Arthur Helps – 1813 – Historian

“Wise sayings often fall on barren ground, but a kind word is never thrown away.”

Camille Pissarro – 1830 – Artist

“Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing.”

Nikola Tesla – 1856 – Inventor

“The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly.  One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane.”

Finley Peter Dunne – 1867 – Journalist

“Trust everybody, but cut the cards.”

Marcel Proust – 1871 – Novelist

“All our final decisions are made in a state of mind that is not going to last.”

Edmund Cherihew Bentley – 1875 – Journalist

“The art of biography is different from geography.  Geography is about maps, but biography is about chaps.”

Mary McLeod Bethume – 1875 – Educator

Marcel Proust – entschwundene Zeit (Photo credit: Ines Seidel)

“Without faith, nothing is possible.  With it, nothing is impossible.”

Carl Orff – 1895 – Composer

“Tell me, I forget, show me, I remember, involve me, I understand.”

William Dampier – 1908 – Explorer

“The world is apt to judge of everything by success; whoever has ill fortune will hardly be allowed a good name.”

Owen Chamberlain – 1920 – Scientist

“Each generation of scientists stands upon the shoulders of those who have gone before.”

David Brinkley – 1920 – Journalist

“A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.”

Harvey Ball – 1921 – Celebrity

“I made a circle with a smile for a mouth on yellow paper, because it was sunshiny and bright.”

Jean Kerr – 1922 – Author and Playwright (Bridget Jean Collins)

“Hope is the feeling you have that the feeling you have isn’t permanent.”

Alice Munro – 1931 – Writer

“Memory is the way we keep telling ourselves our stories – and telling other people a somewhat different version of our stories.”

Ronnie James Dio – 1942 – Musician

“The best subjects are always people, who never fail to amaze me by their unpredictability.”

Arthur Ashe – 1943 – Athlete

“One important key to success is self-confidence.  An important key to self-confidence is preparation.”

Arlo Guthrie – 1947 – Musician

“I’d rather have friends who care than friends who agree with me.”

Seth Godin – 1960 – Writer

“Dig your well before you’re thirsty.”

Adrian Grenier – 1976 – Actor

“It’s enough to indulge and to be selfish but true happiness is really when you start giving back.”

Jessica Simpson – 1980 – Musician

“People always say that pregnant women have a glow.  And I say it’s because you’re sweating to death.”

Karen Russell – 1981 – Novelist

“For me, writing is a parenthesis where I can make sense of life.”

English: Dame Barbara Cartland (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Henry Peach Robinson – 1830 – Photographer

“No departure from the truth of nature shall be discovered by the closest scrutiny.”

Franz Boas – 1858 – Scientist

“If we were to select the most intelligent, imaginative, energetic, and emotionally stable third of mankind, all races would be present.”

Don Herold – 1889 – Writer

“Don’t ever slam a door, you might want to go back.”

Dorothy Thompson – 1893 – Journalist

“Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live.”

Barbara Cartland – 1901 – Novelist

“After forty a woman has to choose between losing her figure or her face.  My advice is to keep your face, and stay sitting down.”

Minor White – 1908 – Photographer

“Be still with yourself until the object of your attention affirms your presence.”

Mervyn Peake – 1911 – Writer

“Each day I live in a glass room unless I break it with the thrusting of my senses and pass through the splintered walls to the great landscape.”

John Archibald Wheeler – 1911 – Physicist

“In any field, find the strangest thing and then explore it.”

Roberto Goizueta – 1932 – Businessman

“Once you lose everything, what’s the worst that’s going to happen to you?  You develop a self-assurance.”

Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense of the United States. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Donald Rumsfeld – 1932 – Politician

“If you try to please everybody, somebody’s not going to like it.”

Michael Graves – 1934 – Architect

“I don’t care what people call me, labels have the negative value of making smaller boundaries for people.”

June Jordan – 1936 – Writer

“In the process of telling the truth about what you feel or what you see, each of us has to get in touch with himself in a really deep serious way.”

David Hockney – 1937 – Artist

“Always live in the ugliest house on the street and then you don’t have to look at it.”

Dean Koontz – 1945 – Author

“Sometimes there is no darker place than our thoughts, the moonless midnight of the mind.”

O. J. Simpson – 1947 – Athlete (Orenthal James Simpson)

“Money takes wings.  The only thing that endures is character.”

Nigel Lythgoe – 1949 – Director

“It takes two to make a relationship, but only one to screw it up.”

John Tesh – 1952 – Musician

“A lot of people are willing to pray or to put in work, but they’re not willing to take true risks.”

Kevin O’Leary – 1954 – Businessman

“Don’t cry over money, it never cries for you.”

Jimmy Smits – 1955 – Actor

“Celebrity hits like a bomb.”

Lindsey Graham – 1955 – Politician

“It’s one thing to shoot yourself in the foot.  Just don’t reload the gun.”

Tom Hanks – 1956 – Actor

“If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it.  It’s the hard that makes it great.”

Marc Almond – 1957 – Musician

“I think the older I get the more creative I get, I don’t have the distractions I had when I was younger.”

Kelly McGillis – 1957 – Actress

“Life is a journey and it’s about growing and changing and coming to terms with who and what you are and loving who and what you are.”

Paul Merton – 1957 – Comedian

“The thing about improvisation is that it’s not about what you say.  It’s listening to what other people say.  It’s about what you hear.”

Courtney Love – 1964 – Musician

“I’m not a woman.  I’m a force of nature.”

John D. Rockefeller ca. 1875 Español: John D. Rockefeller Français : John D. Rockefeller vers 1875 日本語: John D. Rockefeller ca. 1875 Polski: John D. Rockefeller ok. 1870 Русский: Джон Рокфеллер в 1875 году (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Jean de La Fontaine – 1621 – Poet

“Everyone calls himself a friend, but only a fool relies on it; nothing is commoner than the name, nothing rarer than the thing.”

Joseph Chamberlain – 1836 – Politician

“Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities – because it is the quality which guarantees all others.”

John D. Rockefeller, Sr. – 1839 – Oil Magnate and Philanthropist

“Good management consists in showing average people how to do the work of superior people.”

Kathe Kollwitz – 1867 – Artist

“Look at life with the eyes of a child.”

Vincent McNabb – 1868 – Clergyman

“Sometimes it is a great joy just to listen to someone we love talking.”

Philip Johnson – 1906 – Architect

“All architecture is shelter, all great architecture is the design of space that contains, cuddles, exalts, or stimulates the persons in that space.”

Nelson A. Rockefeller – 1908 – United States Vice President

“The secret to success is to own nothing, but control everything.”

Walter Kerr – 1913 – Critic

“Half the world is composed of idiots, the other half of people clever enough to take indecent advantage of them.”

Elisabeth Kubler – Ross – 1926 – Psychologist

“People are like stained-glass windows.  They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.”

Jerry Vale – 1932 – Musician

English: Nelson A. Rockefeller. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“Whiskey is by far the most popular of all remedies that won’t cure a cold.”

Marty Feldman – 1933 – Comedian

“The pen is mightier than the sword, and is considerably easier to write with.”

Phil Gramm – 1942 – Politician

“The genius of the American system is that through freedom we have created extraordinary results from plain old ordinary people.”

Faye Wattleton – 1943 – Sociologist

“The only safe ship in a storm is leadership.”

Wolfgang Puck – 1949 – Chef

“A good chef has to be a manager, a businessman, and a great cook.  To marry all three together is sometimes difficult.”

Anjelica Huston – 1951 – Actress

“Where there is age there is evolution, where there is life there is growth.”

Tony Kaye – 1952 – Director

“Everything that happens is meant to be.  It’s meant to happen like that.  But sometimes you don’t know at the time that it’s meant to be disaster.”

Marianne Williamson – 1952 – Author

“The practice of forgiveness is our most important contribution to the healing of the world.”

Anna Quindlen – 1953 – Journalist

“The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.”

Kevin Bacon – 1958 – Actor

“Things could be worse.  You remember that, and you go on with your life.”

Allison McGhee – 1960 – Author

“Walk slowly; all you can ever come to is yourself.”

Toby Keith – 1961 – Musician

“Don’t compromise even if it hurts to be yourself.”

Milo Ventimiglia – 1977 – Actor

“Enjoy every moment.”

Sophia Bush – 1982 – Actress

“When you realize who the good people are in your life, you’re so lucky.”

English: George Cukor (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Gustav Mahler – 1860 – Composer

“Fortunately, something always remains to be harvested.  So let us not be idle.”

Thomas Brooks – 1880 – Politician

“The best way to do ourselves good is to be doing good to others; the best way to gather is to scatter.”

Leon Feuchtwanger – 1884 – Novelist

“Asking the author of historical novels to teach you about history is like expecting the composer of a melody to provide answers about radio transmission.”

Marc Chagall – 1887 – Artist

“All colors are the friends of their neighbors and the lovers of their opposites.”

George Cukor – 1899 – Producer

“You can’t have any successes unless you can accept failure.”

Satchel Paige – 1906 – Baseball Player

“Age is mind over matter.  If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”

Robert A. Heinlein – 1907 – Writer

“Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.”

Gian Carlo Menotti – 1911 – Composer

“A man only becomes wise when he begins to calculate the approximate depth of his ignorance.”

Margaret Walker – 1915 – Poet

“Friends and good manners will carry you where money won’t go.”

Pierre Cardin – 1922 – Designer

Gian Carlo Menotti, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1944 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“I have a name, I have to take advantage of it.”

David Eddings – 1931 – Author

“The unfortunate thing about working for yourself is that you have the worst boss in the world.  I work every day of the year except at Christmas, when I work a half day.”

David McCullough – 1933 – Historian

“Every book is a new journey.  I never felt I was an expert on a subject as I embarked on a project.”

Ringo Starr – 1940 – Musician

“I get by with a little help from my friends.”

Dick Armey – 1940 – Politician

“Three groups spend other people’s money:  children, thieves, politicians.  All three need supervision.”

Joel Siegel – 1943 – Critic

“If you fight back and get hit, it hurts a little while; if you don’t fight back it hurts forever.”

Shelley Duvall – 1949 – Actress

“Take events in your life seriously, take work seriously, but don’t take yourself seriously, or you’ll become affected, pompous and boring.”

Ben Linder – 1959 – Celebrity

“Anything you can do needs to be done, so pick up the tool of your choice and get started.”

Eric Jerome Dickey – 1961 – Author

“It’s impossible to explain creativity.  It’s like asking a bird, ‘How do you fly?’  You just do.”

John Leonard – 1965 – Poet

“It takes a long time to grow an old friend.”

Amy Carlson – 1968 – Actress

“When people have an inner sense of confidence, they’re more beautiful.”

Jeff Vandermeer – 1968 – Writer

“History has shown us all too often consequences of dreaming poorly or not at all.”

Joe Sakic – 1969 – Athlete

“I’m leaving the game of hockey with nothing but good memories.”

Lisa Leslie – 1971 – Athlete

“Everyone talks about age, but it’s not about age.  It’s about work ethic.  Winning never gets old.”

Hamish Linklater – 1976 – Actor

“I invested all my money in debt.”

Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait, 1940. See discussion of her works below. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

John Paul Jones – 1747 – Soldier

“If fear is cultivated, it will become stronger; if faith is cultivated, it will achieve mastery.”

Roger Babson – 1875 – Educator

“The successful man is the one who had the chance and took it!”

Marc Bloch – 1886 – Historian

“The good historian is like the giant of the fairy tale.  He knows that wherever he catches the scent of human flesh, there his quarry lies.”

Hanns Eisler – 1898 – Composer

“Someone who knows only music, understands nothing about it.”

Frida Kahlo – 1907 – Mexican Painter

“I never paint dreams or nightmares.  I paint my own reality.”

Nancy Reagan – 1921 – 2nd Wife of President Ronald Reagan (Anne Frances Robbins)

“A woman is like a teabag – only in hot water do you realize how strong she is.”

Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan aboard an American boat in California, 1964. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Merv Griffin – 1925 – Entertainer

“If you make the customer a promise … make sure you deliver it.”

Neal A. Maxwell – 1926 – Clergyman

“Discouragement is not the absence of adequacy but the absence of courage.”

Janet Leigh – 1927 – Actress

“In order to dream, you need to have a springboard which is the facts … It gives it that touch of reality, and I think that’s quite important … truth with fiction.”

Della Reese – 1931 – Musician

“So whatever it is you want, need, or desire or just like to have, you better try to get it now, ’cause this is the only time there is.”

Dalai Lama – 1935 – Leader

“Be kind whenever possible.  It is always possible.”

Ned Beatty – 1937 – Actor

“It always impresses me when a person of small stature has command.”

Bessie Head – 1937 – Writer

“Love is mutually feeding each other, not one living on another like a ghoul.”

George W. Bush – 1946 – 43rd President of the United States

“I have a different vision of leadership.  A leader is someone who brings people together.”

Sylvester Stallone – 1946 – Actor

“I believe there’s an inner power that makes winners or losers.  And the winners are the ones who really listen to the truth of their hearts.”

Hilary Mantel – 1952 – Writer

“A novel should be a book of questions, not a book of answers.”

Nanci Griffith – 1953 – Musician

“Being a good songwriter means paying attention and sticking your hand out the window to catch the song on the way to someone else’s house.”

Pau Gasol – 1980 – Athlete

“It doesn’t matter who gets what.  It’s just a matter of doing what it takes to win.”