Quote Queen

Photo of Hector Berlioz (1803 – 1869) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

George Mason – 1725 – Statesman

“We came equals into this world, and equals shall we go out of it.”

Hector Berlioz – 1803 – Composer

“The luck of having talent is not enough; one must also have a talent for luck.”

Alfred de Musset – 1810 – Writer

“How glorious it is – and also how painful – to be an exception.”

Ellen Key – 1849 – Writer

“When one paints an ideal, one does not need to limit one’s imagination.”

Annie Jump Cannon – 1863 – Scientist

“Classifying the stars has helped materially in all studies of the structure of the universe.”

Fiorello LaGuardia – 1882 – Politician

“It makes no difference if I burn my bridges behind me – I never retreat.”

Max Born – 1882 – Mathematician

“The belief that there is only one truth, and that oneself is in possession of it, is the root of all evil in the world.”

Walter Knott – 1889 – Businessman

“Those who were cowards never started, and those who were weak were lost on the way, but the brave find a home in every land.”

Mark Tobey – 1890 – Artist

“I believe that painting should come through the avenues of meditation rather than the canals of action.”

Annie Jump Cannon (1863-1941) (Photo credit: Smithsonian Institution)

Elliott Carter – 1908 – Composer

“Silences between movements are employed only in order to bring the opposing duo to the fore.”

Naguib Mahfouz – 1911 – Novelist

“You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers.  You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.”

Carlo Ponti – 1912 – Producer

“I don’t make deals, I make pictures.”

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn – 1918 – Author

“You only have power over people so long as you don’t take everything away from them.  But when you’ve robbed a man of everything, he’s no longer in your power – he’s free again.”

Grace Paley – 1922 – Writer

“All that is really necessary for survival of the fittest, it seems, is an interest in life, good, bad, or peculiar.”

Rita Moreno – 1931 – Actress

“Bigger than life is not difficult for me.  I am bigger than life.”

Brenda Lee – 1942 – Musician

“I gave up my childhood for a career.”

Teri Garr – 1944 – Actress

“You have to find out what’s right for you, so it’s trial and error.  You are going to be all right if you accept realistic goals for yourself.”

Harold Hamm – 1945 – Businessman

“I always wanted to find oil.  It was always an irresistible calling.”

Jermaine Jackson – 1954 – Musician

“You can’t argue with stupidity.”

Tom Shadyac – 1958 – Comedian

“You can’t sow an apple seed and expect to get an avocado tree.  The consequences of your life are sown in what you do and how you believe.”

Emily Dickinson (Photo credit: Amherst College Archives)

Thomas Holcroft – 1745 – Dramatist

“Love and a red rose can’t be hid.”

George MacDonald – 1824 – Novelist

“To be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved.”

Emily Dickinson – 1830 – Poet

“Truth is such a rare thing, it is delightful to tell it.”

Edward Eggleston – 1837 – Editor

“Persistent people begin their success where others end in failure.”

Frederick Pollock – 1845 – Judge

“It is odd how learned persons fail to see that new terms and definitions are apt to mean new doubts and litigation.”

Melvil Dewey – 1851 – Inventor of the Dewey Decimal System

“The librarian must be the librarian militant before he can be the librarian triumphant.”

English: From left to right: R. R. Bowker, Mrs. Dewey and Melvil Dewey (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Adolf Loos – 1870 – Architect

“Be not afraid of being called un-fashionable.”

Nelly Sachs – 1891 – Poet

“We breathed the air of freedom without knowing the language or any person.”

Lew Brown – 1893 – Musician

“So how can you lose what you’ve never owned?”

William Plomer – 1903 – Author

“Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected.”

Rumer Godden – 1907 – Novelist

“If books were Persian carpets, one would not look only at the outer side, because it is the stitch that makes a carpet wear, gives it its life and bloom.”

Olivier Messiaen – 1908 – Composer

“No one should be allowed to make music as if he were made of wood.  One must reproduce the musical text exactly, but not play like a stone.”

Chet Huntley – 1911 – Journalist

“Maybe where there’s clarity of air, there’s clarity of thought.”

Clarice Lispector – 1920 – Writer

“Facts and particulars annoy me.”

Dan Blocker – 1928 – Actor

“My daddy used to say that I was too big to ride and too little to hitch a wagon – no good for a damn thing.”

Fionnula Flanagan – 1941 – Actress

“I think Irish women are strong as horses, incredibly loyal and for the most part, funny, witty, bright and optimistic in the face of devastating reality.”

Kenneth Branagh – 1960 – Actor

“Actors are the best and the worst of people.  They’re like kids.  When they’re good, they’re very very good.  When they’re bad they’re very very naughty.”

Nia Peeples – 1961 – Musician

“Health and beauty is not just about what you apply.  If you don’t have it together on the inside, then nothing else is going to matter.”

English: Photo of Commander Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. from an official U.S. Navy web site. The material on the web site was adapted from: “Commander Douglas Elton Fairbanks, Jr., U.S.N.R.,” produced by the Navy Office of Information, dated 2 September 1948, Biographies, 20th Century, Navy Department Library. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

John Milton – 1608 – Poet

“Confidence impacts a wonderful inspiration to its possessor.”

George Grossmith – 1847 – Actor

“I left the room with silent dignity, but caught my foot in the mat.”

Joseph Pilates – 1883 – Businessman

“By exercising your stomach muscles, you wring out the body, you don’t catch colds, you don’t get cancer, you don’t get hernias.  Do animals get hernias?  Do animals go on diets?”

Herione Gingold – 1897 – Actress

“Fighting is essentially a masculine idea; a woman’s weapon is her tongue.”

Emmett Kelly – 1898 – Professional Clown

“By laughing at me, the audience really laughs at themselves, and realizing they have done this gives them sort of a spiritual second wind for going back into the battles of life.”

Margaret Hamilton – 1902 – Actress

“It’s not subtle or restrained.  It’s not any of the things you like to think apply to your acting.”

Louis Kronenberger – 1904 – Critic

“Old age is an excellent time for outrage.  My goal is to say or do at least one outrageous thing every week.”

Dalton Trumbo – 1905 – Novelist

“The only kind of love worth having is the kind that goes on living and laughing and fighting and loving.”

Grace Hopper – 1906 – Scientist

“A ship in port is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for.”

Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. – 1909 – Actor

“I was only saying to the Queen the other day how I hate name dropping.”

Broderick Crawford – 1911 – Actor

“If you’re going to be a bum, be the biggest.  If you’re going to blow it, blow it big.”

Thomas P. O’Neill – 1912 – Politician

“A good lesson in keeping your perspective is:  Take your job seriously but don’t take yourself seriously.”

Ashleigh Brilliant (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Kirk Douglas – 1916 – Actor

“In order to achieve anything you must be brave enough to fail.”

Redd Foxx – 1922 – Comedian (John Elroy Sanford)

“Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.”

Benny Green – 1927 – Musician

“A jazz musician is a juggler who uses harmonies instead of oranges.”

Dick Van Patten – 1928 – Actor

“The only honest reaction and true loyalty we get is from our animals.  Once they’re your friends, you can do no wrong.”

Ashleigh Brilliant – 1933 – Author and Cartoonist

“Why does life keep teaching me lessons I have no desire to learn?”

Judi Dench – 1934 – Actress

“I don’t think anybody can be told how to act.  I think you can give advice.  But you have to find your own way through it.”

Beau Bridges – 1941 – Actor (Lloyd Vernet Bridges III)

“I also like to garden.  I grow things, vegetables, flowers . . . I particularly like orchids.  I raise orchids.”

Joe McGinniss – 1942 – Author

“Politics, in a sense, has always been a con game.”

Dick Butkus – 1942 – Athlete

“When I played pro football, I never set out to hurt anyone deliberately – unless it was, you know, important, like a league game or something.”

Joanna Trollope – 1943 – Novelist

“I am often criticized for being rather accessible.”

Gioconda Belli – 1948 – Author

“The world has always gone forward when people have dared to have crazy ideas.”

Tom Kite – 1949 – Athlete

“You can always find a distraction if you’re looking for one.”

Donny Osmond – 1957 – Musician

“You have to believe in yourself, otherwise you can’t do it.  If you don’t believe in yourself, how do you expect anyone else to?  Because ultimately, you’re the one who has to do it.”

Princess Masako – 1964 – Japanese Royalty

“At times I experience hardship in trying to find the proper point of balance between traditional things and my own personality.”

Jesse Metcalfe – 1978 – Actor

“It’s a privilege to act, and you have to protect and cherish it.”

Joel Chandler Harris (“Uncle Remus”). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Mary Queen of Scots – 1542 – Scottish Royalty

“In my end is my beginning.”

Johann Georg Zimmermann – 1728 – Writer

“A moral lesson is better expressed in short sayings than in long discourse.”

Eli Whitney – 1765 – Inventor

“One of my primary objects is to form the tools so the tools themselves shall fashion the work and give to every part its just proportion.”

Henry Timrod – 1829 – Poet

“Spring is a true reconstructionist.”

Joel Chandler Harris – 1848 – Journalist

“I am in the prime of my senility.”

Camille Claudel – 1864 – Sculptor

“If you are nice, and keep your promise, we will be in paradise.”

Jean Sibelius – 1865 – Composer

“Pay no attention to what the critics say; no statue has ever been put up to a critic.”

Norman Douglas – 1868 – Writer

“The pine stays green in winter . . . wisdom in hardship.”

Paul Klee – 1879 – Artist

“A drawing is simply a line going for a walk.”

Diego Rivera – 1886 – Artist

“I did not know it then, but Frida had already become the most important fact in my life.  And would continue to be, up to the moment she died, 27 years later.”

Hervey Allen – 1889 – Author

“Legends are material to be moulded, and not facts to be recorded.”

Sammy Davis, Jr. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

James Thurber – 1894 – Writer and Cartoonist

“It is better to ask some of the questions than to know all the answers.”

Delmore Schwartz – 1913- Poet

“Time is the school in which we learn, time is the fire in which we burn.”

Ernest Lehman – 1915 – Writer

“After all, the wool of a black sheep is just as warm.”

Lucian Freud – 1922 – Artist

“A painter must think of everything he sees as being there entirely for his own use and pleasure.”

Sammy Davis, Jr. – 1925 – Entertainer

“What have I got?  No looks, no money, no education.  Just talent.”

Maximillian Schell – 1930 – Actor

“First love is first love, first marriage is first marriage, disappointment is disappointment.”

Flip Wilson – 1933 – Comedian (Clerow Wilson, Jr.)

“You can’t expect to hit the jackpot if you don’t put a few nickels in the machine.”

Jim Morrison – 1943 – Musician

“A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself.”

John Banville – 1945 – Novelist

“For memory, we use our imagination.  We take a few strands of real time and carry them with us, then like an oyster we create a pearl around them.”

Gregg Allman – 1947 – Musician

“I didn’t think we would ever make enough money to pay rent by playing music.”

Robert Sternberg – 1949 – Educator

“Passion is the quickest to develop, and the quickest to fade.  Intimacy develops more slowly, and commitment more gradually still.”

Rick Baker – 1950 – Inventor

“It’s a funny relationship that makeup artists have.  I always feel kind of like a dentist.  People look at me and think of pain.”

Bill Bryson – 1951 – Writer

“A world without newspapers or a world where the newspapers are purely electronic and you read them on a screen is not a very appealing world.”

Norman Finkelstein – 1953 – Educator

“Everybody wants peace.  That’s a truism.  There is no point in accomplishing through war what you can accomplish through peace.”

Sam Kinison – 1953 – Comedian

“Everything can be satirized.”

Kim Basinger – 1953 – Actress

“I feel there are two people inside me – me and my intuition.  If I go against her, she’ll screw me every time, and if I follow her, we get along quite nicely.”

Ann Coulter – 1961 – Journalist

“I love to engage in repartee with people who are stupider than I am.”

Teri Hatcher – 1964 – Actress

“I’m a firm believer in putting your money where your mouth is.”

Dwight Howard – 1985 – Athlete

“The hardest thing to do is to trust people.”

English: Allan Cunningham (1791–1839), English botanist and explorer (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Allan Cunningham – 1784 – Poet

“While the hollow oak our palace is, Our heritage is the sea.”

Willa Cather – 1873 – Author

“I shall not die of a cold.  I shall die of having lived.”

Joyce Cary – 1888 – Novelist

“It is a tragedy of the world that no one knows what he doesn’t know – the less a man knows, the more sure it is that he knows everything.”

Heywood Broun – 1888 – Journalist

“Sports do not build character.  They reveal it.”

Gabriel Marcel – 1889 – Philosopher

“Contemplation and wisdom are highest achievements and man is not totally at home with them.”

Victor Kiam – 1926 – Businessman

“Even if you fall on your face, you’re still moving forward.”

Ellen Burstyn – 1932 – Actress

“What a lovely surprise to finally discover how unlonely being alone can be.”

English: Portrait of Heywood Broun (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Johnny Bench – 1947 – Professional Baseball Catcher

“Slumps are like soft beds – easy to get into and hard to get out of.”

Pearl Cleage – 1948 – Author

“Putting words on paper regularly is part of the necessary discipline of writing.  A journal is a great way to do that.”

William Stone – 1952 – Explorer

“Generally speaking, moving water is the most dangerous thing you can encounter underground.”

Jonathan Tisch – 1953 – Businessman

“I’m saying that you can create success for yourself but also understand that you have a responsibility to others.”

Larry Bird – 1956 – Coach

“A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals.”

J. R. Moehringer – 1964 – Journalist

“You think you choose the subjects of your books.  But sometimes, in ways you don’t know, the books choose you.”

Terrell Owens – 1973 – Athlete

“If you align expectations with reality, you will never be disappointed.”

Noel Clarke (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Richard Harris Barham – 1788 – Comedian

“Ghosts, like ladies, never speak till spoke to.”

Susanna Moodie – 1803 – Author

“Ah, Hope!  What would life be stripped of thy encouraging smiles, that teach us to look behind the dark clouds of today, for the golden beams that are to gild the morrow.”

Max Muller – 1823 – Educator

“A flower cannot blossom without sunshine, and man cannot live without love.”

Evelyn Underhill – 1875 – Writer

“Deliberately seek opportunities for kindness, sympathy, and patience.”

Ira Gershwin – 1896 – Musician

“One can be very happy without demanding that others agree with them.”

Alfred Eisenstaedt – 1898 – Photographer

“Once the amateur’s naïve approach and humble willingness to learn fades away, the creative spirit of good photography dies with it.  Every professional should remain in his heart an amateur.”

George Porter – 1920 – Scientist

“I have no doubt that we will be successful in harnessing the sun’s energy.  If sunbeams were weapons of war, we would have had solar energy centuries ago.”

Robert Crandall – 1935 – Businessman

“If the Wright Brothers were alive today, Orville would have to lay off Wilbur.”

Bruce Nauman – 1941 – Sculptor

Janine Turner (Photo credit: Alan Light)

“If you really want to do it, you do it.  There are no excuses.”

Peter Handke – 1942 – Novelist

“If a nation loses its storytellers, it loses its childhood.”

Steven Wright – 1955 – Comedian

“A lot of people are afraid of heights.  Not me, I’m afraid of widths.”

Janine Turner – 1962 – Actress

“My desire is to be a forgiving, non-judgmental person.”

Noel Clarke – 1975 – Actor

“I just started to write because I was fed up of not seeing the stories that I wanted, so I was like ‘Stop moaning and write something.'”

English: Martin Van Buren (December 5, 1782—July 24, 1862), the 8th President of the United States, 8th Vice President of the United States, 10th United States Secretary of State, and 9th Governor of New York Español: Martin Van Buren (5 de deciembre de 1782— 24 de julio de 1862), el 8 o Presidente de los Estados Unidos, 8 o Vicepresidente de los Estados Unidos, 10 o Secretario de Estado de los Estados Unidos, y 9 o Gobernador de Nueva York (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Martin Van Buren – 1782 – 8th President of the United States

“The less government interferes with private pursuits, the better for general prosperity.”

Christina Rossetti – 1830 – Poet

“For there is no friend like a sister in calm or stormy weather; To cheer one on the tedious way, to fetch one if one goes astray, to lift one if one totters down, to strengthen whilst one stands.”

George Armstrong Custer  – 1839 – United States Army Officer

“I appeal to you as a soldier to spare me the humiliation of seeing my regiment march to meet the enemy and I not share its dangers.”

Rose Wilder Lane – 1886 – Journalist

“Making the best of things is . . . a damn poor way of dealing with them.  My whole life has been a series of escapes from that quicksand.”

Milton H. Erickson – 1901 – Psychologist

“A goal without a date is just a dream.”

Werner Heisenberg – 1901 – Physicist

“What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.”

Walt Disney – 1901 – Film Animator

“The things we have in common outnumber and outweigh those that divide us.”

Strom Thurmond – 1902 – Politician

“I don’t think it’s a question of age as much as it’s a question of what kind of shape you’re in.”

Cecil Frank Powell – 1903 – Physicist

“Any device in science is a window on to nature, and each new window contributes to the breadth of our view.”

Rose Wilder Lane, journalist and writer, daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder of Little House on the Prairie (See revision notes below.) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Abraham Polonsky – 1910 – Writer

“A man could spend the rest of his life trying to remember what he shouldn’t have said.”

Joan Didion – 1934 – Author

“The willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life is the source from which self-respect springs.”

Calvin Trillin – 1935 – Journalist

“The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers.  The original meal has never been found.”

Dave Hickey – 1940 – Critic

“I hate all that woozy political and psychotherapeutic crap applied to books and art.”

Sean Quinn – 1947 – Businessman

“I suppose I was always very greedy.  I was never happy with what we had, and I was always looking for new opportunities.”

Jim Messina – 1947 – Musician

“I realized how quickly you could eat up a lot of time and money if you weren’t prepared.”

Morgan Brittany – 1951 – Actress

“Drugs won’t enhance your performance.”

Gary Allan – 1967 – Musician

“You can be the moon and still be jealous of the stars.”

Jimmy Cannon – 1973 – Journalist

“I can’t remember ever staying for the end of a movie in which the actors wore togas.”

Edith Cavell (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

John Cotton – 1585 – Clergyman

“If you pinch the sea of its liberty, though it be walls of stone or brass, it will beat them down.”

Thomas Carlyle – 1795 – Philosopher

“A man without a goal is like a ship without a rudder.”

Samuel Butler – 1835 – Poet

“Most people have never learned that one of the main aims in life is to enjoy it.”

Lillian Russell – 1860 – Actress

“Learn to take responsibility for emotions, and to manage energies, always working within present resources.”

Edith Cavell – 1865 – Public Servant

“I realize that patriotism is not enough.  I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone.”

Wassily Kandinsky – 1866 – Artist

Anonymous. Wassily Kandinsky. c 1913. From Wassily Kandinsky (1913). Rückblicke. Berlin: Sturm Verlag. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“The artist must train not only his eye but also his soul.”

Rainer Maria Rilke – 1875 – Poet

“The only journey is the journey within.”

Alex North – 1910 – Composer

“Fear is a problem with film music and films; people want to be conventional, and there’s more commercialism today.  If you are not daring in your art, you’re bankrupt.”

Charles Keating – 1923- Lawyer

“Computers rather frighten me, because I never did learn to type, so the whole thing seems extraordinarily complicated to me.”

John Portman – 1924 – Architect

“Buildings should serve people, not the other way around.”

Albert Bandura – 1925 – Psychologist

“People who believe they have the power to exercise some measure of control over their lives are healthier, more effective and more successful than those who lack faith in their ability to effect changes in their lives.”

William Labov – 1927 – Writer

“We focus upon pairs of words very often which are the same in some areas and different in other areas.”

Ronnie Corbett – 1930 – Comedian

“Have you ever noticed?  Anybody going slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac.”

Barbara Amiel – 1940 – Journalist

“Our society is not perfect and this will come as no surprise to many of you.”

Dennis Wilson – 1944 – Musician

“The Beach Boys are not a superstar group.  The music is the superstar of the group.”

Jeff Bridges – 1949 – Actor

“A large part of acting is just pretending.  You get to work with these other great make-believers, all making believe as hard as they can.”

Tyre Banks – 1973 – Model

“Self-love has very little to do with how you feel about your outer self.  It’s about accepting all of yourself.”

Ozzy Osbourne (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Robert Bloomfield – 1766 – Poet

“Strange to the world, he wore a bashful look, The fields his study, Nature was his book.”

Rowland Hill – 1795 – Inventor

“We can do more good by being good, than in any other way.”

Gamaliel Bailey – 1807 – Journalist

“Never respect men merely for their riches, but rather for their philanthropy; we do not value the sun for its height, but for its use.”

Ellen Swallow Richards – 1842 – Scientist

“If you keep your feathers well oiled, the water of criticism will run off as from a duck’s back.”

Joseph Conrad – 1857 – Novelist

“Gossip is what no one claims to like, but everybody enjoys.”

Anna Freud – 1895 – Psychologist

“If some longing goes unmet, don’t be astonished.  We call that Life.”

Kate O’Brien – 1897 – Novelist

“A laugh is a terrible weapon.”

John Backus – 1924 – Scientist

“You need the willingness to fail all the time.”

Andy Williams – 1927 – Musician

“We teach about how to drive in school, but not how to manage finances.”

English: Francesca Lia Block (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Jean-Luc Godard – 1930 – Director

“Cinema is the most beautiful fraud in the world.”

Craig Raine – 1944 – Poet

“Great writers arrive among us like new diseases threatening, powerful, impatient for patients to pick up their virus, irresistible.”

Ozzy Osbourne – 1948 – Musician

“To be a liar, you’ve got to have a great memory, and I don’t have a memory.”

Michael Musto – 1955 – Writer

“In the last few years, the very idea of telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth is dredged up only as a final resort when the alternative options of deception, threat and bribery have all been exhausted.”

Daryl Hannah – 1960 – Actress

“It’s not necessary to go far and wide.  I mean, you can really find exciting and inspiring things within your hometown.”

Julianne Moore – 1960 – Actress

“Comedy is ridiculously hard.  And if the rhythm is not right, if the music or the line is not right, it’s not funny.”

Francesca Lia Block – 1962 – Author

“Writing is literally transformative.  When we read, we are changed.  When we write, we are changed.  It’s neurological.  To me, this is a kind of magic.”

Marco Tempest – 1964 – Entertainer

“One of the key qualities of all stories is that they are made to be shared.”

Katarina Witt – 1965 – Athlete

“Almost nothing is presented to you on a silver platter.  You have to really work for it.”

Brendan Fraser – 1968 – Actor

“I don’t believe that wishing works.  I think we get the things we work for.”

Holly Marie Combs – 1973 – Actress

“Your faith in yourself is all you will ever have.  Don’t let anyone take it away from you, ever.”

Leo Ornstein (Photo credit: music2020)

Georges Seurat – 1859 – Artist

“Originality depends only on the character of the drawing and the vision peculiar to each artist.”

Leo Ornstein – 1892 – Composer

“I distrust anything that you don’t hear.”

John Barbirolli – 1899 – Conductor

“Do you know why conductors live so long?  Because we perspire so much.”

Russell Lynes – 1910 – Critic

“If you can’t ignore an insult, top it; if you can’t top it, laugh it off; and if you can’t laugh it off, it’s probably deserved.”

Adolph Green – 1914 – Playwright

“As a main ingredient to the show, it has to have truth, represent truth, or else it won’t last.”

Ray Walston – 1914 – Actor

“Talent will come out.”

John Barbirolli in the mid-1960s (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Howard Finster – 1916 – Artist

“Well, as far as I’m concerned, I’m not here to live a normal life.  I’m sent here on a mission.”

Henry Anatole Grunwald – 1922 – Editor

“Journalism can never be silent:  that is its greatest virtue and its greatest fault.  It must speak, and speak immediately, while the echoes of wonder, the claims of triumph and the signs of horror are still in the air.”

Maria Callas – 1923 – Musician

“When music fails to agree to the ear, to soothe the ear and the heart and the senses, then it has missed the point.”

Jonathan Frid – 1924 – Actor

“All fame ever does for you is get attention for the work you really want to do.”

Alexander Haig – 1924 – Public Servant

“I’m the only American alive or dead who presided unhappily over the removal of a vice president and a president.”

Julie Harris – 1925 – Actress

“I don’t know much about football but everyone seems to say that it is all about possession.”

Edwin Meese – 1931 – Public Servant

“An expert is somebody who is more than 50 miles from home, has no responsibility for implementing the advice he gives, and shows slides.”

Sissela Bok – 1934 – Philosopher

“Liars share with those they deceive the desire not to be deceived.”

Willie Brown – 1940 – Athlete

“In politics, a lie unanswered becomes truth within 24 hours.”

Penelope Spheeris – 1945 Director

“This generation has given up on growth.  They’re just hoping for survival.”

David Macaulay – 1946 – Artist

“I’m a big fan of the digestive system.”

Gianni Versace – 1946 – Designer

“In the past, people were born royal.  Nowadays, royalty comes from what you do.”

Helen Dunmore – 1952 – Poet

“A novel, in the end, is a container, a shape which you are trying to pour your story into.”

Joel Fuhrman – 1953 – Scientist

“Eating a high-nutrient diet actually makes you more satisfied with less food, and actually gives the ability to enjoy food more without overeating.”

Ann Patchett – 1963 – Author

“I think people become consumed with selling a book when they need to be consumed with writing it.”

Britney Spears – 1981 – Musician

“The cool thing about being famous is traveling.  I have always wanted to travel across the seas, like to Canada and stuff.”