Blathery

Quotes & anectdotes from
the wise,
the foolish,
the courageous &
the drunk

Born this week

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

October 21, 1772 – July 25, 1834

The principle of the Gothic architecture is infinity made imaginable.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the ...

Adlai E. Stevenson

October 23, 1835 – June 14, 1914

Every age needs men who will redeem the time by living with a vision of the things that are to be.

Adlai Ewing Stevenson I served as the 23rd Vice President of the United States. Previously, he served as a Congressman from Illinois in the ...

John Dewey

October 20, 1859 – June 1952

Education is not preparation for life education is life itself.

John Dewey, FAA was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and ...

Thomas Browne

October 19, 1605 – October 19, 1682

Be able to be alone. Lose not the advantage of solitude, and the society of thyself.

Sir Thomas Browne was an English polymath and author of varied works which reveal his wide learning in diverse fields including science and ...

Lewis Mumford

October 19, 1895 – January 26, 1990

Forget the damned motor car and build the cities for lovers and friends.

Lewis Mumford, KBE was an American historian, sociologist, philosopher of technology, and literary critic. Particularly noted for his study ...

Alphonse de Lamartine

October 21, 1790 – February 28, 1869

Experience is the only prophecy of wise men.

Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine was a French writer, poet and politician who was instrumental in the foundation of the Second ...

Matthew Henry

October 18, 1662 – June 22, 1714

Men of polite learning and a liberal education.

Matthew Henry was a Welsh Non-Conformist minister.

Helen Hunt Jackson

October 18, 1830 – August 12, 1885

When love is at its best, one loves so much that he cannot forget.

Helen Maria Hunt Jackson, born Helen Fiske, was an American poet and writer who became an activist on behalf of improved treatment of ...

Leigh Hunt

October 19, 1784 – August 28, 1859

The groundwork of all happiness is health.

James Henry Leigh Hunt (19 October 1784 - 28 August 1859), best known as Leigh Hunt, was an English critic, essayist, poet and writer. ...

Bela Lugosi

October 20, 1882 – August 16, 1956

Death, the final, triumphant lover.

Béla Ferenc DezsÅ‘ Blaskó, better known as Bela Lugosi, was a Hungarian-American actor, famous for portraying Count Dracula in the ...

Sarah Bernhardt

October 22, 1844 – March 26, 1923

He who is incapable of feeling strong passions, of being shaken by anger, of living in every sense of the word, will never be a good actor.

Sarah Bernhardt was a French stage and early film actress, and was referred to as "the most famous actress the world has ever known." ...

Timothy Leary

October 22, 1920 – May 31, 1996

You're only as young as the last time you changed your mind.

Timothy Francis Leary was an American psychologist and writer, known for advocating psychedelic drugs. During American legality of LSD and ...

James Truslow Adams

October 18, 1878 – May 18, 1949

Age acquires no value save through thought and discipline.

James Truslow Adams was an American writer and historian. He was not related to the famous Adams family. He was not an academic, but a ...

A. J. Liebling

October 18, 1904 – December 28, 1963

An Englishman teaching an American about food is like the blind leading the one-eyed.

Abbott Joseph Liebling (October 18, 1904 - December 28, 1963) was an American journalist who was closely associated with The New Yorker ...

Thomas Tusser

October 19, 1524 – May 3, 1580

At Christmas play and make good cheer, for Christmas comes but once a year.

Thomas Tusser was an English poet and farmer, best known for his instructional poem Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, an expanded ...

Franz Liszt

October 22, 1811 – July 31, 1886

Life is only a long and bitter suicide, and faith alone can transform this suicide into a sacrifice.

Franz Liszt, T.O.S.F., in modern use Liszt Ferenc; from 1859 to 1867 officially Franz Ritter von Liszt, was a 19th-century Hungarian ...

Henri Bergson

October 18, 1859 – January 4, 1941

To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.

Henri-Louis Bergson was a major French philosopher, influential especially in the first half of the 20th century. Bergson convinced many ...

Daniel Boone

October 22, 1734 – September 26, 1820

In this situation I was constantly exposed to danger and death.

Daniel Boone was an American pioneer, explorer, and frontiersman whose frontier exploits made him one of the first folk heroes of the ...

Boethius

October 23, 480 CE – October 23, 524 CE

A man content to go to heaven alone will never go to heaven.

Anicius Manlius Severinus Boëthius, commonly called Boethius, was a philosopher of the early 6th century.

Pierre Trudeau

October 18, 1919 – September 28, 2000

The state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation.

Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau, PC CH CC QC FSRC, usually known as Pierre Trudeau or Pierre Elliott Trudeau, was the 15th ...

Lewis Grizzard

October 20, 1946 – March 20, 1994

I grew up in a very large family in a very small house. I never slept alone until after I was married.

Lewis McDonald Grizzard, Jr. was an American writer and humorist, known for his Southern demeanor and commentary on the American South. ...

Peter Tosh

October 19, 1944 – September 11, 1987

To have the truth in your possession you can be found guilty, sentenced to death.

Peter Tosh, OM was a Jamaican reggae musician. Along with Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer he was one of the core members of the band The ...

Leo Burnett

October 21, 1891 – June 7, 1971

I am one who believes that one of the greatest dangers of advertising is not that of misleading people, but that of boring them to death.

Leo Burnett was an advertising executive and the founder of the Leo Burnett Company, Inc., also known as Leo Burnett Worldwide. He was ...

Anna Neagle

October 20, 1904 – June 3, 1986

The time I had waited probably made the difference between success and failure.

Dame Anna Neagle, DBE, born Florence Marjorie Robertson, was a popular English stage and film actress and singer. Neagle proved to be a ...

Alfred Nobel

October 21, 1833 – December 10, 1896

Second to agriculture, humbug is the biggest industry of our age.

Alfred Bernhard Nobel was a Swedish chemist, engineer, innovator, and armaments manufacturer. He was the inventor of dynamite. Nobel also ...

Robert Capa

October 22, 1913 – May 25, 1954

I hope to stay unemployed as a war photographer till the end of my life.

Robert Capa was a Hungarian war photographer, photojournalist and also the companion and professional partner of photographer Gerda Taró. ...

Georg Solti

October 21, 1912 – September 5, 1997

My entire learning process is slow, because I have no visual memory.

Sir Georg Solti, KBE was an orchestral and operatic conductor, best known for his appearances with opera companies in Munich, Frankfurt and ...