Born this week
Saturday January 24th, 2026
Francis Bacon
January 22, 1561 – April 9, 1626
Age appears to be best in four things old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St. Alban, QC, was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, essayist, and author. He ...
Lord Byron
January 22, 1788 – April 19, 1824
I only go out to get me a fresh appetite for being alone.
Born George Gordon Byron (he later added "Noel" to his name) in 1788, Lord Byron was the sixth Baron Byron of a rapidly fading aristocratic ...
Paul Cezanne
January 19, 1839 – October 22, 1906
I ask you to pray for me, for once age has overtaken us, we find consolation only in religion.
Paul Cézanne was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century ...
George Burns
January 20, 1896 – March 9, 1996
At my age flowers scare me.
George Burns, born Nathan Birnbaum, was an American comedian, award-winning actor and best-selling writer. He was one of the few ...
Edgar Allan Poe
January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849
Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor, and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known ...
Charles de Montesquieu
January 18, 1689 – February 10, 1755
It is not the young people that degenerate they are not spoiled till those of mature age are already sunk into corruption.
Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu, generally referred to as simply Montesquieu, was a French lawyer, man of ...
Stendhal
January 23, 1783 – March 23, 1842
The man of genius is he and he alone who finds such joy in his art that he will work at it come hell or high water.
Marie-Henri Beyle, better known by his pen name Stendhal, was a 19th-century French writer. Known for his acute analysis of his characters' ...
Daniel Webster
January 18, 1782 – October 24, 1852
Keep cool anger is not an argument.
Daniel Webster was a leading American senator and statesman during the era of the Second Party System. He was the outstanding spokesman for ...
Robert E. Lee
January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870
The education of a man is never completed until he dies.
Robert Edward Lee was an American soldier best known for commanding the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War ...
Charles de Secondat
January 18, 1689 – February 10, 1755
As soon as man enters into a state of society he loses the sense of his weakness equality ceases, and then commences the state of war.
Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu, generally referred to as simply Montesquieu, was a French lawyer, man of ...
John Donne
January 22, 1572 – March 31, 1631
God employs several translators some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice.
John Donne was an English poet and a cleric in the Church of England. He is considered the pre-eminent representative of the metaphysical ...
William Congreve
January 24, 1670 – January 19, 1729
Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.
William Congreve was an English playwright and poet.
Ernest Holmes
January 21, 1887 – April 7, 1960
We can no more do without spirituality than we can do without food, shelter, or clothing.
Ernest Shurtleff Holmes was an American New Thought writer, teacher, and leader. He was the founder of a Spiritual movement known as ...
Jacob Bronowski
January 18, 1908 – August 22, 1974
Every animal leaves traces of what it was man alone leaves traces of what he created.
Jacob Bronowski was a Polish-Jewish British mathematician, biologist, historian of science, theatre author, poet and inventor. He is best ...
Aristotle Onassis
January 20, 1906 – March 15, 1975
The secret of business is to know something that nobody else knows.
Aristotle Sokratis Onassis (Greek: ΑÏιστοτÎλης Ωνάσης, Aristotelis Onasis; 15 ...
Jules Renard
January 22, 1864 – May 22, 1910
There are places and moments in which one is so completely alone that one sees the world entire.
Pierre-Jules Renard or Jules Renard was a French author and member of the Académie Goncourt, most famous for the works Poil de carotte and ...
Edith Wharton
January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937
Old age, calm, expanded, broad with the haughty breadth of the universe, old age flowing free with the delicious near-by freedom of death.
Edith Wharton was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer, and designer. She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in ...
A. A. Milne
January 18, 1882 – January 31, 1956
Golf is so popular simply because it is the best game in the world at which to be bad.
Alan Alexander Milne was an English author, best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh and for various children's poems. ...
Patricia Highsmith
January 19, 1921 – February 4, 1995
I have Graham Greene's telephone number, but I wouldn't dream of using it. I don't seek out writers because we all want to be alone.
Patricia Highsmith was an American novelist and short story writer, most widely known for her psychological thrillers, which led to more ...
Janis Joplin
January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970
On stage I make love to twenty five thousand people and then I go home alone.
Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer-songwriter who first rose to fame in the late 1960s as the lead singer of the psychedelic-acid rock ...
Federico Fellini
January 20, 1920 – October 31, 1993
All art is autobiographical. The pearl is the oyster's autobiography.
Federico Fellini was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. Known for his distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images with ...
Richard Le Gallienne
January 20, 1866 – September 15, 1947
A woman's beauty is one of her great missions.
Richard Le Gallienne was an English author and poet. The American actress Eva Le Gallienne was his daughter, by his second marriage.
Cary Grant
January 18, 1904 – November 29, 1986
I think that making love is the best form of exercise.
Cary Grant was an English stage and Hollywood film actor who became an American citizen in 1942. Known for his transatlantic accent, ...
Danny Kaye
January 18, 1913 – March 3, 1987
Life is a great big canvas throw all the paint you can at it.
Danny Kaye was an American actor, singer, dancer, and comedian. His performances featured physical comedy, idiosyncratic pantomimes, and ...
Augustine Birrell
January 19, 1850 – November 20, 1933
Friendship is a word, the very sight of which in print makes the heart warm.
Augustine Birrell KC was an English politician, barrister, academic and author. He was Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1907 to 1916, ...
Sherwood Eddy
January 19, 1871 – November 4, 1963
Faith is not contrary to reason.
Sherwood Eddy was a leading American Protestant missionary, author, administrator and educator.
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
January 22, 1729 – February 15, 1781
Absolute truth belongs to Thee alone.
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was a German writer, philosopher, dramatist, publicist and art critic, and one of the most outstanding ...
Francis Picabia
January 22, 1879 – November 30, 1953
The world is divided into two categories: failures and unknowns.
Francis Picabia was a French avant-garde painter, poet and typographist. After experimenting with Impressionism and pointillism, Picabia ...
August Strindberg
January 22, 1849 – May 14, 1912
I always disliked dogs, those protectors of cowards who lack the courage to fight an assailant themselves.
Johan August Strindberg was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his ...
U Thant
January 22, 1909 – November 25, 1974
Wars begin in the minds of men, and in those minds, love and compassion would have built the defenses of peace.
{"1": "Politician", "2": "Diplomat"}
Edouard Manet
January 23, 1832 – April 30, 1883
I would kiss you, had I the courage.
Édouard Manet was a French painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, and a pivotal figure in the ...
Pierre Beaumarchais
January 24, 1732 – May 18, 1799
I hasten to laugh at everything, for fear of being obliged to weep.
Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais was a French playwright, watchmaker, inventor, musician, diplomat, fugitive, spy, publisher, ...
David Starr Jordan
January 19, 1851 – September 19, 1931
When a dog barks at the moon, then it is religion but when he barks at strangers, it is patriotism!
David Starr Jordan was a leading ichthyologist, educator, eugenicist, and peace activist. He was president of Indiana University and was ...
DeForest Kelley
January 20, 1920 – June 11, 1999
The most important influence in my childhood was my father.
Jackson DeForest Kelley was an American actor, screenwriter, poet and singer known for his iconic roles in Westerns and as Dr. Leonard ...
Julia Morgan
January 20, 1872 – February 2, 1957
Architecture is a visual art, and the buildings speak for themselves.
Julia Morgan was an American architect in California. She designed more than 700 buildings in California during a long and prolific career. ...
Antonio Gramsci
January 22, 1891 – April 27, 1937
I'm a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will.
Antonio Gramsci was an Italian Marxist theoretician and politician. He wrote on political theory, sociology and linguistics. He was a ...
Herbert Croly
January 23, 1869 – May 17, 1930
Of course, Americans have no monopoly of patriotic enthusiasm and good faith.
Herbert David Croly was an intellectual leader of the progressive movement as an editor, and political philosopher and a co-founder of the ...
Robert Motherwell
January 24, 1915 – July 16, 1991
Art is much less important than life, but what a poor life without it.
Robert Motherwell was an American painter, printmaker, and editor. He was one of the youngest of the New York School, which also included ...
Henri Nouwen
January 24, 1932 – September 21, 1996
In their poverty, the mentally handicapped reveal God to us and hold us close to the gospel.
Henri Jozef Machiel Nouwen, was a Dutch-born Catholic priest, professor and writer. His interests were rooted primarily in psychology, ...