Born this week
Saturday December 13th, 2025
Gustave Flaubert
December 12, 1821 – May 8, 1880
I have the handicap of being born with a special language to which I alone have the key.
Gustave Flaubert was an influential French writer. He is known especially for his first published novel, Madame Bovary, for his ...
Emily Dickinson
December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886
Old age comes on suddenly, and not gradually as is thought.
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family with strong community ties, she ...
Sammy Davis, Jr.
December 8, 1925 – May 16, 1990
I had more clothes than I had closets, more cars than garage space, but no money.
Samuel George "Sammy" Davis, Jr., was an American entertainer. Primarily a dancer and singer, he was also an actor of stage and screen, ...
Jim Morrison
December 8, 1943 – July 3, 1971
I think in art, but especially in films, people are trying to confirm their own existences.
James Douglas "Jim" Morrison was an American singer and songwriter best remembered as the lead vocalist of the Doors. Due to his ...
James Thurber
December 8, 1894 – November 2, 1961
Old age is the most unexpected of all the things that can happen to a man.
James Grover Thurber was an American cartoonist, author, journalist, playwright, and celebrated wit. Thurber was best known for his ...
Heinrich Heine
December 13, 1797 – February 17, 1856
God will forgive me that's his business.
Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was a German poet, journalist, essayist, and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his ...
George MacDonald
December 10, 1824 – September 18, 1905
Age is not all decay it is the ripening, the swelling, of the fresh life within, that withers and bursts the husk.
George MacDonald was a Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister. He was a pioneering figure in the field of fantasy literature and the ...
Og Mandino
December 12, 1923 – September 3, 1996
Take the attitude of a student, never be too big to ask questions, never know too much to learn something new.
Augustine "Og" Mandino II was an American author. He wrote the bestselling book The Greatest Salesman in the World. His books have sold ...
Frank Sinatra
December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998
Cock your hat - angles are attitudes.
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer, actor, and filmmaker. Beginning his musical career in the swing era as a boy singer ...
Willa Cather
December 7, 1873 – April 24, 1947
Most of the basic material a writer works with is acquired before the age of fifteen.
Willa Sibert Cather was an American author who achieved recognition for her novels of frontier life on the Great Plains, in works such as O ...
Flip Wilson
December 8, 1933 – November 25, 1998
I think Mr. Wilson will have to be the rest of the way alone.
Flip Wilson was an American comedian and actor. In the early 1970s, Wilson hosted his own weekly variety series, The Flip Wilson Show. The ...
Edvard Munch
December 12, 1863 – January 23, 1944
For as long as I can remember I have suffered from a deep feeling of anxiety which I have tried to express in my art.
Edvard Munch was a Norwegian painter and printmaker whose intensely evocative treatment of psychological themes built upon some of the main ...
Phillips Brooks
December 13, 1835 – January 23, 1893
Character may be manifested in the great moments, but it is made in the small ones.
Phillips Brooks was an American Episcopal clergyman and author, long the Rector of Boston's Trinity Church and briefly Bishop of ...
Norman Douglas
December 8, 1868 – February 7, 1952
You can construct the character of a man and his age not only from what he does and says, but from what he fails to say and do.
George Norman Douglas was a British writer, now best known for his 1917 novel South Wind.
John Milton
December 9, 1608 – November 8, 1674
Beauty is nature's brag, and must be shown in courts, at feasts, and high solemnities, where most may wonder at the workmanship.
John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell. He ...
Joyce Cary
December 7, 1888 – March 29, 1957
The will is never free - it is always attached to an object, a purpose. It is simply the engine in the car - it can't steer.
Joyce Cary (born Arthur Joyce Lunel Cary, December 7, 1888 - March 29, 1957) was an Anglo-Irish novelist and artist. Arthur Joyce Lunel ...
Redd Foxx
December 9, 1922 – October 11, 1991
A girl's legs are her best friends... but even the best of friends must part.
John Elroy Sanford, known professionally as Redd Foxx, was an American comedian and actor, best remembered for his explicit comedy records ...
Adolf Loos
December 10, 1870 – August 23, 1933
Architecture arouses sentiments in man. The architect's task therefore, is to make those sentiments more precise.
Adolf Franz Karl Viktor Maria Loos was an Austrian and Czechoslovak architect. He was influential in European Modern architecture, and in ...
Ellen Key
December 11, 1849 – April 25, 1926
The more horrifying this world becomes, the more art becomes abstract.
Ellen Karolina Sofia Key was a Swedish difference feminist writer on many subjects in the fields of family life, ethics and education and ...
William Lloyd Garrison
December 12, 1805 – May 24, 1879
The compact which exists between the North and the South is a covenant with death and an agreement with hell.
William Lloyd Garrison was a prominent American abolitionist, journalist, suffragist, and social reformer. He is best known as the editor ...
Johan Huizinga
December 7, 1872 – February 1945
An aristocratic culture does not advertise its emotions. In its forms of expression it is sober and reserved. Its general attitude is stoic.
Johan Huizinga (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈjoËɦɑn ˈɦœyzɪŋɣaË]) (Groningen, December 7, 1872 - De Steeg, ...
Louis Kronenberger
December 9, 1904 – April 30, 1980
Old age is an excellent time for outrage. My goal is to say or do at least one outrageous thing every week.
Louis Kronenberger (December 9, 1904 - April 30, 1980) was an American critic and author. He was a novelist and biographer, and wrote ...
Hector Berlioz
December 11, 1803 – March 8, 1869
At least I have the modesty to admit that lack of modesty is one of my failings.
Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts. Berlioz ...
Alfred de Musset
December 11, 1810 – May 2, 1857
There is no worse sorrow than remembering happiness in the day of sorrow.
Alfred Louis Charles de Musset-Pathay(11 December 1810 - 2 May 1857) was a French dramatist, poet, and novelist. Along with his poetry, he ...
Lillian Smith
December 12, 1897 – September 28, 1966
Faith and doubt both are needed - not as antagonists, but working side by side to take us around the unknown curve.
Lillian Eugenia Smith was a writer and social critic of the Southern United States, known best for her best-selling novel Strange Fruit. A ...
Addison Mizner
December 12, 1872 – February 5, 1933
Ignorance of the law excuses no man from practicing it.
Addison Cairns Mizner was an American resort architect whose Mediterranean Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival style interpretations left ...
Gabriel Marcel
December 7, 1889 – October 8, 1973
But however measurable, there is much more life in music than mathematics or logic ever dreamed of.
Gabriel Honoré Marcel was a French philosopher, playwright, music critic and leading Christian existentialist. The author of over a dozen ...
Delmore Schwartz
December 8, 1913 – July 11, 1966
Love is the most difficult and dangerous form of courage. Courage is the most desperate, admirable and noble kind of love.
Delmore Schwartz (December 8, 1913 - July 11, 1966) was an American poet and short story writer. Schwartz was born in Brooklyn, New York ...
Ezra Stiles
December 10, 1727 – May 12, 1795
A monarchy conducted with infinite wisdom and infinite benevolence is the most perfect of all possible governments.
Ezra Stiles (November 29, 1727 - May 12, 1795) was an American academic and educator, a Congregationalist minister, theologian and author. ...
John Osborne
December 12, 1929 – December 24, 1994
Don't clap too hard - it's a very old building.
John James Osborne was an English playwright, screenwriter, actor and critic of the Establishment. The success of his 1956 play Look Back ...
Eleanor Robson Belmont
December 13, 1879 – October 24, 1979
A private railroad car is not an acquired taste. One takes to it immediately.
Eleanor Robson Belmont was an English actress and prominent public figure in the United States. George Bernard Shaw wrote Major Barbara for ...